In the Chicago sports world the basketball season ended on Friday night. Were the Bulls in the playoffs, technically no… but the did play 84 games. In my eyes the last two were playoff games. Personally, I never liked the wild card game in baseball. The play-in tournament is very similar and I do not like it.
I understand why the NBA added the play-in tournament and I am happy that the Bulls made history being the first ten seed to ever win a play-in game. However, I think it needs to be a play-in series that is best of three not a single game and it needs to be between the eight and nine seeds. Would a best of three series have meant the Bulls missed the playoffs this year? Possibly because they never won more than three games in a row this season and had a few stretches where they only won two in a row. My point here is they likely would have been knocked out by the Milwaukee Bucks either way.
Now let’s talk about the draft! Victor Wembanyama will without a doubt be the #1 pick. Here are my thoughts on the Dallas Mavericks tanking to have a chance at Victor. At the end of the day they were intentionally tanking and they deserve the fine. However, for the league to pick the Bulls game on April 7 which was game 81 for both teams and I believe the Mavericks started their intentional tanking project on March 29th against the Philadelphia 76ers, possibly even a couple games before that. That gives them only a 1.3% higher chance at getting Victor than the Bulls who have a 1.7% chance at the #1 pick.
As a huge Bulls fan I will never forget the last time they had the number one pick in 2008. With it looking more and more like Lonzo Ball’s career is done due to his knee injury. Boy would it be nice for the Bulls to end up with the number one pick and draft Victor. You might be saying, “But the Bulls have Nikola Vucevic and two other centers?” While that is very true… getting Victor would give the Bulls some trade bait to help improve the defense. Possibly meaning Vucevic’s days as a Bull are done.
Had the Mavericks not tanked they would be the third team I am rooting for in the playoffs this year behind the Heat and Golden State. Since I do not like LaBron I am going to put the LA Clippers third on my list this year.
With that… it is time for tip off in Milwaukee! Let’s go Heat!
If you cannot play with them, root for them!