One positive for each of the six NBA teams that left the bubble early
The NBA restart bubble has been an unbelievable success so far as the remaining 16 teams gear up for the playoffs. I’ll admit I had low expectations for how it would look and if a bubble was even possible, but I’ve been blown away by how well the NBA has pulled this off from both a safety and on-court product perspective. It’s been great.
But with the playoffs starting that means six teams have to go home. The six teams that just left Disney World may have had mixed results, but whether they were undefeated or just counting down the days until they could go home, each team has some positives they can take with them into next season.
Memphis Grizzlies: They are still ahead of schedule
Having a 3.5 game lead heading into the bubble disappear in eight games and losing in the play-in to Portland has to sting, but it doesn’t in any way detract from how great of a story the Memphis Grizzlies were this year.
You could make a convincing argument that the Grizzlies have the worst roster on paper in the entire Western Conference. And yet, a rookie led them to the brink of the playoffs and kept them close despite not having Jaren Jackson Jr. available for most of the bubble games.
The Grizzlies’ front office has some work to do to continue building depth on this roster, but that task is a lot easier when the core is already in place before any of them are even old enough to rent a car in the state they play in.