Right now in the NBA’s Western Conference, seeds 8-13 all have a realistic shot at making the playoffs, but is it worth it?
Currently, in the NBA’s Western Conference, about six different teams have a realistic shot at making the playoffs.
It is a competitive race, I will give you that, but it isn’t one you want to be a part of. All the teams competing in the race for the 8th seed are all under .500, and frankly, all deserve to be in the lottery because they just flat out suck.
The teams in said race are the Denver Nuggets, Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Even if you don’t watch the NBA constantly, generally, over the last years, you know none of those teams besides the Blazers could be referred to as “good”.
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The current 8th place team, the Nuggets are the closest to being .500 or above, but are still six games behind.
The reason I say all this is to further prove my point on how useless the winner of the 8th seed sweepstakes in the West is. All of these teams clearly need help and making the playoffs just gives them a worse pick.
The Nuggets need a superstar, the Blazers need better defenders, the reasons why all of these teams should miss out on the playoffs are infinite. The only team that logically should continuing pushing is Minnesota, for obvious reasons.
Getting a worse pick isn’t the only reason this 8th seed is useless, the other reason is when you get into the playoffs as the 8th seed, you will be served a sweep by Golden State on a silver platter. I don’t care what you think about how tanking is bad for team morale and the team spirit about winning, getting four straight 20+ L’s to a team is as demoralizing as it gets.
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I just firmly believe that whoever gets the 8th seed besides the Timberwolves, is more of a disservice than a service. The cons outweigh the pros in this situation. It’s better to get a higher draft pick, have fewer losses, fewer blowouts if you miss the playoffs, than the inverse of all that if you do.