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Charles Curtis here for some NBA takes, and this one might be far from hot, but it’s all I could think about while watching the Pelicans take down the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night to move on in the NBA play-in tournament: Just how good could this Pels team be if Zion Williamson was healthy?
Would they be better than the current top six in the West? Considering that the potential back-to-back MVP is a member of the No. 6 seed Nuggets, I kind of doubt they’d be that good.
But: CJ McCollum, Brandon Ingram, Jonas Valanciunas and breakout rookie Herbert Jones with Zion? That’s a nucleus that intrigues me — they can score in bunches and Jones can play some D. Maybe they get some more shooting help in the draft.
And it all depends on Williamson. When we last saw him, he was ball-handling forward barreling to the hoop left and right. There he was at shootaround last night, casually throwing down a thunderous 360 dunk.
The big IF about his health will linger. But if I’m putting any futures bets down in the offseason, I’ll throw one down on this team making the playoffs next year and hoping Zion stays healthy enough to be the missing puzzle piece.
Away we go in today’s newsletter:
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Miles Bridges got ejected from the play-in loss to the Hawks last night and threw his mouthguard in anger, hitting a fan in the crowd. But he addressed how wrong that was with reporters and is now asking to find the fan to get in touch:
“That was definitely wrong, a lot of emotions, and hopefully, I can get in contact with the young girl and sincerely apologize to her and do something nice for her. That’s definitely on me.”
Good.
One to Watch
(All odds via Tipico.)
Pelicans (+140) vs. Clippers (-3.5, -175), O/U 215.5, 10 PM ET Friday
Sadly, no Zion for this game or any others that the Pels might play this postseason. And no Kawhi, I think? Still, this should be a great game, and I’m taking the underdogs to keep it close.
Who’s in and out?
— Nets: Could Ben Simmons return in the playoffs? The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports he’s “targeting a return” in Games 4 through 6 of the Celtics series.
— Mavericks: Charania also reports Luka Doncic is expected to miss Game 1 against the Jazz.
Shootaround
— As BetFTW’s Cole Huff wrote, Patrick Beverley got fined $30K because he justifiably ripped the Clippers.
— Nikola Jokic has no idea where his MVP trophy is right now. Seriously.
— An updated look at our NBA draft declaration tracker.
— Who won the Derrick White and Josh Richardson trade in hindsight? Celtics Wire looks into that.
Enjoy the beginning of the playoffs!
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