RealGM

At 2:49 here you got Barkley saying he believes in Russ and Brad



Considering how often he is wrong, I feel a little better.

I don't think it's far fetched, and I wouldn't put it past the Wizards to qualify for a first round exit.

The Bulls have been a disaster since trading for Vucevic and with Lavine out chances are they'll continue to slide.

I think the Raptors management will flinch before the Wizards and start resting players before taking a chance that they kill their chances at the lottery.

Washington's remaining schedule for April is:

vs Pelicans
vs Pistons
vs Thunder
vs Warriors
@ Thunder
vs Cavaliers
vs Spurs
vs Lakers

These are all winnable games and with Bertans getting his wind and legs back, Ish Smith finding his rhythm and Avdija continuing to show that he can play in the league I'd be shocked if they don't win at least 5 of those games.

The final 10 games starting May 1st for the Wizards:

@ Cavaliers
@ Mavericks
vs Pacers
@ Bucks
@ Raptors
@ Pacers
@ Hawks
@ Hawks
vs Cavaliers
vs Hornets

Road games this season aren't nearly the challenge they typically pose, so that stretch does not look like a particularly daunting when you take into account that the Bucks and Hawks may already start resting players at that point.

They're not going to catch the Pacers or Hornets, but if Washington remains healthy, it seems highly probably that they'll get a chance to sneak in via the backdoor.

Can Washington win two straight against the Pacers and Hornets/Heat in the play-in?

I wouldn't put it past them.

I'm pretty sure they make it in, assuming everyone is relatively healthy.

Lavine in covid protocol will miss several games.

I look forward to Ted's gloating 'I told you so' tweets. I embrace the pain, like G Wiz. I stare directly into the void.

Not really relevant for the Wizards, since 8th place seems out of reach - but it does give the 8th seed a chance to play into a much more winnable series. 7th seed vs. 2 seed is a big upset, but it sometimes happen vs. 8 v 1 which almost never does.

I think that we will get in but if we don't, who cares. The question is if we win the play in, who would you rather face out of Brooklyn, Milwaukee, and Philly

The Wiz are now in a 3-way tie for 10th:

This run feels more legit that the run they had earlier in the season. Westbrook starting to really look like prime Russ & Gafford has been a revelation.

Amazing turnaround from the beginning of the season. I don't think the Wizards would have any chance of pullling of an upset in a series against Brooklyn or Philadelphia, but they could absolutely shock Miami, New York, or Charlotte and win the play-in.

SA37 wrote:Amazing turnaround from the beginning of the season. I don't think the Wizards would have any chance of pullling of an upset in a series against Brooklyn or Philadelphia, but they could absolutely shock Miami, New York, or Charlotte and win the play-in.

I think philly would be the easiest after New York and charlotte
I don’t want to see miami at all...there’s only 1 player who plays as hard or harder than Westbrook and we need to stay clear of him

With playoff effort defensively Philly would embarrass the hell out of us.

Nets would actually be closer because they know they can flip the switch whenever and don't mind a casual shootout.

We'd maybe take two games off a locked in Heat team. I just think this team would get absolutely smacked against playoff level defense, meanwhile our defense would only improve minimally unless Gafford has an MVP caliber series.

deneem4 wrote:

SA37 wrote:Amazing turnaround from the beginning of the season. I don't think the Wizards would have any chance of pullling of an upset in a series against Brooklyn or Philadelphia, but they could absolutely shock Miami, New York, or Charlotte and win the play-in.

I think philly would be the easiest after New York and charlotte
I don’t want to see miami at all...there’s only 1 player who plays as hard or harder than Westbrook and we need to stay clear of him

Philly is tough. Embiid is having an MVP-type season, Harris is having an outstanding season, and Philadelphia has plenty of athleticism and elite defense to throw at Westbrook and Beal (Simmons, Green, and Thybulle). I think Washington would lose evey game by double digits.

Miami is possibly the worst offensive team in the league and an embarrassment when it comes to rebounding. It is actually quite likely Len, Lopez, Hachimura, and Westbrook would destroy Miami on the boards. Miami has a lot of talent, but a lot of key guys are playing below their potential, namely Dragic and Herro. Incredibly, Miami has been one of the worst 3-point shooting teams this year.

Somehow, the Wizards only have three more games this season against teams with a better than .500 record.

Somehow, the Wizards have a 4-10 record against the teams they will play the rest of the season, 3-6 against those with a .500 or worse record. (Noting that we haven't played Cleveland or OKC at all yet.)

(I think those numbers are right, sorry if I counted wrong.)

Fivethirtyeight now has us winning 30 games to the Raptors 31. I think we would need to win 10 of our remaining 17 games to squeak in...

SA37 wrote:

deneem4 wrote:

SA37 wrote:Amazing turnaround from the beginning of the season. I don't think the Wizards would have any chance of pullling of an upset in a series against Brooklyn or Philadelphia, but they could absolutely shock Miami, New York, or Charlotte and win the play-in.

I think philly would be the easiest after New York and charlotte
I don’t want to see miami at all...there’s only 1 player who plays as hard or harder than Westbrook and we need to stay clear of him

Philly is tough. Embiid is having an MVP-type season, Harris is having an outstanding season, and Philadelphia has plenty of athleticism and elite defense to throw at Westbrook and Beal (Simmons, Green, and Thybulle). I think Washington would lose evey game by double digits.

Miami is possibly the worst offensive team in the league and an embarrassment when it comes to rebounding. It is actually quite likely Len, Lopez, Hachimura, and Westbrook would destroy Miami on the boards. Miami has a lot of talent, but a lot of key guys are playing below their potential, namely Dragic and Herro. Incredibly, Miami has been one of the worst 3-point shooting teams this year.

I wouldn’t judge the last team in the finals based off this short regular season...
Philly aren’t a tough playoff team...or hasn’t been

We’re one of the scariest teams to make the play in because we have 2 legit top 20 players one of which is the scoring leader...and we haven’t been playing anywhere near our potential

What a dog fight, three-way tie currently for the 10th spot, the Bulls have improved post-trade and Toronto is scrappy as-well.

closg00 wrote:What a dog fight, three-way tie currently for the 10th spot, the Bulls have improved post-trade and Toronto is scrappy as-well.

I thought the Bulls improved post-trade, but they've actually been horrible. They're 4-9 following the trade. And now Lavine is out for several games due to Covid protocols.

Toronto has more talent than us, but they might be tanking. They sat their 4 best players last game despite none of them having a serious injury.

nate33 wrote:

closg00 wrote:What a dog fight, three-way tie currently for the 10th spot, the Bulls have improved post-trade and Toronto is scrappy as-well.

I thought the Bulls improved post-trade, but they've actually been horrible. They're 4-9 following the trade. And now Lavine is out for several games due to Covid protocols.

Toronto has more talent than us, but they might be tanking. They sat their 4 best players last game despite none of them having a serious injury.

Thanks, wasn't aware

nate33 wrote:

closg00 wrote:What a dog fight, three-way tie currently for the 10th spot, the Bulls have improved post-trade and Toronto is scrappy as-well.

I thought the Bulls improved post-trade, but they've actually been horrible. They're 4-9 following the trade. And now Lavine is out for several games due to Covid protocols.

Toronto has more talent than us, but they might be tanking. They sat their 4 best players last game despite none of them having a serious injury.

The Wiz appear to be the most motivated of the 3 - management is obviously pulling for a win, and Beal and Westbrook really want it - while their teammates want to make them happy. They're arguably the least talented, but I'll go with the most motivated team taking it.