Opinion: With lost games, NBA could be heading toward competitive fairness issue

The Washington Wizards had six games postponed from Jan. 13-22 due to the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.

When they returned to play after nearly two weeks off and just one practice, the Wizards lost to San Antonio, Houston and New Orleans by a combined 57 points.

The results weren’t surprising, and the situation is hardly fair.

Is the NBA headed for a competitive fairness issue this season? The league is cognizant of the potential problem and understands there is a cost to playing during a pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 400,000 people in the U.S., including lives dear to the NBA family.

No one figured this would be a perfect season.

The league is trying to mitigate that cost but won’t know the full scope of what it is facing in terms of making up games until the end of the first half of the season next month. 

Jimmy Butler has missed 10 consecutive games in the NBA's pandemic protocols, meaning most of his contributions have been helping teammates like KZ Okpala (4). (Photo: The Associated Press)

The Wizards aren’t the only team battered by the pandemic-related and injury issues.

The Miami Heat, the defending Eastern Conference champions, are 6-11, in 13th place in the conference (but just three games out of sixth place) and have won three of their past 10 games. Injuries and health and safety protocols have  depleted the Heat.

The Heat have had just one game postponed but they have played several games with a limited roster, missing Jimmy Butler (12 games), Tyler Herro (7 games), Moe Harkless (8 games), Avery Bradley (9 games) and Meyers Leonard (14 games). Those are a few players who could help out in the win department.

Even when the Wizards returned to play on Sunday and used 10 players, their depth was shattered with Davis Bertans, Moritz Wagner, Troy Brown Jr., Ish Smith and Rui Hachimura all out due to health and safety protocols.

The Wizards didn’t stand a chance on the road against the Spurs, Rockets and Pelicans.

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The NBA has postponed 22 games in the first five weeks of the season. The Grizzlies and Wizards have had six games postponed. Multiple teams have had two games postponed.

Those games need to be played if every team is going to complete a 72-game schedule, and squeezing those games back into the schedule is a nightmare for the league’s schedule-makers.

They are searching for any gap in the schedule to make up a game, and on Wednesday the NBA announced make-up dates for three postponed games.

As it stands now the Wizards will have to play 39 games in 67 days in the second half of the season, and the scheduling becomes more difficult the more games that are postponed.

It stands to reason more games will be postponed in the first and second halves of the season, though the league aims to reduce the number of postponed games with its enhanced and evolving health and safety protocols.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was never naïve to the pitfalls.

Once the magnitude of the pandemic was revealed, the league knew it had to salvage not only the 2019-20 season but the 2020-21 season, too. Finishing this season outside of a bubble environment is proving to be more problematic than inside the bubble.

“Everything is unusual about what we’re doing,” Silver said at the start of the season, with the idea that with vaccines and a decline in COVID-19 cases, the league could  return to some kind of normalcy in 2021-22.

LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Lakers have been relatively unaffected by the pandemic, which is why they have maintained one of the top spots in the Western Conference. (Photo: Tony Dejak, AP)

In the bubble, the teams that were mentally toughest had the best chances to win. Same holds true for this season given the stringent health and safety protocols.

But there’s another factor this season that didn’t apply as much in the protection of the bubble. The quality teams that avoid COVID-19-related problems will be best suited to perform well during the regular season and playoffs.

Look at Utah, the Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers. They have been relatively unaffected and at the top of the Western Conference standings. Same for Milwaukee and Indiana in the East. Philadelphia is leading the East and managed its minor COVID-19-related issues.

Keeping the number of postponed games down and keeping players on the court will help ensure the NBA doesn't encounter an issue that calls into question the competitive fairness of the season.

The NBA needs to avoid a situation where multiple teams play less than 72 games, a team goes without several players for too many games and one or more of its best teams are short-handed in the playoffs. No one wants this season to end with a large asterisk.

Follow Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt.

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