I assume Philly and NOP will get a few guys healthy and at least be in the playin range. The East is so open even if Embiid is out most the year they probably can get up to that level late in the season. NOP could be more interesting if they end up a dozen games from the 10th spot or such I suppose they could shut it down. Would be similar to the Griz last year. The west is super deep so we might see the 10th team with a lot of wins.
it took 46 wins in the West last season to reach the play-in. If it took 46 this season the Blazers would have to go 39-23 the rest of the way to get 10th seed. The west is even deeper this season so, probably, 43-44 wins would be the threshold. If it's 44, the Blazers would have to go 37-25 the rest of the way. That ain't happening. Right now, they are on a pace for 30 wins further illustrating the WTF-are-they-doing? situation of still having Simons-Ayton-Grant on the team.
Seriously, stop whatever you're doing and listen to runitbackphilly on youtube. It's absolutely therapeutic.
Good News: Scoot is shooting 32.0% from 3 on 3 attempts/game. Could see him improving to league average. Bad News: That's better than Ant, Sharpe, and Deni, who are all taking >3 attempts/game.
I'm here for it. Nobody cares about those losers. Do what's right for the kids and their genius mother.
The Blazers still have the 2nd worst offense in the league by offensive rating. The 4th worst net rating (which is the difference between offensive and defensive rating). And we have the worst assist to turnover ratio in the league, the 3rd highest turover ratio We have the worst TS%, in the league, and it's ugly. We're the only team below 53%. The NBA average is 57.5%. Our defense is decent, but our offense produces 9 less points per 100 possessions than the NBA average. That pretty much accounts for our negative net rating. Anyway, I think our 40% winning percentage may be a bit of an abberation. Which is good, because I want a top 4 pick.
Another note with TS%: the league average is 57.5% And all of our high volume shooters are well below that.
Makes Bantons numbers even more impressive. Ant has been awful this year on offense, he needs to be a much better offensive player since he's a poor defender. Scoot's the worst offensive player on the team and one of the worst in the NBA. Would be one thing if he was a long 6'9" excellent defender, but that type of player is unplayable as a tiny PG. Some fans debate if it should be Scoot or Ant as our PG long term - seems very clear the answer is neither.
Blazers move to 8-14 to move into sole possession of 7th worst. 31.9% chance to move into top 4, 7.5% to move to #1.
Pelicans and 6ers will have stretches they put up some wins. Maybe Raptors to a lesser extent. Pistons Nets and Bulls could have some losses though - this is where being in the west may help us as all those crappy east teams will give each other wins, while for us probably only the Jazz.
Our next game Friday against Utah is critical for the tanking - gives both them a win and us a loss. It's crazy how we have one win less than the current 16th pick in the draft;
