Other teams' surprising wins significantly boosted the Wizards' draft positioning. The lottery luck continues for Washington's pursuit of high-level young talent.
The final eight weeks of the NBA season won't be easy to watch for the fans of quite a few teams. The Wizards are one of those teams. However, it means the Wizards fans can actually feel like they won on nights when they don't play.
Draft positioning this offseason means everything to the Wizards. With their top-8 pick protected, finishing bottom-4 in the league is the only way to guarantee it.
“Hopefully the lottery gods have our favor, and we can add another high-level young talent," Wizards general manager Will Dawkins said on Sunday. It appears he and the front office aren't interested in losing their first-round pick.
When the Wizards don't play, their fans can scoreboard-watch the other bottoming-out teams, including the Pacers, Kings, Jazz, Nets, and Pelicans. Last night, Washington got plenty of help.
The Jazz, Nets, and Pelicans all won last night, propelling the Wizards to the third-worst record in the league. The crazier part is that the Jazz practically won by accident. Jazz head coach Will Hardy benched many of his top players for the entire final quarter. This decision was made when the Jazz led the Heat by three entering the fourth.
Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. both sat out the entire final quarter and finished with only 25 minutes played. A reporter asked how close Hardy was to putting them in the game in the final minutes. His response? "I wasn't."
Washington's no stranger to similar tactics. Over a week ago, Wizards' head coach Brian Keefe played his bench for the final 16 minutes against the Sacramento Kings, who currently own the league's worst record.
The Pelicans, who sit at 15-40, do not own the rights to their first-round pick. This means they'll have no intention to lose games down the stretch. However, given where they are currently, they won't win a lot. More likely than not, though, they can win enough to help out some of the other teams.
For the Wizards, the All-Star break approaches, but next week features games that could be important when it's all said and done. The Wizards and Pacers play each other on back-to-back nights. Indiana, which was a game away from winning an NBA title a year ago, has spent the year bottoming out while Tyrese Haliburton recovers from an achillies tear.
The last two months might look messy around the league. It remains to be seen how the league addresses the issue.