Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On this week’s show (Feb. 1, 2018), Neil, Chris and Kyle break down the recent rash of significant injuries to key players on the Washington Wizards, Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder. John Wall and Kevin Love suffered injuries that will sideline them for at least several weeks, and DeMarcus Cousins and Andre Roberson are out for the remainder of the season. How will these losses affect each team and the playoff forecast? We take a look. Next, we talk about the Los Angeles Clippers’ decision to trade star Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons, and speculate about how Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy might use the power forward.
Here are links to what we discussed this week:
- ESPN reported that the Wizards’ John Wall’s knee surgery would have him out at least two months.
- The Pelicans’ Boogie Cousins will be out for the rest of the season with a torn Achilles.
- Meanwhile, the Cavaliers’ Kevin Love will miss six to eight weeks with a hand fracture.
- And the Thunder’s Andre Roberson is done for the year with a ruptured patellar tendon.
- Chris Herring calls the Pistons’ trade for Griffin a desperate move that may backfire.