Can the Wizards actually make it?
The Brooklyn Nets are slowly losing talent for the Orlando restart, do the ninth-seeded Wizards actually stand a chance at catching them?
Spencer Dinwiddie and DeAndre Jordan recently announced that they tested positive to COVID-19, and Jordan followed it up by saying he won’t make the trip to Orlando for the bubble and Dinwiddie saying that his appearance in doubt.
A few days later and Kyrie Irving says he won’t travel to Orlando to continue rehabbing his shoulder injury. It comes after Kyrie led a coalition of players against the NBA’s proposed restart for social justice reasons.
Obviously this is completely fine and it’s up to them whether they want to play or not.
The Nets have lost their best player this season and two key contributors and sit seventh in the East, a game ahead of Orlando and six games ahead of Washington. But when the ball starts to bounce in the bubble, are they vulnerable? Is there a chance they actually miss the playoffs?
Bradley Beal has said time and time again this season that his goal is to make the postseason, not just cash those checks for a middling non-playoff team. While it’s a PR layup to say those kinds of things, his play has backed him up: in 11 games after the All-Star break, he averaged over 36 points per game, hitting 45 percent from behind the arc.
I’m not going to go on about how great Beal is, we all know that, but if the Wizards get off to a hot streak, maybe winning their first couple of games in Orlando, they could jump into the playoffs.
Spicing it up further is those damn schedule-makers, you literally couldn’t have asked for a better break for the Wizards: on the second day of the return, July 31st, Orlando play Brooklyn at home (see what I did there). This automatically throws a loss in either one of those team’s record and brings Washinton an inch closer.
Also on that second day, Washington plays the Phoenix Suns…
Then get this: the next game is Brooklyn vs Washington. Playing devil’s advocate here, if Brooklyn loses those games, the Wizards will have six more games to make-up four loses, something to play for and may even be on a winning streak.
What would the Nets have? Jacque Vaughn counting his total games on one hand and a whole lot of Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
This argument definitely took a hit when Davis Bertans decided to not play in the bubble, but the Wiz will be fully healthy barring any more people foregoing the restart and you know what that means? Mortiz freaking Wagner is back!
Wagner, or as basketball-reference likes to call him, Moe was one of my sneaky-favourite players to watch last season and not just because he was pretty good value for fantasy. He averaged 9.5 points in 37 appearances but was near the top of the league at finishing at the rim, hitting 76 percent of his shots at the rim, good for the 82nd percentile among bigs according to Cleaning the Glass.
Scott Brooks even ran some funky sets with Wagner as a ball handler(!). It wasn’t the most successful but Moe at least adds depth, especially when he’ll be going up against Nicolas Claxton (who?).
But that’s enough about him (for now… I’ll definitely be back with some Moe takes in the future).
Even if Kyrie was playing, the Wizards may have the best player out of themselves, Brooklyn and Orlando. On top of that, look through the Nets’ roster without those three guys I’ve mentioned, then look at who’s coming off the bench if they don’t play. Or don’t.
Stephen A. Smith might’ve put it best when asked if Washington should even be in the bubble: “hell no!”
But if they win their first two games back, there will be another team we all have to pay close attention to. Yay, basketball.
