What to watch for in NBA season's final 10 days

The NBA’s 2021-22 regular season will wrap up on April 10, which means we now have just 10 days left in the season. Here are a few things worth keeping an eye on during those 10 days.

Play-in races and playoff positioning

Eastern Conference

You could make a case that the Eastern Conference playoff race would be more exciting without the addition of the play-in, since three teams — the Nets, Hawks and Hornets — are now tied at 40-37 for the No. 8 seed. But that race is still a fascinating one, since the team that finished the season at No. 8 will get two chances to win one game in order to earn a playoff spot — the No. 9 and No. 10 teams would have to win twice to make the playoffs.

The No. 7 Cavaliers, who have slipped 2.5 games behind the No. 6 Raptors, now appear headed for the play-in after spending most of the season in the top six. The Cavs, losers of five of their last six games, have been slumping so badly that we shouldn’t necessarily pencil them in for a home game yet — at 42-35, they only has a two-game cushion on the next three play-in teams and could be caught within the next 10 days.

Further up the Eastern Conference standings, there are plenty of tight seeding races involving the likes of the Heat, Bucks, Celtics and Sixers. Close races in the bottom half of the playoff/play-in field mean that it’s been hard for those top teams to determine whether it makes more sense to push for a top seed or to angle for a lower seed.

Important intra-conference games:

• 4/2: Heat at Bulls, Nets at Hawks
• 4/3: Heat at Raptors, Sixers at Cavaliers
• 4/5: Bucks at Bulls, Hawks at Raptors, Hornets at Heat
• 4/6: Celtics at Bulls
• 4/7: Celtics at Bucks, Sixers at Raptors
• 4/8: Cavaliers at Nets, Hawks at Heat, Hornets at Bulls
• 4/10: Bucks at Cavaliers

Western Conference

Over in the West, all eyes are on the 31-45 Lakers, who are currently tied with the Spurs for the final play-in spot and would lose out on a tiebreaker if they don’t pass San Antonio in the standings. Frankly, the Lakers have been so bad this season that it’s hard to imagine them advancing to the playoffs even if they do clinch a play-in spot, but finishing outside of the top 10 would be a further indignity for a team that entered the season as a title favorite. L.A. hopes to get some reinforcements on Friday in the form of stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The Timberwolves have a pretty safe hold on the No. 7 spot, while the Clippers are virtually locked into No. 8 and the Pelicans have a bit of breathing room at No. 9, so there may not be a ton of drama elsewhere in the Western play-in picture.

A pair of tight seeding races are ongoing in the top six though — the Mavericks and Warriors (both 48-29) are tied for the No. 3 seed, while the Jazz and Nuggets (both 46-31) are tied for No. 5. Dallas and Utah control those respective tiebreakers.

Important intra-conference games:

• 4/1: Pelicans at Lakers, Timberwolves at Nuggets
• 4/2: Jazz at Warriors
• 4/3: Nuggets at Lakers, Pelicans at Clippers
• 4/5: Grizzlies at Jazz, Lakers at Suns, Spurs at Nuggets
• 4/7: Grizzlies at Nuggets, Lakers at Warriors, Spurs at Timberwolves
• 4/9: Pelicans at Grizzlies, Warriors at Spurs
• 4/10: Lakers at Nuggets, Spurs at Mavericks, Warriors at Pelicans

Lottery positioning and traded draft picks

There are important races happening at both ends of the standings as the season winds down. At the bottom, the Magic and Rockets (both 20-57) are tied for the top spot in the lottery, with the Pistons (21-56) and Thunder (22-54) rounding out the top four.

The full reverse standings can be viewed right here, while the lottery odds for each team in the top 14 can be found here.

Additionally, a handful of traded draft picks remain up for grabs as the season winds down. For instance, the Cavaliers will trade their first-round pick to the Pacers if it’s not in the top 14 — in other words, if they can’t clinch a playoff spot in the play-in, the Cavs will hang onto that pick.

The Pelicans‘ first-rounder is another one worth watching closely. It’ll stay with New Orleans if it’s in the top four, go to Portland if it’s between 5-14, and go to Charlotte if it’s between 15-30. So the Hornets will be rooting for the Pelicans to earn a playoff spot via the play-in, moving that pick out of the lottery. If the Pels miss the playoffs, the Trail Blazers will be in position to receive the pick as long as New Orleans doesn’t get lucky in the lottery.

Finally, the Lakers‘ first-rounder will be a major prize this spring for either the Pelicans (if it lands between 1-10) or the Grizzlies (if it’s between 11-30). Los Angeles is currently tied for the NBA’s eighth-worst record, which bodes very well for New Orleans, but there’s still time for that to change.

Award races

Often at this time of year, a number of NBA award races have long been decided, with just one or two still up in the air. In 2021-22, it’s the opposite.

Yeah, we can probably safely assume that Tyler Herro will win Rookie of the Year, and Ja Morant looks like a clear favorite for Most Improved Player.

But there’s no clear front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year; Scottie Barnes is putting pressure on Evan Mobley in the Rookie of the Year race; Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo remain engaged in an electrifying three-way race for MVP honors; and All-NBA voting looks like a nightmare (one with major implications for several super-max candidates).

Even though there are only 10 days left in the regular season, given how close these races are, the performances in those final 10 days could legitimately flip certain awards from one player to another.

Roster moves

With just 10 days left in the season, this year’s period of standard 10-day contracts is essentially over. A team filling its final open roster spot will sign a player to a rest-of-season or multiyear deal at this point, rather than a 10-day pact.

The one exception is 10-day hardship deals, which can still be completed during the final week-and-a-half of a season by teams dealing with COVID-19 cases or several injuries.

Why wouldn’t those hardship contracts just take the form of rest-of-season deals, too? Well, this way, teams can’t gain certain offseason rights to more players than the standard roster limits allow. A rest-of-season contract would give the club a player’s Bird, Early Bird or Non-Bird rights for the offseason, whereas a 10-day deal won’t.

Here are the teams that still have an open roster spot with 10 days left in the season:

• Atlanta Hawks
• Boston Celtics *
• Detroit Pistons *
• Indiana Pacers *
• Milwaukee Bucks
• Minnesota Timberwolves
• Orlando Magic *
• Sacramento Kings ^
• Utah Jazz *

* The Celtics, Pistons, Pacers, Magic, and Jazz each have a player on a 10-day contract filling their 15th roster spots. Those deals will expire before the season ends.

^ The Kings have a full 15-man roster but have an open two-way spot.