NBA’s WORST NIGHTMARE Became Reality

Lamelo Ball drives to the basket but gets tripped up and falls on his right hand. Although he would continue to play, doing almost everything on the court exclusively with his left, after the game, the diagnosis came out to be a season ending fracture, confirming the worst fears for the Hornets franchise. Lamelo is the latest high profile player to get injured and miss a significant portion of the season after Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, and Lebron James of course. Let me explain how this changes the landscape for awards such as rookie of the year, MVP and Most improved player as well, and why this is the nightmare scenario for the NBA. What up everybody my name is Stefan and this is Heat Check. Let’s get into it. Let’s start off with the MVP situation. The Lebron James media mafia kept mentioning him, and building his case and pushing the narrative for the king as a serious candidate, even though there are a lot of players just as deserving if not more than him this season. The campaign grew even stronger after Joel Embiid got injured. Completely disregarding players like Jokic who is averaging a damn near triple double double, all that while being within 3 games of Lebron’s Lakers. Or Damian Lillard, who has been holding this Blazers team with duct tape from falling apart, after injuries to both Nurkic and CJ Mccollum at the start of the season. Also with the same record as the Nuggets. And I have to mention the reigning MVP Giannis, who’s been on fire lately, leading the Bucks to 11 wins in their last 12 games. So now the plot thickens. I cannot remember the last time that the MVP race has been this wide open. And all these injuries could have huge implications. For example the next few games for the Lakers are looking scary. Even the Magic look like the favorites against this remaining LA roster. By the time Lebron gets back, how far will they fall in the standings? One important thing to keep an eye on in this whole situation however is the fact that James has a miraculous track record when it comes to ankle injuries. Throughout his career, there have been 8 times where he injured his ankle. And he missed a grand total of only 3 games before this one. So I don’t know, the fact that he was able to at least play a bit more after the injury, and given the situation that the Lakers are in, I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets back on the court sooner rather than later, and with that continue his pursuit for the MVP. And the latest news on Embiid from the always reliable Chams Charania is that Joel is feeling much better than expected in these first few days from his injury. So he might also push to come back in a sixers uniform. But the people at the NBA offices are sort of biting their nails watching this, as they definitely wouldn’t want their superstars to rush things and get back too early to a point where they possibly re-aggravate their injuries just in time for the playoffs- when it matters the most of course. So although Adam Silver and company are happy that a lot of players are performing at a high level and the race for the most valuable player is competitive, the injuries of the elite such as Bron, AD and Joel are making things extremely scary for them. The thought of a conference finals between the Jazz and the Nuggets for example is suicidal for the TV ratings. As much as a basketball purist like me would love that to happen. And they’ll never admit this, but having the Lakers be in it at the end, is what the league wants and needs. And for that to happen, both Lebron and Anthony Davis have to be healthy come playoff time. With all that being said however, there is a real possibility that these top 2 MVP candidates miss a lot of time in the regular season, and the award to be won by another player as a partial consequence of the injuries. Which leads us to the Rookie of the year debate where if everything stays the same, it’s almost definitive that Anthony Edwards is now the favorite to win it, solely as a result of this new situation and the injury that Lamelo suffered. Check this out. They have been neck and neck when it comes to scoring throughout the entire season, however Ball has been outstanding with his 6 assists per game, helping get Charlotte in the playoff picture, when nobody could even dream about it happening. So there was no doubt up until this point who’s been the best rookie. However, missing almost half of the remaining season, removes a player from the conversation almost by default. Guys like Tyrese Halliburton who I really love, and Immanuel Quickley who I’ve already made a video about are now all of a sudden also in the Rookie of the year debate, alongside James Wiseman. But again, if you give truth serum to some of the lead guys in the NBA offices, they’ll admit that the ideal scenario would be for a flashy guy like Lamelo to win it, all while transforming a losing franchise into a playoff team.