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Poll: Will Grizzlies Hang Onto No. 8 Seed In West?

June 9th, 2020 at 1:35pm CST by Luke Adams

When the NBA season was suspended in March, the Grizzlies held a 3.5-game lead over the top challengers for the No. 8 seed, but were entering one of the toughest stretches of their 2019/20 schedule. At 32-33, Memphis had 17 games left. Of those 17 games, 11 were against playoff teams and five were against immediate threats to the Grizzlies’ playoff spot (Portland, New Orleans, and San Antonio).

Now that the league has settled on playing just eight more games this summer, the Grizzlies’ path to a postseason spot is simpler in some ways, but more complicated in others. Any team hoping to pass the Grizzlies for the No. 8 seed will have to make up four games in an eight-game stretch, which will be a tall order.

Even if the Grizzlies play sub-.500 ball and go 3-5 when play resumes, the Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, or Spurs will have to go 7-1 to surpass or match them. The Suns, who are six games back, wouldn’t even be able to catch Memphis if the Grizz win more than two games.

However, the NBA’s new rules for Orlando also ensure that the Grizzlies will be subject to a play-in tournament if at least one team finishes within four games of them. In other words, unless Memphis increases or maintains its lead over all five teams behind them in the Western Conference standings during those eight seeding games, a play-in tournament is happening.

The Grizzlies would still have a leg up in that play-in tournament, which would pit them against the No. 9 team. Memphis would only have to win one game, while the challenger would have to win twice. But the club wouldn’t have much room for error — losing the first game in the play-in tournament would result in a winner-take-all second game.

Assuming the summer schedule is made up primarily of the next games on the team’s initial schedule, as expected, the Grizzlies will still have a challenging path, but it won’t be too grueling. Memphis wouldn’t be a major underdog against Portland, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, or New Orleans (twice). And while the Grizzlies would likely have to face the Bucks and possibly the Celtics, none of the West’s top three teams would be on their upcoming slate.

What do you think? When play resumes this summer, will the Grizzlies hang onto the No. 8 seed, clinching it outright or in a play-in tournament? Or will another team make a run and claim the conference’s final postseason berth?

Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Poll: Will Wizards Make Playoffs?

June 8th, 2020 at 12:20pm CST by Luke Adams

While five current lottery teams in the Western Conference will be given the opportunity to snatch the No. 8 seed from the Grizzlies when play resumes in Orlando this summer, only one current non-playoff team in the East has been invited to Disney. That team is the Wizards, the No. 9 seed in the conference when the season was suspended in March.

The Wizards weren’t exactly knocking on the door of a playoff spot before play was halted. At 24-40, Washington was 5.5 games behind the Magic for the eighth seed in the East and a full six games back of the seventh-seeded Nets. However, the NBA’s new 22-team format for the summer will give the Wizards at least an outside shot at a spot in the postseason.

Here’s what Washington will have to do to make the playoffs this summer:

  1. Pull to within four games of either Orlando or Brooklyn. This will mean outplaying one of those clubs by at least two games during the eight “seeding games.” In other words, if the Nets and Magic each go 3-5, the Wizards would need to go 5-3 to force a play-in tournament.
  2. If they force a play-in tournament, the Wizards would need to defeat the Nets or Magic twice without losing a game to earn the No. 8 seed in the East.

There are other scenarios in which the Wizards could make the postseason, but they’re next to impossible. For instance, if Washington goes 8-0 when play resumes and the Nets and Magic can’t muster more than a win or two, the Wizards could claim the No. 7 seed outright, or move up to No. 8 and get the double-elimination advantage in a play-in tournament. That’s a pipe dream though, especially given the schedule Washington will face this summer.

We don’t yet know exactly what the schedule for those eight seeding games will look like, but reports have indicated that the general plan is for teams to pick up where they left off in March, with games against bottom-eight clubs skipped.

For the Wizards, that could mean opening with games against the Celtics, Thunder, and Sixers before getting an opportunity to play the Nets. From there, Washington’s next three games may be again Boston (again), the Suns, and the Bucks. There are some winnable games in there, but given how the Wizards played in their first 64 games, expecting more than three or four victories is probably overly optimistic.

Still, anything could happen when play resumes. While the Wizards aren’t expecting John Wall back, it sounds like the Nets won’t have Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving active, and there’s no guarantee the Magic will have Jonathan Isaac or Al-Farouq Aminu available. If they can force a play-in tournament, the Wizards wouldn’t necessarily be massive underdogs to either of those teams.

What do you think? Is there any chance the Wizards make the postseason? If you believe in Washington, do you think they’ll knock out the Magic? Or will the Nets be the team to slip out of the postseason?

Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Poll: Should NBA Use 1-16 Seeding For 2020 Playoffs?

May 25th, 2020 at 11:42am CST by Luke Adams

While the idea has yet to gain a ton of momentum, there has been talk in recent years about the idea of the NBA re-seeding its playoff teams once the postseason begins, ranking those clubs first through 16th based on overall records, regardless of conference.

For instance, the Clippers have the second-best record in the West this year, but the fourth-best mark in the NBA, so they’d be the No. 4 seed. The Sixers, sixth in the East, would become a No. 12 seed, reflecting their place in the overall NBA standings.

Such a change would help even the playing field if one conference is significantly stronger than the other, as was the case for the Western Conference for much of the 2010s. However, it hasn’t really gained steam due to travel concerns and because it would require approval from the NBA’s Board of Governors — generally, team owners in the weaker conference have a vested interest in keeping the format as is.

However, as the NBA works toward potentially resuming its 2019/20 season, the league could have a unique opportunity to experiment this summer. Two important factors would work in favor of testing the idea of re-seeding playoff teams using a 1-16 system:

  1. If the NBA resumes play in a single bubble location (ie. Orlando), no travel would be required.
  2. Eight of the current top 16 teams in the NBA standings are in the Western Conference, while eight are in the East. In other words, if the playoff seeding is tweaked, no current lottery team would make the postseason and no current playoff team would fall out.

During an appearance today on ESPN’s Get Up (video link), Brian Windhorst said he thinks there’s a real chance the NBA could go straight to the postseason if and when it returns, which could open the door for re-seeding the 16 playoff teams. According to Windhorst, league commissioner Adam Silver has long been interested in that concept.

As Windhorst notes, it remains unlikely that two-thirds of the NBA’s owners would be on board with such a format change for the long term. And even this season, there would likely be a number of teams in the East opposed to tweaking the format, since it would make their playoff draw a whole lot more challenging.

Still, if ever there was a time for owners to get on board with a one-off experiment, this would be the year.

Here’s what the playoffs would look like if the teams were re-seeded, regardless of conference, based on their current records:

First side of bracket:

  • Bucks (1) vs. Magic (16)
  • Heat (8) vs. Thunder (9)
  • Clippers (4) vs. Mavericks (13)
  • Celtics (5) vs. Sixers (12)

Second side of bracket:

  • Lakers (2) vs. Nets (15)
  • Jazz (7) vs. Rockets (10)
  • Raptors (3) vs. Grizzlies (14)
  • Nuggets (6) vs. Pacers (11)

And as a reminder, here’s what the playoffs would look like under the usual format:

Eastern Conference:

  • Bucks (1) vs. Magic (8)
  • Heat (4) vs. Pacers (5)
  • Raptors (2) vs. Nets (7)
  • Celtics (3) vs. Sixers (6)

Western Conference:

  • Lakers (1) vs. Grizzlies (8)
  • Jazz (4) vs. Thunder (5)
  • Clippers (2) vs. Mavericks (7)
  • Nuggets (3) vs. Rockets (6)

While a handful of first-round matchups would be the same regardless of the format the NBA uses, the re-seeding approach would create a handful of interesting inter-conference series, including Heat vs. Thunder, Raptors vs. Grizzlies, Nuggets vs. Pacers, and Lakers vs. Nets.

Things could get very interesting in the second and third rounds of a 1-16 format, with the Clippers potentially having to go through the Celtics and the Bucks before perhaps facing the Lakers in the Finals. The Lakers, on the other hand, might play the winner of a Raptors/Nuggets showdown for the right to advance to the Finals.

What do you think? Is re-seeding the playoff teams a worthwhile experiment, given this year’s unusual circumstances? Or would it be in the NBA’s best interest to stick to its usual postseason format, separating the East and the West until the Finals?

Vote in our poll, then head to the comment section below to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Poll: Should The NBA Bring Back All 30 Teams?

May 22nd, 2020 at 9:23pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The NBA apparently wants to bring back as many of its 30 teams as possible, provided that the league moves forward with tentative plans for a resumption of league play later this summer. The spread of the novel coronavirus caused league commissioner Adam Silver to halt the 2019/20 season on March 11. But should every team return, even the 14 likely lottery squads?

The most popular proposed plan is resuming play in one or two “bubble” sites, with Walt Disney World in Orlando emerging as the current front-runner, starting around mid-July. When play was paused in March, all teams had played between 63 and 67 of the regular season’s standard 82 games.

The notion of adding an extra 14 teams’ worth of players, team personnel and loved ones to a mass population that already includes 16 teams (with approximately 35 people traveling per each team), on top of referees and a broadcast media presence, at a moment in time when the highly-contagious COVID-19 is still incurable and spreading rampantly amidst close contact feels superfluously dangerous.

With a significant majority of the NBA’s games already having been played, why not limit the “bubble” head count with just the 16 teams sporting the best records when league play stopped?

If the league is concerned about teams being rusty due to the extended time off (at least four months by the earliest possible projections), perhaps the teams present could participate in something akin to a five-game tune-up “preseason” for two weeks. That way, lottery-bound teams or teams with the faintest of hopes at a playoff berth would not be taking undue extra risk by traveling to the “bubble” cities and mingling with the other teams.

The higher the head count, the higher the hypothetical risk of a COVID-19 spread among the players, coaches, and other traveling team personnel present. In a new piece, Steve Popper of Newsday also voiced his concern that including all 30 teams in an un-paused season was an unnecessary exercise. The best way to minimize risk is to keep the pool in a potential “bubble” city as finite as possible.

Vote below in our poll, then head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Poll: Top Prospect In 2020 NBA Draft

May 21st, 2020 at 1:52pm CST by Luke Adams

When Zion Williamson went first overall in the 2019 NBA draft, it came as no surprise — he had been considered the top prospect in last year’s class for months, well before we knew which team would get the No. 1 pick. For the most part, the same can be said of other recent top picks like Anthony Davis (2012), Karl-Anthony Towns (2015), and perhaps even Markelle Fultz (2017).

On the other hand, some drafts have two or three prospects in the top tier. A number of draft experts believed Luka Doncic should be picked ahead of Deandre Ayton in 2018. In 2016, the debate over the No. 1 pick was between Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram.

The 2020 draft class, however, looks most similar to 2013’s group. That year, Nerlens Noel, Alex Len, Ben McLemore, and Victor Oladipo were among the many players considered candidates to be drafted first overall. The Cavaliers didn’t take anyone from that group, opting instead for Anthony Bennett.

2020’s similarities to 2013’s draft class doesn’t mean that this year’s first overall pick will have a Bennett-esque NBA career, but so far, we have little clarity on which player might be the first one off the board. LaMelo Ball, James Wiseman, Anthony Edwards, Obi Toppin, and Killian Hayes are among the players who have shown up atop various experts’ draft rankings, with no consensus on which player most NBA teams favor.

In an attempt to gauge which way NBA teams are leaning, Jeff Goodman of Stadium anonymously polled 35 team executives and found that 20 of them picked Wiseman as the top player in this year’s class. Of course, the big man played just three games for Memphis in the fall before leaving the program due to eligibility issues, so evaluators and scouts didn’t get much of a look at him at the college level. And even those that NBA execs who favor Wiseman don’t sound particularly enthusiastic about their choice.

“I wouldn’t even want the No. 1 pick,” one NBA general manager told Goodman. “If I have it, I’m trying like hell to trade it.”

“It’s not an easy decision,” another GM offered. “(But) even though the NBA doesn’t value bigs like it used to, there just aren’t a lot of seven-footers who can run and jump like Wiseman can out there.”

While Wiseman received the majority of the votes in Goodman’s poll, Edwards (10 votes), Ball (four), and Toppin (one) also had supporters. The only real consensus? It won’t be an easy decision for whichever team wins this year’s draft lottery.

“This is an underwhelming draft at the top,” one high-ranking executive told Goodman. “It’s as difficult for the No. 1 pick as I’ve seen in a long time.”

This year’s top choice may ultimately come down to the specific needs and preferences of the team that wins the lottery. But in our poll today, we want you to put positional needs aside and assume all other factors are equal. In that scenario, which of this year’s prospects would you be most comfortable drafting first overall?

Vote below in our poll, then head to the comment section to weigh in with your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Poll: 2020 All-Rookie Second Team

May 8th, 2020 at 11:09am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s usual award season is in flux in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under normal circumstances, the regular season would be over by this point and voting would have taken place on the league’s major awards. This year, however, it’s still unclear if or when the season will resume after being suspended in March, creating uncertainty about whether players will get any more regular season games to make their cases for award consideration, and about when voting will take place.

Resolving end-of-season awards is hardly the most pressing concern facing the NBA, but while we wait for further updates on the fate of the ’19/20 season, we’re passing the time with some award-related speculation.

Earlier this week, we asked you to vote on your All-Rookie First Team for 2019/20, and the results of that poll are now in. Here are the players you selected:

All-Rookie First Team:

As those results show, many of this year’s most impressive rookies could be found on just two clubs, with Memphis and Miami each getting a pair of first-year players on the First Team.

While Morant was expected to have a significant impact after being selected second overall last June, Herro (No. 13), Clarke (No. 21), and Nunn (undrafted in 2018) flew under the radar during the 2019 offseason and have exceeded expectations as rookies. They’re all worthy First Team choices, in my opinion.

Williamson rounds out the team, despite playing just 19 games so far. His per-game numbers (23.6 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 2.2 APG) and his impact on the Pelicans were so impressive that it’s hard to argue with the choice, though I wonder a few voters will leave him off their First Team ballots this summer due to his limited playing time.

Today, we’re moving onto our vote on the 2020 All-Rookie Second Team. Unlike the All-NBA squads, which feature 15 players, there are only a pair of All-Rookie teams, featuring 10 total players. As such, this will be our last All-Rookie poll. We’ll break down the results on Monday.

You can make your picks below for the players you believe are worthy of spots on the All-Rookie Second Team. Be sure to choose five players, regardless of position, then take to the comment section to explain your choices!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Poll: 2020 All-Rookie First Team

May 5th, 2020 at 11:53am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s usual award season is in flux in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under normal circumstances, the regular season would be over by this point and voting would have taken place on the league’s major awards. This year, however, it’s unclear if or when the season will resume after being suspended in March, creating uncertainty about whether players will get any more regular season games to make their cases for award consideration, and about when voting will take place.

Resolving end-of-season awards is hardly the most pressing concern facing the NBA, but while we wait for further updates on the fate of the ’19/20 season, we might as well pass the time with some award-related speculation.

Last month, we asked you to vote on the 15 players who deserved spots on the 2020 All-NBA teams. Now, we’re shifting our focus to the league’s two All-Rookie squads.

While an All-Rookie berth is a less prestigious honor than a spot on an All-NBA team, All-Rookie debates among fans can get heated. After all, clubs like the Knicks, Hornets, or Cavaliers have no chance of getting a player on this year’s All-NBA teams, so fans can focus on making their cases for the likes of RJ Barrett, P.J. Washington, Darius Garland, or Kevin Porter as All-Rookie players.

Additionally, unlike All-NBA voting, All-Rookie teams don’t adhere to positional limits, which means voters – and fans – are free to pick the top 10 players, regardless of whether they’re guards, forwards, or centers. Not having to worry about those restrictions means we’re able to drill down on the question of which 10 rookies were the most valuable.

Do players like Barrett or Garland, who had major roles on lottery teams, deserve spots over guys like Terence Davis or Matisse Thybulle, who played smaller rotation roles and posted more modest numbers on playoff clubs? How about Zion Williamson? Is he a lock for the All-Rookie First Team despite only appearing in 19 games for the Pelicans this season?

You can make your picks below for the five players you believe are worthy of spots on the All-Rookie First Team. We’ve started with a field of 20 players, but if you feel like I’ve omitted anyone who deserves consideration, please mention them in the comments and I’ll add them to our list when we conduct our Second Team vote later this week.

Vote for your All-Rookie First Team below (choose five players), then take to the comment section to explain your choices!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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Poll: 2020 All-NBA Third Team

April 24th, 2020 at 3:36pm CST by Luke Adams

With the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting NBA hiatus throwing award season into disarray, we’re assuming the 2019/20 regular season is close enough to over that it’s safe to start making our unofficial picks for the league’s end-of-year honors. And we’re working on our All-NBA teams this week.

After closing the polls for the All-NBA First Team on Wednesday, we’ve brought the vote for the All-NBA Second Team to an end today. Some of the results in those Second Team polls were predictable — Nikola Jokic, for instance, was the runaway winner at center. However, there were much tighter races for the Second Team guards and forwards.

Here are the voting results so far:

2020 All-NBA First Team

2020 All-NBA Second Team

A pair of cornerstones on last year’s title-winning Raptors claimed the forward spots here, with Siakam narrowly edging out Jayson Tatum for the second spot. Meanwhile, Lillard and Beal will likely both miss the postseason this year, but had monster individual seasons for losing teams and earned your Second Team votes.

We’re moving on today to the All-NBA Third Team, so be sure to cast your votes below for the two guards, two forwards, and one center that you believe are most deserving of being named to that squad. Don’t forget that a few players qualify at two positions.

You’ll have the entire weekend to finalize your votes before we round up the results on Monday. You’ll also have the opportunity to select two players apiece in the guard and forward polls, so be sure to take advantage of that.

Guards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA Third Team guards.

Forwards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA Third Team forwards.

Center:

(Choose one)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA Third Team center.

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Poll: 2020 All-NBA Second Team

April 22nd, 2020 at 2:50pm CST by Luke Adams

With the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting NBA hiatus throwing award season into disarray, we’re assuming the 2019/20 regular season is close enough to over that it’s safe to start making our unofficial picks for the league’s end-of-year honors.

On Monday, we introduced our first series of All-NBA polls for 2020, asking you to pick two guards, two forwards, and two centers for the First Team. While the results ended up being fairly decisive, the positional eligibility for a pair of Lakers stars became a subject of debate in the comment section.

LeBron James has been an All-NBA forward for 15 straight seasons, but after a season in which he became the Lakers’ de facto point guard and led the league in assists, should he be shifted to the guard category? Based on the fact that he almost always played alongside two other guards in 2019/20, we kept him listed at forward, where he earned one of two All-NBA First Team spots in our poll.

How about Anthony Davis? Some of the Lakers’ most effective lineups include Davis at the center spot. However, he spent more time overall playing alongside Dwight Howard or JaVale McGee than he did at the five, and he has talked in the recent past about preferring to play power forward. We gave you the option of voting for Davis at either forward or center, and you picked him as your All-NBA First Team center. It’s not clear whether or not actual All-NBA voters will have the same flexibility or make the same choice.

Here are the voting results so far:

2020 All-NBA First Team

We’re moving on today to the All-NBA Second Team, so be sure to cast your votes below for the two guards, two forwards, and one center that you believe are most deserving of being named to that squad. Don’t forget that a few players qualify at two positions.

You’ll have about 48 hours for this round of voting before we move on to the All-NBA Third Team on Wednesday. You’ll also have the opportunity to select two players apiece in the guard and forward polls, so be sure to take advantage of that. And if there’s a player not listed below that you believe deserves All-NBA consideration, be sure to mention him in the comments section too — if I agree, I’ll make sure he’s included in our All-NBA Third Team polls later this week.

Guards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA Second Team guards.

Forwards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA Second Team forwards.

Center:

(Choose one)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA Second Team center.

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Poll: 2020 All-NBA First Team

April 20th, 2020 at 1:25pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s usual award season is in flux due to the coronavirus pandemic. Under normal circumstances, the regular season would be over by this point and voting would have taken place on the league’s major awards. This year, however, it’s unclear if or when the season will resume after being suspended last month, creating uncertainty about whether players will get any more regular season games to make their cases for award consideration, and about when voting will take place.

That’s hardly the most pressing concern facing the NBA, but as we remain in a holding pattern waiting for updates on how the league may proceed, we might as well engage in some award speculation.

For now, our assumption is that if the regular season isn’t entirely over, it’s very close to it. Even if the league is able to resume play this summer, there will likely only be a handful of regular season games on an abridged schedule. Those games are unlikely to have a massive impact on players’ cases for awards, so we’re moving forward with our annual vote on our All-NBA teams now.

We want to give you an opportunity to make your own picks, starting today with the First Team. We’ll move onto the Second Team later in the week, and the Third Team after that.

Polls for the guards, forwards, and center are below — you’ll have the opportunity to pick two players apiece in the guard and forward polls. We’ll leave today’s polls open for at least the next 48 hours before naming the players with the most votes to our All-NBA First Team and moving on to voting for the Second Team.

A couple caveats before we move onto the polls:

  1. If there’s a player you believe deserves All-NBA consideration who isn’t named below, be sure to mention him in the comment section — if I agree, I’ll make sure he’s included in our Second and Third Team polls.
  2. There are a few players I’ve listed at multiple positions. If there are any other players you believe deserve to be listed at a second position, please make your case in the comments and I’ll consider making adjustments for the Second and Third Team polls.

Vote for your All-NBA First Team below, then take to the comment section to explain your picks!

Guards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team guards.

Forwards:

(Choose two)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team forwards.

Center:

(Choose one)

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote on the All-NBA First Team center.

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