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Christ did not come. Meanwhile: The future of disappointed playoff struggles in the West

Zion needs time and refinement before he can meet New Orleans' unprecedented expectations, Popovich faces a completely different task than he was used to in San Antonio, and only Devin Booker can emerge truly optimistic from the change taking place in Phoenix. Where are the teams left out of the playoffs going? Ravitz surgeon

• New Orleans Pelicans
• San Antonio Spurs
• Phoenix Suns
• Sacramento Kings

Assaf Ravitz

The introductions are over. The ranking games have done their thing, and now we have seven first-round series and a playoff promotion game of a game or two on the right to meet LeBron James. After an exciting first week, in the second week of the ranking games most of the teams moved to proactive rests, secondary formations and games while sleeping, leaving us with very little ability to understand what their true fitness is and guess what to expect from them in the playoffs.

The only teams that fought to the end were the six teams that struggled for eighth and ninth place in the West, so they could be learned the most in the last two weeks. Portland and Memphis took both places and will get the spotlight this weekend, but today we will focus on the four disappointed ones returning home (along with Washington, who quickly lost chance and interest). All four are at some point in the construction process and will emerge from the bubble with very important conclusions regarding the continuation of the process. No need to exaggerate with conclusions from the bubble - Phoenix is ​​not the best team in the league and TJ Warren did not become Kevin Durant during the Corona period, this is a unique and very short situation that was influenced by dozens of factors. But the teams that fought for the playoffs in the West found themselves in two weeks of crucial games as they teach something about where each of them is.

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New Orleans

Messiah did not come, Messiah at all preoccupied with personal matters and again is within the minute limit. Not just New Orleans, the entire league built on Zion Williamson to sweep the general public and lead the Pelicans to a meeting with LeBron, it was supposed to be the big story of the first few weeks in the bubble. But Zion left during the preparations, came back at the last minute, got a few minutes in the first few games and even when he provided good personal numbers did not help New Orleans win. Many seem to have forgotten that this is a 20-year-old boy with a resume of 24 NBA games, equivalent to a month and a half. Never in NBA history have such high expectations been placed on such a young player with so little experience. Zion earned those expectations with tremendous ability in his early weeks in the league, but the bubble experience should bring him and us back to reality. What he needs now is to start a season on time, calmly, as another talented youngster in the league who needs time to adapt to a team that still needs time to form an identity.

David Griffin, the Pelicans' vice president of basketball, tried to build a quality team in the present that would be built for the future at the same time and discovered that it was almost impossible to do both. On the one hand the team paid a price for the immaturity of some key players, on the other hand the attempt to reach the playoffs prevented players like Jackson Hayes and Nickel Alexander-Walker from accumulating necessary playing minutes. If Griffin decides the summer between the present and the future, he should have no doubt that the direction is the future. Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Zion can form the basis of a great team for a few more years, with around them already some talented youngsters and in the future awaiting many first-round picks, a reminder to trade for Anthony Davis. The talk of replacing coach Alvin Gentry seems to me too early, unless Griffin feels the young skeleton is not connecting with him. He will have time to find the coach who will know how to maximize Zion's one-time potential, but before that the diamond needs to undergo some polishing.

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San Antonio

The surgery was successful, the patient missed the playoffs for the first time in 22 years. The young quintet that Greg Popovich ran in the bubble surprised for good and led the Spurs to a touching distance from ninth place, so the disappointment from missing the playoffs is moderate. The sequence had to be stopped sometime, it is definitely better that it happens with the feeling that the future is already here. Damar Drusen, the fifth and oldest rib, also fitted in excellently in style and approach and seemed very suited to be the experienced scorer who raises and leads the next generation. He functioned as a kind of power forward in a very low lineup and not typical of pop, which allowed the Eternal Coach to use a great many creative players. It will be interesting to see how Marcus Aldridge will fit into this new world, and I would not be surprised if RC Beauford would prefer to avoid incorporating him and look for a trade for him in the summer. Without Marcus, Jacob Paltel has finally been given a chance in the top five and looks like a chin worth investing in, one that does all the small and important things on both sides. It is no coincidence that his net rating is the highest in the group.

But the enthusiasm of the young Spurs needs to be put in proportion. Derek White, Jonathon Marie, Lonnie Walker and Paltel look like good players in the making, rookie Caldon Johnson also fitted in nicely from the bench, but this bunch has no potential franchise player (White is already 26 and to this day has not come close to the level of stability required from a player leading). All the other interesting teams being built in the West have at least one player with much higher potential than this whole bunch. If Pop does not decide to retire, he will surely greatly enjoy developing this young bunch, all smart and team players with good defensive foundations, but without a real superstar the roof of this staff would be low, probably in the West. Bioford has gotten used to the fact that his job is to find sub-players for his stars, in the coming years he will have to perform a more difficult task: attach a star to his bunch of sub-players. This road will start with something that Bioford has not had until today: choosing a lottery.

Phoenix

A 0: 8 balance in the bubble was enough for Phoenix to rise from 13th to tenth place, one shot away (by Chris Levert from Brooklyn in the game against Portland) from a ticket to the qualifying tournament. It was one of the most beautiful stories in the bubble and it's a shame it ended without the ticket, even though Portland is no less exciting and in a broad view of the season Memphis deserves more to fight for the illegal immigration. Most of the credit for the achievement went to Devin Booker, and he will probably be rewarded on the spot with the bubble top five (and the title of the big basket of the ranking games - the amazing basket of victory over the Clippers). But Boker did not do anything unusual in the bubble in relation to his usual abilities. The big and optimistic story of Phoenix is ​​that for the first time it seems that a quality group is being formed around it in the making.

Diandra Eyton has not provided particularly different numbers from his rookie season, but his upgrade in defense makes him a different player. It protects the ring at a very high level, makes the right little decisions and controls the rebound. On offense he finishes great in both pick n roll and post and has a good hand from half distance with a quick rise to the shot, so there is no reason he should not develop a reasonable shot from three and become an even more lethal offensive weapon. Eyton is evolving to be number 2 most deserving of the morning. On the wings Michal Bridges is a great guard who does a bit of everything on offense, Cameron Johnson is a threesome expert with pretty good defense and Kelly Obra who was not in the bubble will complete with them a trio of good complementary players (Bridges can develop into more than that). Ricky Rubio is still one of the top game managers in the league, Cameron Payne and Jabon Carter have apparently earned a bubble in the opportunity to be the long-term replacement guards. Dario Sharich has reinvented himself as a substitute chin that provides extra shooting and game management to the second unit. Except for most of him, all the players on this list are 26 and under, and with the exception of Sharich, they are all signed for at least another season. Phoenix in the bubble version made perfect defensive rotations and moved a ball purposefully, these are elements that will not get lost in the summer. Monty Williams is building something interesting.

Sacramento

The group that needs most of all the statement that should be taken with a limited guarantee of what happened in the bubble is Sacramento. Luke Walton's side had a very positive momentum before the league shutdown and lost it completely in a bubble. The Kings did nothing particularly good in the rankings and came out of the race for ninth place fairly quickly. Despite this, it is also not possible to point out an excessive weakness of the players: Diaron Fox overall provided good numbers and continued his development, Bogdan Bogdanovich and Buddy the boy scored many threes in good percentages, Harrison Barnes did what Harrison Barnes does, Nemanja Baylitz provided high efficiency data Very, Harry Giles showed sparks. With the exception of Rishon Holmes who did not come close to his ability during the season, everyone looked more or less as they usually are.

And that's exactly the problem. It is difficult to see where this faculty is developing. Fox all the time seems to be one step below the superstars in the making really big, the boy and Bogdanovich are already 27 years old and probably have nowhere else to develop, even most of the assisting team is already quite an adult. Sacramento will continue to wait for Marvin at Gali, but he has been injured most of the time for two years now and when he plays he continues to raise question marks. He has yet to make the leap that Eaton, who was elected one place ahead of him, made this year. As in the case of San Antonio, part of the Kings' problem is that they are in the West, where Luca Doncic, Devin Booker and Ja Morant are already leading the future teams and Zion is surrounded by talent. It's hard to see Sacramento building a team that will be more than mediocre minus in this conference.