Playoff Push

[Liqourish]

Pistons have gone in and are trying to make the playoffs since they gave up their draft pick.

Sixers lost last night, Pistons are just 1.5 games back and play tonight against Memphis at home. We could be 1 game out with 32 games to go.

Team Record Games Back
Boston 37 15 -
Toronto 34 15 1.5
Cleveland 30 20 6
Miami 29 22 7.5
Washington 28 22 8
Indiana 29 23 8
Milwaukee 27 22 8.5
Philadelphia 24 24 11
--------------------------
Detroit 24 26 12
New York Knicks 23 29 14

[Kilo]

Philly has a cake schedule. I think the team we have to catch will be Washington with out Wall for 6 weeks now. Probably will come down to us or Wizards for the final spot and first round Boston match-up.

[Billl]

I think we'll catch phili and the bucks. maybe washington. The bucks have a majority of their remaining games on the road and they are under .500 there so far.

[DCintheD]

We better get as high as 4th seed. I’d rather a 2nd round series against Boston than a first. With 32 games left anything is possible. We’ve got 8 straight winnable games coming up. I’m bipolar about this season. Since we got no draft pick I want the best possible outcome as of right now.

[DETermination]

Saw somewhere that pistons have the 4th easiest schedule the rest of the season and the wizards have the hardest schedule, with wall out it's possible they miss the playoffs.

[whitehops]

We have to go 22-11 to get 45 wins, which is what 7th place Milwaukee is on pace for.

Going 20-13 or 19-14 seems more likely to stay above .500 depending on how well philly and Washington do.

I don’t think Washington will be as big pushovers as people think, wall hasn’t played nearly as well as he normally does so it isn’t a big loss.

[bstein14]

I originally thought the Kevin Love injury would be bad for our playoff push because other teams in the hunt 5th - 8th seeds would win more games against the Cavs but the Cavs are mostly playing west coast teams and EC lottery teams over the next 6 weeks so it might not be so bad for us. We too have another game against them in March.

[GreekAlex]

The Pistons winning percentage was pretty crazy after the Tobias Harris trade.

Don't underestimate how much some new energy and becoming refocused can effect a team.

I'm always realistic and understand there's an adjustment period but I'm cautiously optimistic for the rest of this season.

[Billl]

We have to go 22-11 to get 45 wins, which is what 7th place Milwaukee is on pace for.

Going 20-13 or 19-14 seems more likely to stay above .500 depending on how well philly and Washington do.

I don’t think Washington will be as big pushovers as people think, wall hasn’t played nearly as well as he normally does so it isn’t a big loss.

The bucks have a bunch of road games though. They will probably won't keep up their current pace.

[Liqourish]

Pistons now just one game out of the playoffs and bucks are losing tonight. The run is on.

[Liqourish]

Boston 37 15 -
Toronto 34 16 2
Cleveland 30 20 6
Miami 29 22 7.5
Washington 29 22 7.5
Indiana 29 23 8
Milwaukee 27 23 8.5
Philadelphia 24 24 11
--------------------------
Detroit 24 26 12
New York Knicks 23 29 14

[thesack12]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22297797/kevin-love-cleveland-cavaliers-not-surgery-fractured-hand-8-weeks

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love will not need surgery on his fractured left hand and will miss approximately eight weeks, the team announced Friday.

Cavs have 26 games in February and March, which looks to be the timetable of Love being out. If they aren't trading the Brooklyn pick, Frye's expiring, Crowder, and their own 1st are really the only tradeable pieces they have that teams will want. Even Crowder's value is nosediving with his bad season so far. They might struggle to find help on the trade market.

All that coupled with their atrocious defense and dissension within the team, and there is a real good possibility Detroit can pass them in the standings.

[afroxnas]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22297797/kevin-love-cleveland-cavaliers-not-surgery-fractured-hand-8-weeks

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love will not need surgery on his fractured left hand and will miss approximately eight weeks, the team announced Friday.

Cavs have 26 games in February and March, which looks to be the timetable of Love being out. If they aren't trading the Brooklyn pick, Frye's expiring, Crowder, and their own 1st are really the only tradeable pieces they have that teams will want. Even Crowder's value is nosediving with his bad season so far. They might struggle to find help on the trade market.

All that coupled with their atrocious defense and dissension within the team, and there is a real good possibility Detroit can pass them in the standings.

They have LeBron. They will be making the playoffs, even with 4 random g league dudes

[bstein14]

Cavs could fall to the 4/5 spot but I really doubt they'd fall any lower than that. I see the Pistons most likely in the mix for the 6-8 spot but if the Cavs do stumble a bit it should mean we get to avoid them in the first round.

[thesack12]

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22297797/kevin-love-cleveland-cavaliers-not-surgery-fractured-hand-8-weeks

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love will not need surgery on his fractured left hand and will miss approximately eight weeks, the team announced Friday.

Cavs have 26 games in February and March, which looks to be the timetable of Love being out. If they aren't trading the Brooklyn pick, Frye's expiring, Crowder, and their own 1st are really the only tradeable pieces they have that teams will want. Even Crowder's value is nosediving with his bad season so far. They might struggle to find help on the trade market.

All that coupled with their atrocious defense and dissension within the team, and there is a real good possibility Detroit can pass them in the standings.

They have LeBron. They will be making the playoffs, even with 4 random g league dudes

Where did I say Cleveland may fall out of the playoffs?

[thesack12]

Of the 26 games Cleveland looks to be without Love, 14 are against current playoff teams.

Even split 13/13 home and road games, but two different runs of 3 consecutive roadies and a run of 6 consecutive as well.

They aren't in a great position

[bstein14]

Its really hard to talk about where teams will be until 6 more days go by and we know exactly which teams make big moves before the trade deadline. Even without Love Cleveland is good enough to be a .500 team they've played pretty poorly at times this year and are 30-20, 10 games over .500 at the moment.

[thesack12]

Its really hard to talk about where teams will be until 6 more days go by and we know exactly which teams make big moves before the trade deadline. Even without Love Cleveland is good enough to be a .500 team they've played pretty poorly at times this year and are 30-20, 10 games over .500 at the moment.

Cavs are 8-12 in their last 20 games, and now are without their 2nd best player for a long stretch. They're 6 games up on Detroit right now, and Detroit just got a huge talent upgrade, has their starting PG returning in a couple weeks, and have a favorable upcoming schedule.

But you're right, some of these team might look a lot different in a week.

[vic]

Its really sad to know that the Pistons used to have someone that could stop point guards. KCP. Then they got someone else that could stop point guards - Avery Bradley.
SVG could have drafted Donovan Mitchell but instead he "added shooting" with Luke Kennard.

Now it sucks to know that no matter how far we go in the playoffs, the other teams small point guard is going to have a feast. Lowry, Kyrie, Steph, etc.

This is why "Add Shooting" is a short-sighted panic master drafting strategy. If SVG had simply taken the best 2-way player the Pistons would actually be a contender right now.

[bstein14]

Its really sad to know that the Pistons used to have someone that could stop point guards. KCP. Then they got someone else that could stop point guards - Avery Bradley.
SVG could have drafted Donovan Mitchell but instead he "added shooting" with Luke Kennard.

Now it sucks to know that no matter how far we go in the playoffs, the other teams small point guard is going to have a feast. Lowry, Kyrie, Steph, etc.

This is why "Add Shooting" is a short-sighted panic master drafting strategy. If SVG had simply taken the best 2-way player the Pistons would actually be a contender right now.

I think Galloway is pretty decent defensively the problem has been he's been awful trying to run the offense and he's been in a shooting slump... He looked great for a few weeks early in the season but hasn't been very good since.