NBA players who were most helped and hurt by the season restart

When LeBron first came back to the Cavs in the 2014-15 season, he took a two-week break from the team in January. He returned rested and virtually unstoppable in the playoffs. Now one year later, after a lost Lakers season where he got the entire summer off, King James got a four-month break to recharge for the playoffs. And every player who opts out puts LeBron one step closer to his fourth ring. Plus, he’s used to living in a fancy compound! As long as he can get Taco Tuesday catered in the bubble, LeBron is going to be a force. 

It’s admirable that Brandon Ingram didn’t hesitate at all to join the Pelicans’ push for a playoff spot. But Ingram has a lot to lose! He’s a free agent this summer and probably guaranteed himself a max extension — as long as he doesn’t get injured. And while he said “I feel like I’m immune to a lot of this stuff,” Ingram missed the end of last season with blood clots, which can be lethal in combination with COVID-19. He’ll probably be fine, and the Pelicans need him for their playoff run. But B.I. is risking a lot.

Most people are going to remember DeAndre Ayton’s 25-game PED suspension to start the season, but the second-year center was putting up numbers when he came back — 19 points and 12 rebounds per game, with 1.7 blocks. If he can keep up the production in the bubble, fans may start seeing him as a future star again and not a juicer. 

Joe Harris is a former Three-Point Contest winner who is a fantastic secondary option on offense. Unfortunately, offensive options 1-4 are all out for Brooklyn. Harris is going into free agency this fall, and the last thing anyone will see is him playing on a ragtag Nets team where his talents will be minimized.

PG-13 had surgery on both his shoulders in the offseason, delaying his team-up with Kawhi Leonard in Los Angeles until mid-November. Then in January, a hamstring injury cost him nearly the entire month. All told, George and Leonard played only half the Clippers games together. With four months of rest, George should be closer to full strength, which was good enough for third place in the MVP vote last season.

Will James Harden chafe at the restrictions of the bubble? It’s not a great sign that he’s the only active NBA player who’s had his jersey retired at a strip club. Perhaps Harden will focus harder without any distractions. But it’s never a good sign for a player to change the routine that brought him success. Ray Allen ate a chicken and rice meal at the exact same time before every game. Harden’s personal routine demands recharging at the club, somewhere you aren’t allowed to go during quarantine. Plus that beard is not going to help the effectiveness of his face mask.

Philadelphia has had some buyer’s remorse with Al Horford’s four-year mega-deal, after he struggled to fit in alongside Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. But the motivation behind signing Big Al was always to avoid the slumps that happened in the playoffs last year whenever Embiid would sit. If the center rotation gets Philly out of the second round this year, the rough regular season will be forgotten.

Fairly or not, Rudy Gobert has become the poster boy for COVID-19 irresponsibility, after intentionally infecting microphones and hosting gatherings in the early days of the pandemic, before testing positive himself. If the Jazz fall short in the playoffs, Gobert will inevitably be the scapegoat, even if the loss of Bojan Bogdavoic to wrist surgery probably eliminates them as contenders. It’s also likely that Gobert is still suffering the effects of his illness, since his sense of smell still hasn’t returned after three months. Gobert should be getting sympathy, but it’s likely he’s only going to get derision.

It’s still far too early to call 22-year-old Markelle Fultz a bust, but that didn’t stop people in his first two disappointing years, where his shot was completely broken. But Fultz really improved through his first season in Orlando, stepping up his scoring and playing at pace. If the Magic can keep up the form that gave them the NBA’s best per-possession offense after the All-Star Break, the Fultz narrative may dramatically change.

The absence of Jonathan Isaac and Al-Farouq Aminu puts a lot of pressure on the greatest second-place finisher in dunk contest history, Aaron Gordon. He’s easily the Magic’s best forward, with a big dropoff to backups James Ennis III and Wesley Iwundu, but at least he’ll be playing his best position: the four. In a likely first-round matchup against Pascal Siakam and the Raptors, Gordon is going to have to step it up on both ends while guarding taller players and playing heavy minutes. But at least Dwyane Wade doesn’t get to vote on who wins those matchups.

Kemba Walker has played in four straight All-Star Games since 2015-16 and exactly zero playoff games in that stretch. That will change this year with him on the Celtics, currently in third place, where Walker will finally be able to show off his talent on a national stage. And it’s good that he got the rest. Walker missed six of Boston’s last 10 games before the season shut down and struggled with a bad knee when he did play. With four days off, he should be thriving and showing the clutch shooting that won him an NCAA title in college and won many games no one remembered in Charlotte.

Nuggets star Nikola Jokic has to deal with a positive COVID test and a travel nightmare from Serbia to Orlando. But he’s also going to have to face the weird body-shaming he’s endured even while he was a fourth-place MVP finisher last season. He got criticized for his conditioning even after playing 65 minutes in a playoff game last year. Now Jokic has lost weight, and possibly some of his wide-bodied power, and any failure will undoubtedly be attributed to his being too fat, too thin or too different from the usual NBA body. Let’s just appreciate one of the greatest passing big men in NBA history.

The NBA promised stiff penalties for players who broke quarantine, and for a moment, it looked like the Bucks’ center rotation was in trouble. Brook Lopez issued a challenge to the commissioner: “We’ll see how long Adam Silver can keep Robin and I from going to the park.” But with the news that NBA players would be able to visit attractions after hours, the Lopez Twins will be powered by Disney magic, energized by thrill rides and wonder. An effective Lopez duo at the pivot could give the Bucks a FastPass to the Finals and even help them “imagineer” a championship.

The bubble is going to be a challenge for Boban Marjanovic because of the Mavericks’ lack of frontcourt depth. The 7-foot-4 Boban is best as a change of pace and a matchup nightmare, but he averages under 10 minutes a game. Dallas is going to need more from him with Dwight Powell and Willie Cauley-Stein out for the season, and the shortened schedule won’t allow much time to recover. Although, in the last game before the season was suspended, Boban put up 31 points and 17 rebounds, so perhaps the answer is even more Boban. After all, he wants to impress his best friend, Tobias Harris.

We’re going to make a bold prediction here. In the remainder of the regular season and playoffs, Ben Simmons will double his career three-point totals. Yes, that means he’ll hit two, but still! In fact, it doesn’t matter if or how often he shoots from outside. Simmons is going to impress with his lockdown defense, whether it’s Jimmy Butler, Pascal Siakam or Jayson Tatum. He’s an incredible defender and at 6-foot-10, he’s got the length and quickness to harass anyone. And if he makes a three, ESPN should do a courtside interview where he declares, “I’m going to Disney World!”

The Wizards’ rookie goes into the short season as Washington’s No. 1 option. And frankly, there’s almost no one else to support him. Bradley Beal and Davis Bertans are out, Thomas Bryant tested positive for COVID-19, and the only other options are Shabazz Napier, Troy Brown, Jr., and Jerome Robinson. Maybe Hachimura will get valuable experience as a primary offensive option, but it’s more likely that defenses able to key on Hachimura will shut down the rookie.

Yes, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the most surprising team of the season. And yes, the 35-year-old Paul will benefit from the long layoff. But the real reason that Paul will thrive in the bubble is that the NBA has set up  an anonymous tipline to report bubble infractions, and no one loves to snitch like CP3. He already won a game this year after reporting an untucked jersey. Think of the havoc Paul could wreak reporting quarantine violations — especially with his insider knowledge of his old Rockets teammates’ habits.

The Sacramento Kings were rolling when the season was suspended, going 7-3 in their last 10 games. Now their momentum has been interrupted by a four-month break, and new sixth man Buddy Hield’s training has been interrupted by a positive test. The Kings need Hield’s scoring off the bench, and Hield needs to prove his worth going into an offseason where Sacramento is poised to give Bogdan Bogdanovic big money to play Hield’s position of shooting guard.

The Mavericks’ Slovenian wunderkind  was banged up when the regular season was suspended, as were key teammates Seth Curry and Dorian Finney-Smith. Curry and Finney-Smith have healed, J.J. Barea is now 18 months from his Achilles injury, and most important, Luka’s ankle is much better. They’re still an underdog in the Western Conference, but with the league’s most efficient offense, the Mavericks have a great chance to move up the standings and even steal a first-round series.

If any NBA player is going to match Lionel Simmons’ famous Gameboy-induced tendinitis injury, it’s League of Legends enthusiast Gordon Hayward. Not only is he a fervent gamer, but he’s also incredibly injury-prone. Plus, the timing of his wife’s pregnancy means Hayward will have to quarantine when he leaves the bubble for his child’s birth. The NBA says it’s for a minimum of four days, but given the incubation period of COVID-19 is 14 days, it’s unlikely Hayward can safely return.

Lakers’ power forward Anthony Davis is one of the top five players in the league, but he’s a bit injury-prone. For New Orleans, he averaged only 68 games a season, and even this year he’s been banged up. The Brow will benefit from the time off, and he’ll also benefit from the weakness of other Western Conference bigs: Ruby Gobert and Nikola Jokic dealt with illness, the Mavericks have two centers out, LaMarcus Aldridge is missing the bubble, and the Clippers are dusting off Joakim Noah to slow down the Lakers. Davis has been dominant all season, and he may not have to deal with a legitimate defensive big man until the Finals.

Not only is Donovan Mitchell suffering the effects of the coronavirus, but he’s also having to repair his relationship with Gobert and deal with knowing that a significant number of Utah fans don’t believe that Black Lives Matter. Mitchell has already said he wishes players could be on the front lines of the protests instead of in the bubble, and he’s also risking his upcoming extension if he gets injured. All this for a short-handed Jazz team that’s a 66-to-1 long shot to win the title.

Some players are going to have trouble staying fit and dealing with shared training space in the socially distanced world of the bubble. But not Jimmy Butler, because he’ll have the gym all to himself when he wakes up at 3:30 a.m. to work out. The Miami Heat are already the most intense team in the NBA. Isolating them in the bubble is only going to make their us-against-the-world attitude stronger. The only danger is that Jimmy might injure a teammate with a paddle going too hard at table tennis in the lounge.

The closest thing the NBA has to a Tasmanian devil is Russell Westbrook, a full-speed rim-attacking machine who thrived when Houston exiled everyone on the roster taller than 6-foot-8. Unfortunately, the chaotic possibilities of a fully-rested Westbrook unleashed on the bubble will be delayed at least two weeks now that he’s had a positive COVID test. Let’s hope he’s asymptomatic and ready to tear up defenses in a cloud of dust in 14 days. The only upside is that with two weeks in isolation, Brodie has a better chance to never repeat an outfit.

Tilman Fertitta was already over-leveraged as the cash-poor owner of the Houston Rockets, but he took a hit when many of his fast casual restaurants closed during the pandemic. But the NBA hooked him up by making all six of the bubble restaurants Tilman Fertitta franchises. It’s win-win for him: Fertitta doesn’t have to pay arena workers, he makes money, and it gives him an excuse to cut payroll and dodge the luxury tax again.