Bullets Forever Community Bulletin Board

SB Nation Reacts: Fans believe coronavirus will affect the NBA, but the Wizards are too bad for even that to matter

In other words, there is little confidence in the Washington Wizards right now.

By Albert Lee@aleeinthedmv Jan 11, 2021, 4:00pm EST

Miami Heat v Washington Wizards — Rui Hachimura and the Washington Wizards are on tough times.

Last week, when SB Nation Reacts put out a survey on national questions related to the coronavirus pandemic, I already gave my answers: As a whole, COVID-19 will affect the NBA. The national results are in, and here are the screenshots.

Most people believe home court advantage is gone without fans

Nearly 70 percent believe that fan-less (or in some places, nearly fan-less) arenas make every game a more neutral environment when teams are playing.

The overwhelming majority of fans believe the NBA’s coronavirus contact tracing protocols are fair

Nearly nine in ten respondents (89 percent) believe that the NBA’s contact tracing process is fair. This is despite the fact that many NBA stars including Houston Rockets guard John Wall and our own Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal have been labeled as close contacts in recent weeks. It can hurt teams in the short run if stars have to sit out games due to quarantine or to contracting COVID-19. But we gotta get through this dark winter first and the vaccines soon after that.

Most NBA fans believe that contact tracing will affect the NBA season

I already mentioned that Beal is under coronavirus contact tracing protocols in the previous point, so as Wizards fans, we know that the season has been affected by his absence, at least from a roster perspective.

One in Four Wizards fans are confident in the team’s direction

When a team was 2-5 on the date of the last survey (January 6), I wasn’t surprised to see some bump in confidence from the Dec. 30 survey where only 16 percent of fans were confident in the team.

But when only 25 percent were confident in the team last week before a recent three-game losing streak, Beal’s coronavirus scare, Thomas Bryant’s ACL tear AND Westbrook’s injury news, I would think that that fans’ confidence will drop once more.

Their injuries could make the Wizards bad enough to the point where they’d lose games anyway, pandemic or no pandemic...

So an I confident in the Wizards’ direction? Given how they’re playing and the modest expectations that we had for them, HELL NO! I’M STILL IN PANIC MODE RIGHT NOW!

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