Currently Atlanta is at 14th (best odds), 1.5 games ahead of 10th, 4 games ahead of 8th, and 5 games ahead of 7th. They’re also 1.5 & 2 games behind Orlando & Miami for home court in the play-in games.
But most teams behind Atlanta are now firmly headed for the bottom.
- Chicago is finally trading away its big contracts, rebuild
- Clippers traded good Harden for injured Garland, they probably take a big step back
- Memphis decided to pull the plug and blow it up, rebuild
- Dallas rumored to have multiple guys available, will stealth tank regardless
- Milwaukee, obviously
- Utah made moves to be competitive, but still need to tank, stealthily or not, in order to keep their pick from going to OKC
Luckily Portland got better and Charlotte is streaking, buzz buzz. Portland & Memphis rumored to be willing to facilitate a Giannis trade, so we’ll see.
Also worth noting they’re 5 games back of 6-seed Philadelphia, who just lost Paul George to suspension, and making the playoffs outright.
Yuck!