The NBA’s 2022/23 regular season will wrap up on April 9, which means we now have just six days left in the season. Here are a few things worth keeping an eye on during those six days:
Play-in races and playoff positioning
Eastern Conference
Frankly, the race for the playoffs in the East would have been more exciting under the NBA’s old system, where only the top eight seeds at the end of the regular season made the playoffs. Currently, the Hawks and Raptors are tied for the No. 8 spot at 39-39 (Atlanta has the tiebreaker advantage), while the Bulls are one game back at 38-40. It’s a safe bet that all three teams will make the play-in tournament, whereas in past years they would’ve been fighting for a single playoff spot.
Of course, there’s still some intrigue related to which team finishes in which slot. The No. 8 team at the end of the regular season gets two chances to win one play-in game to earn a playoff berth, whereas the Nos. 9 and 10 teams need to win two games to make the playoffs. The No. 10 club would have to win two play-in games on the road.
Further up the Eastern Conference standings, there’s currently a gap of at least two games between each of the top seven teams, so even though those seeds aren’t set in stone yet, they’re getting close to being locked in, barring some late surges or slumps.
Most notable remaining intra-conference games:
- 4/4: Celtics at Sixers, Hawks at Bulls
- 4/5: Raptors at Celtics, Bulls at Bucks
- 4/6: Heat at Sixers
- 4/7: Sixers at Hawks, Raptors at Celtics
- 4/9: Hawks at Celtics, Sixers at Nets, Bucks at Raptors
Western Conference
As has been the case for months, the Western standings are more tightly bunched than the East’s. The Nos. 5-8 seeds are only separated by a half-game, for instance, and 12 teams technically remain in the playoff picture or play-in hunt.
The Clippers and Warriors are both 41-38 and currently hold the fifth and sixth spots in the Western Conference standings, but if they want to avoid the play-in tournament, they’ll have to hold off the surging Lakers and Pelicans, who are both 40-38.
The No. 10 Thunder (38-41) are currently in the driver’s seat for the final play-in spot. They have a one-game lead over the 11th-place Mavericks (37-42) and a 1.5-game cushion on the 12th-place Jazz (36-42) and hold the tiebreaker over both teams. Oklahoma City’s remaining schedule is no cakewalk though, with road games in Golden State and Utah following by a home game vs. Memphis.
Most notable remaining intra-conference games:
- 4/4: Kings at Pelicans, Lakers at Jazz, Thunder at Warriors
- 4/5: Grizzlies at Pelicans, Kings at Mavericks, Lakers at Clippers
- 4/6: Thunder at Jazz, Nuggets at Suns
- 4/7: Warriors at Kings, Suns at Lakers
- 4/9: Pelicans at Timberwolves, Grizzlies at Thunder, Kings at Nuggets, Jazz at Lakers, Clippers at Suns
Lottery positioning and traded draft picks
There are important races happening at both ends of the standings as the season winds down. At the bottom, the Pistons (16-62) are on track for the No. 1 spot in the draft lottery standings, with the Rockets (19-60) and Spurs (20-58) vying for the No. 2 spot.
The Hornets (26-53) comfortably hold the No. 4 lottery spot, but the race for No. 5 is a tight one — the Trail Blazers (33-45), Pacers (34-45), Magic (34-44), and Wizards (34-44) are separated by a single game.
The lottery odds for each team in the top 14 can be found here.
Additionally, a handful of traded draft picks remain up for grabs as the season winds down. For instance, the Mavericks will trade their first-round pick to the Knicks if it’s not in the top 10, which appears increasingly likely but is far from certain. Dallas and Minnesota could both end up surrendering lottery picks, as the Timberwolves owe their unprotected first-rounder to the Jazz.
It appears the Wizards and Trail Blazers will hang onto their top-14 protected first-rounders rather than sending them to the Knicks and Bulls, respectively. But it’s still worth keeping an eye on Chicago’s own pick — it’s top-four protected, so the Bulls will have an outside shot at keeping it instead of sending it to the Magic if they lose in the play-in tournament.
Award races
Some of this year’s awards look like they’re all but sewn up, including Rookie of the Year (Paolo Banchero) and Coach of the Year (Mike Brown).
But one of the most fascinating Most Valuable Player races in years remains very much up in the air, with Sixers center Joel Embiid and Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo prepared to submit their closing arguments in the next few days. Could the ongoing injury absence of Nuggets center Nikola Jokic cost him his third consecutive MVP?
Defensive Player of the Year also isn’t a foregone conclusion, with Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson and Bucks center Brook Lopez among the leading candidates.
Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are among the players who continue to make strong cases for the Most Improved Player award, while Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley and Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon look like the top two candidates for Sixth Man of the Year.
Roster moves
With just six days left in the season, this year’s period of 10-day contract signings is essentially over. A team filling its final open roster spot will sign a player to a rest-of-season or multiyear deal at this point, rather than a 10-day pact.
The one exception is 10-day hardship deals, which can still be completed during the final week of a season by teams dealing with several injuries.
Why wouldn’t those hardship contracts just take the form of rest-of-season deals too? Well, this way, teams can’t gain certain offseason rights to more players than the standard roster limits allow. A rest-of-season contract would give the club a player’s Bird, Early Bird, or Non-Bird rights for the offseason, whereas a 10-day deal won’t.
As we outlined on Sunday, here are the teams that still have an open roster spot with six days left in the season:
- Boston Celtics *
- Brooklyn Nets **
- Charlotte Hornets **
- Houston Rockets
- Los Angeles Lakers
- New York Knicks
- Phoenix Suns ***
- Utah Jazz ****
* The Celtics are expected to fill their open roster spot by signing Justin Champagnie.
** The Nets and Hornets each have a player on a 10-day contract filling their 15th roster spot. Those deals will expire before the season ends.
*** The Suns have a full 15-man roster but have an open two-way spot.
**** The Jazz have one open 15-man roster spot and a player on a 10-day contract filling their 14th spot, so they’ll have two openings before the end of the week.
The NBA officials have been giving the Lakers every call ever since Lebron came back. Its really sad as us as the fans notice this. I understand that Lebron in the playoffs makes the NBA a lot of money but this just isn’t right. The Lakers magically go from being the 11th seed to the 7th seed in 3-4 games, yeah sure
Or maybe, just maybe it could be that the Lakers are finally at full strength and have a balanced team with good defenders and shooters along with two of top ten players when healthy. One of which happens to be one of the best to ever play the game and knows what it takes to win.
Or maybe the West has been tight all year and 3-4 games can make a huge difference when all the teams are within a couple games of each other.
To be honest it’s probably a combination of both and I still don’t think this team can win it all but I also learned years ago to never bet against LeBron.
Yes all these reasons plus they had a terrific trade deadline.
Lakers are good enough to win, but I also don’t want Lakers to win because of 20+ more free throws in a game
It’s like 15-20 years ago when the Lakers would outshoot their opponents something like 44-12 or 29-6 in free throw attempts every game. They should just award the win to L.A. and focus on something else. The league can’t stomach their beloved Lakers not making the post-season again.
MVP is between Gino and Jokic and it’s a toss up. Comes down to feelings of the voter. Whether you agree with this or not, there is no mvp metric. If there was Embiid would not achieve it anyway.
For some reason the people that matter seem to be looking past Giannis this season. It’s probably because he’s just doing what he always does. He’s not whining like Embiid or putting up triple doubles like Jokic. All three have had great seasons but I think it’s Embiid’s turn. He’s tearing it up when it matters the most.
That’s the thing though, he’s not. He is putting up huge numbers in games and they’re still losing.
It ultimately comes down to opinion, but Bucks and Denver are at the top of their respective conferences. A lot of that can be attributed (very clearly) to Jokic, and (pretty clearly) to Gino. Sixers on the other hand are not a team that scares me, and Embiid makes them better but I’d rather have one of the other guys.
Someone’s “turn” does not play into my consideration, but it’s all marketing/narrative so if it’s part of yours it’s your prerogative.
No one is scared of Denver.
You are such a hater.
Mikal Bridges and Jalen Brunson should have shots at MIP as well.
They should, but I think it goes to Shai. If his team had a better record he’d be in MVP discussion.
Warriors GM is terrible this season compared to Lakers
1 Curry Klay Green are older than last year
2 it’s Poole fool not Poole party
3 Not able to acquire a big man
Do nothing to solve the problems
They’re older than last year? You don’t say?
Are you liking yourself?
Jokic, Giannis, and Embiid will all end with about 65-69 games and Jokic is already ahead of the other 2 guys. Really wish there was just a mvp in the east and west conference.
*Lakers clippers and gsw all hold their own fate getting a top 6 I’d add w perfect weeks
All the bench players playing because these(all stars) kids are tired. It shows the men of the old days are stronger and more athletic than the millionaire kids of today. Everyone has low basketball IQ in todays game. Lebron has as much basketball IQ as Westbrook in the clutch