Chicago Bulls (19-36)

#FireGarPax

That’s it. That’s the focus for the remainder of the season.

Of course, to do that you have to make Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf care one single iota about his basketball team. That shouldn’t be too hard…..

Detroit Pistons (19-38)

Detroit – finally – know what their focus should be.

In trading Andre Drummond and releasing Reggie Jackson, they’re focusing on their young but wholly untested talent.

Detroit still have Derrick Rose to lean on (assuming Blake Griffin doesn’t return) in pressure situations. They have an excellent coach in Dwayne Casey. The youngsters couldn’t ask for a better chance to prove themselves.

Players like Christian Wood, Luke Kennard, Bruce Brown, Thon Maker, Svi Mykhailiuk and Khyri Thomas should all be looking at this next 8 weeks as an extended NBA audition.

Cleveland Cavaliers (14-40)

The Cavs need a lot – too much to find a single focus for the past couple of months of a regular season. So let’s examine a single, underlying issue that the team should focus on: culture. This team needs a culture reset from top to bottom.

Dan Gilbert is clearly a very smart man, and an incredibly successful businessman. However his basketball decision making has consistently hurt his franchise. He needs to take a step back. That may allow the team to attract a more credentialed GM than Koby Altman, or at least let Altman spread his wings a little. The Cavs have made their change on the sidelines, consciously uncoupling from John Beilein.

The last space where a culture reset is required is on court. Cleveland have assembled a team of score first guards, have a non creative holdover star in Kevin Love, and a new centrepiece in Andre Drummond that isn’t exactly known for his play making. Altman – or a GM to be named – need to decide what type of team they want to build (I really hope that their current make up of remorseless gunners isn’t anything like their ideal squad) and make moves towards that aim.

Southeast Division

Miami Heat (35-19 record)

Miami will be looking to get their trade deadline imports integrated before the playoffs start. The headliner is Andre Iguodala. His situation is complicated by his time in self imposed exile and his advanced age. Having said that, boxscore numbers are not what the Heat brought him here for. For Iggy, it’s getting back up to the speed of the game, sharpening those legendary defensive instincts, and finding his spot within the offense.

For Jae Crowder, the situation is different. He’s not as liquid as Iggy. Crowder’s game is ALL CAPS LOUD! He’ll play hard physical defense, drive fearlessly to the bucket, and take 3’s in big moments. In that sense, he’s an Op-shop Jimmy Butler. Crowder has started unsustainably hot in Miami, but if he can give the Heat solid minutes, allowing them to rest Butler, he’ll have done his regular season job.

Orlando Magic (24-31)

Given Orlando’s apparent aim is to finish 8th and suffer a plucky 1st round exit from here to eternity, they’re absolutely right on track. Again.

They should be focusing on the future, but we know they’re not, so let’s not waste our energy here.

Washington Wizards (20-23)

Sure, the Wizards are only 3 games behind the utterly uninspiring Magic for the 8th seed in the East, but they have the 4th hardest remaining schedule according to Tankathon (Orlando have the 3rd easiest), they should probably shelve any thoughts of a late push.

Instead, the focus should fall to season 2020/21. John Wall will be back and even if he’s not nearly the player he was, he’ll be a damn sight better than what’s passed for a point guard in DC this season. Bradley Beal is a legitimate star. Davis Bertans is the perfect offensive high end role player. Rui Hachimura just oozes potential. They have relatively young complementary pieces in place.

The Wizards are not nearly as far away as this season might suggest.

Charlotte Hornets (18-36)

Charlotte have made great strides in cementing some sort of future, by turning over the bulk of their minutes to players aged 25 and under this season. They doubled down in buying out Marvin Williams and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Charlotte are on the right track, although they do need to decide where their youngsters fit in the grand scheme of things. Is Devonte’ Graham a starter or an upper echelon back up? What, exactly, is Malik Monk? Is Cody Zeller worth keeping around, or cashing in on?

Atlanta Hawks (15-41)

The Hawks have their superstar in Trae Young – the emphasis on everything they now do is how that correlates with Young. Do you need wing talent? Draft Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter and Cam Reddish. Does Young need a competent back up? Bring in Jeff Teague. Do you need size? Go get Clint Capela and Dewayne Dedmon.

The equation for Atlanta is simple: find the best array of talent that fits around Young’s singular strengths.

Western Conference

Pacific Division

Los Angeles Lakers (41-12 record)

The Lakers hold a comfortable lead of 4 games over the chasing pack. The goal for Frank Vogel and his staff is to keep his stars fit and firing for the play-offs. To that end, LeBron James is playing a career low 34.9 minutes per game, with Anthony Davis clocking in at 34.7 – the lowest since his rookie campaign. Look for Vogel to try to get more rest for his superstars as the season winds down.

With the news that Reggie Jackson is joining the Clippers after his Pistons buyout is finalised, the Lakers are still disturbingly thin. Picking up a playmaker through the buyout market is still imperative for this club.

LA Clippers (37-18)

The Clippers are deep. They can play in just about any shape imaginable thanks to both the depth of their talent, and the pliability of that talent. Their buyout acquisition of Reggie Jackson certainly adds to that talent pool, but the fit is questionable at best. Jackson is a low efficiency gunner who doesn’t play defense. They already have a better version of him on the roster in Lou Williams.

This also further complicates the late season edict for coach Doc Rivers: pare down his rotation to a solid 8 or 9 players, in preparation for the play-offs.

The Clippers are coasting through the regular season, so maybe Jackson helps them in that regard, but I don’t see his usefulness come play-off time.