The Hornets passed the Wizards in the standings without even being invited to the bubble

The Washington Wizards’ inclusion in the NBA’s restart bubble always felt like a stretch. The Wizards were 24-40 overall when the league was shutdown over coronavirus concerns, sitting 5.5 games behind the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference at the time of the hiatus. That just narrowly fit within the guidelines for making the bubble, which invited any team that was less than six games behind the final playoff seed in their conference.

To say Washington was going to face long odds in the bubble is putting it lightly. The Wizards were without their three best players coming into the restart because of injury or opt-out: John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Davis Bertans. After three games, it’s going about as poorly as you’d expect.

The Wizards are 0-4 in the bubble despite putting up some respectable efforts in defeat. Hilariously, Washington has now dropped behind the Charlotte Hornets who weren’t even invited to the bubble in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Wizards are likely going to fall behind the Chicago Bulls, too. Washington’s final four games are against the Pelicans, Thunder, Bucks, and Celtics. At that point, the Wiz can finally start their offseason, which honestly should have happened five months ago.

There’s more bad news for Washington: their lottery odds are locked at what they were before the restart even after the additional losses. The Wizards will enter the lottery with the ninth-best odds for getting the No. 1 pick despite having the eighth-worst record at the moment:

Last year, the Grizzlies had the eighth-best odds entering the lottery and came away with the No. 2 pick and Ja Morant. Wiz fans are going to be pretty upset if that happens again!

It will all be over soon enough for the Wizards. It just feels cruel they even have to go through this.