The Whiteboard: NBA playoff bracket if season ended today

There are roughly seven weeks left in the regular season but the NBA Playoff picture is still anything but clear. Here’s how the bracket would look today.

The NBA playoffs don’t start until the middle of April but races are tightening and seeding is becoming increasingly important as potential matchups are starting to take shape. Here is how the postseason bracket would look if the season ended today, with several big names and notable teams missing out entirely.

NBA Playoff Picture: Eastern Conference

Here are the current standings in the East, with the bottom four seeds lining up for the Play-In Tournament.

1. Boston Celtics
2. Milwaukee Bucks
3. Philadelphia 76ers
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
5. Brooklyn Nets
6. New York Knicks
7. Miami Heat
8. Atlanta Hawks
9. Toronto Raptors
10. Washington Wizards

If the season ended today we’d have the Heat vs. Hawks and Raptors vs. Wizards to open the Play-In Tournament. The winner of Heat vs. Hawks would get the No. 7 seed. The loser would play the winner of the Raptors vs. Wizards for the No. 8 seed.

That means our first-round playoff series would be some:

• No. 1 Boston Celtics vs. No. 8 Heat/Hawks/Raptors/Wizards
• No. 2 Milwaukee Bucks vs. No. 7 Heat/Hawks
• No. 3 Philadelphia 76ers vs. No. 6 New York Knicks
• No. 4 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. No. 5 Brooklyn Nets

The East feels much top heavier than the West and the top four seeds will likely feel pretty confident no matter who their matchups are — the Raptors and Wizards seem overmatched, the Hawks just fired their coach, the Nets are figuring out an almost entirely new roster and the Heat’s only real in-season upgrade was signing Kevin Love. The Knicks may be the scariest team in the bottom half of that bracket but even they will be heavy underdogs against the Cavs or 76ers.

NBA Playoff Picture: Western Conference

The Western Conference offers much more intrigue from top to bottom and the ongoing races for seeds have a lot more potential to shake up the matchups. Here are the current standings.

1. Denver Nuggets
2. Memphis Grizzlies
3. Sacramento Kings
4. Phoenix Suns
5. Los Angeles Clippers
6. Dallas Mavericks
7. Golden State Warriors
8. Utah Jazz
9. Minnesota Timberwolves
10. New Orleans Pelicans

If the season ended today we’d have the Warriors vs. Jazz and Timberwolves vs. Pelicans to open the Play-In Tournament. The winner of Timberwolves vs. Jazz would get the No. 7 seed. The loser would play the winner of the Timberwolves vs. Pelicans for the No. 8 seed.

That means our first-round playoff series would be some:

• No. 1 Denver Nuggets vs. No. 8 Warriors/Jazz/Timberwolves/Pelicans
• No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies vs. No. 7 Warriors/Jazz
• No. 3 Sacramento Kings vs. No. 6 Dallas Mavericks
• No. 4 Phoenix Suns vs. No. 5 Los Angeles Clippers

The bottom half of the West contains some flawed teams but overall there is a lot more potential upside. Luka Doncic has already shown he can win a series by himself and Kyrie Irving is a chaos agent. The Timberwolves and Pelicans are minorly dangerous but become dramatically more so if Karl-Anthony Towns and Zion Williamson are healthy. The Warriors are scary in a single-game elimination and only slightly less so in a seven-game series. The Clippers have looked the part of a contender when Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are both healthy.

And of course, this current group doesn’t even include the Lakers and Trail Blazers who are currently in 11th and 12th place, respectively. If they are able to sneak into the Play-In, LeBron James and Damian Lillard are as powerful a wild card as there is and they certainly have the potential to pull off a first-round upset.

All that is to say, if you’re one of those people who worries about the declining importance of the regular season, the Western Conference should make you feel a lot better.

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