Hold on tight, we’re almost at the end of the 2026 NBA season. And while fans of lottery teams have mostly checked out, their teams are still finding ways to grab headlines, mainly through how they’re losing.
With the NCAA Final Four tipping off this weekend, the incentive to tank for the next wave of NBA stars is only getting stronger.
Should the Grizzlies Relocate?
It’s not just me suggesting it. NBA superstars with far greater cachet are.
It began with Jayson Tatum, who noted that in his nine-year career, he’s already accomplished enough to conceivably earn a jersey retirement and even a statue outside the arena, if those same achievements had come with a franchise like the Memphis Grizzlies instead of the Boston Celtics. He was really illustrating how difficult it is to attain “legend” status within a franchise so deeply steeped in winning, but in doing so, he inadvertently spotlighted Memphis’ relative lack of it.
“The career I have right now if I had it with the Grizzlies, I would have a statue outside the arena right now”— Jayson Tatum on the pressure of living up the the legends who played for Boston ?(Via @thepivot) pic.twitter.com/AsvqfVcpbo
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) January 27, 2026The most recent broadside aimed at Memphis came from the King himself, LeBron James. In a YouTube golf video, LeBron didn’t mince words:
“I’m not like the first guy even talking about [Memphis] in the NBA,” he said. “You guys have to move. Just go over to Nashville. You got Vanderbilt over there. You got NASCAR. You got a stadium… Their only chance [of getting me] was in 2003 if they would have won the lottery. And I might have pulled an Eli Manning and not showed up.”
It’s undeniably cutting, but it echoes a sentiment that has circulated among NBA players for years. The Grizzlies have been in Memphis since 2001 and have reached the Conference Finals just once. Now, they appear to be closing yet another underwhelming chapter after dealing away Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr. within the past year.
With expansion looming and the league continuing to grow, the question becomes more pressing: can Memphis realistically sustain another rebuild if elite talent remains disinclined to play there?
© Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn ImagesAre the Pacers Losing Sight of the Mission?
The Indiana Pacers are riding a two-game win streak. This is a team that had won just one of its last 19 games, yet suddenly, they’ve strung together back-to-back wins over the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls. On the surface, it feels insignificant, when you’ve barely won all season, what difference could two games really make? That’s where you’d be wrong.
Those two wins have already shifted their trajectory. The Pacers now sit as the third-worst team in the league, having been leapfrogged in lottery positioning by the Washington Wizards and the Brooklyn Nets. It’s a precarious spot to be in. Even though they share identical lottery odds with the teams just ahead of them, slipping any further, to fifth, for example, could be disastrous.
The 2026 NBA Draft Lottery will arguably be the most important long-term moment in franchise history for the Pacers.Indiana has a 52.1% chance of keeping their pick. If they fall to No. 5, the Clippers receive it from the Ivica Zubac trade.A healthy Tyrese Haliburton… pic.twitter.com/vDD7tt9EbD
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) March 31, 2026That’s because at the trade deadline, Indiana dealt away its first-round pick—top-four protected—to the Los Angeles Clippers in exchange for Ivica Zubac. There exists a best-case scenario where the Pacers retain Zubac and land a top-four selection in what’s widely considered a loaded draft class. But there’s an equally real possibility on the other end, where all this losing yields nothing of value.
Which is why this sudden burst of winning, as good as it feels in the moment, carries a certain irony. Because for this team, too much success right now might be the very thing that undermines everything they’ve been positioning for.
Come back to this tweet if this win is the reason the Pacers fall to 5 and lose and their pick pic.twitter.com/ufDEtegfdH
— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) April 2, 2026 @ Rhona Wise-Imagn ImagesAre NBA Players Excited to Play the Wizards?
Since the NBA All-Star break, the Washington Wizards have played 23 games—and what’s unfolded defensively is getting very hard to ignore. In that span, 11 different players have recorded 30+ point performances against them. Six of those were more than 35, two eclipsed 40, and we all recall the Bam one that crossed 80.
That’s not just a bad stretch, that’s a pattern. And it has been the entire season, with Washington allowing the second-most points in the entire league.
After Bam Adebayo’s insane 83-point game, the rest of the NBA seemed to take notice. At that point, it became open season. The Wizards, deep in a rebuild, have been resting their top defensive pieces to avoid stacking wins, and in doing so, they’ve made themselves uniquely vulnerable.
That vulnerability was on full display again last night, when the Philadelphia 76ers dropped 153 points in a win over Washington. Paul George turned back the clock with a near-40-point performance on an absurd 68% shooting from the field. As a team, the Sixers shot 62%, and honestly, they might be frustrated it wasn’t even higher.
on fire ? pic.twitter.com/7Qi70uUsh7
— Philadelphia 76ers (@sixers) April 2, 2026As Brian Windhorst put it:
“Right now, if you’re an offensive player in the NBA and you see a game with the Wizards, you see a chance to set records.”
Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is a habit. And right now, the Wizards are forming a dangerous one.
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