The Lottery - Tuesday, May 20th

[Invictus88]

For all those saying the culprit is Joe Dumars... Why wouldn't you blame Tom Gores over Dumars? I mean, Dumars cannot amnesty BG without Gores approval.

There isn't a need to get rid of BG if BG wasn't signed in the first place.

[MrBigShot]

Invictus is 100% correct. If anyone disagrees...they should probably go brush up on the basics of probability... (as far as the odds of winning consecutively being ridiculously small)

[NickLidstrom]

Playing Devil's advocate:
Unless you feel the lottery is rigged, in which case the odds are 1:1 that they got the #1 pick both years.

Technically it would be possible to win the Powerball jackpot two drawings in a row too and if you ran it enough times it would happen. The odds are astronomically small though and thus it would be suspicious if it ever happened.

I don't think anything crazy happened but the odds ARE extremely small that they would win the lottery twice in a row -- especially coming from 9th this year.

That line of thinking is known as the gambler's fallacy, precisely for the kind of argument you're making. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambler's_fallacy

For two independent events, the probability that both would occur is the product of both of the odds right?
Last time I checked that was extremely small.

How is that a fallacy?

I see what you're saying. I misinterpreted you to think you were suggesting that winning the lottery one year somehow lowered the probability of winning it the next year. If you're just looking for the total probability of the two events happening, that's fine.

[Bakuto]

I hope whoever Cleveland picks pulls a Steve Francis. I would die laughing.

[ImHeisenberg]

Lmao I honestly believe this is embarrassing for the league. Winning the lottery 3 times in 4 years with another top level pick is unbelievable with their level of odds. There's no other team that has been this lucky to my knowledge and it just so happens to fall upon them after Lebron leaves.
Best case scenario: they honestly believe Lebron will come back so they draft Embiid. He looks like Bennett did last year. Lebron stays in Miami. Kyrie demands out of Cleveland. And that hell hole can continue to win the lottery for the foreseeable future while we somehow end up relevant in the playoffs again under SVG. /rant.

Cleveland has won more lotteries than any other team in NBA history, they set the new record of 5, the next closest has won 3.

[ChainLink]

At least we have tons of capspace to improve in FA.

Getting into the top 3 would've been awesome, but the 8th pick wasn't likely to be a star anyways, so keeping things in perspective its not as bad as it seems right now. We had to give them a pick at some point. At least now the trade has been complete.

Vets in FA and trades were going to be the most impactful avenues to improvement anyways. So not having this pick isn't changing my outlook for next season at all.

Gores is lucky he got SVG when he did though, otherwise this situation would look really grim right now, if we had no GM, no coach, and no pick.

If you had told me a week ago that we could trade our 8th pick for SVG I would've done it, so in a way I feel like we already won our lotto, just a week early.

You're right. If we had not lucked into Smart dropping to us at 8, the player we picked would be solid, but not a star.

Right now I'm just furious at the Cavaliers always being rewarded the #1 pick. It's BS.

[Q00]

At least we have tons of capspace to improve in FA.

Getting into the top 3 would've been awesome, but the 8th pick wasn't likely to be a star anyways, so keeping things in perspective its not as bad as it seems right now. We had to give them a pick at some point. At least now the trade has been complete.

Vets in FA and trades were going to be the most impactful avenues to improvement anyways. So not having this pick isn't changing my outlook for next season at all.

Gores is lucky he got SVG when he did though, otherwise this situation would look really grim right now, if we had no GM, no coach, and no pick.

If you had told me a week ago that we could trade our 8th pick for SVG I would've done it, so in a way I feel like we already won our lotto, just a week early.

- We are going to have to overpay for anyone of value to choose to come to Detroit over most clubs.
- The draft class next year is much weaker. It would have been much more preferable to give up that pick.

- I'd be shocked if we were as bad next year as this one, meaning we likely won't have the 8th worst record and thus a worse pick to boot.

- We are a long ways from winning and need cornerstone pieces. The most cost effective (and in our case effective in general) to get those is by drafting well and developing talent.

We've been in the lotto for 4 years straight. If you can't accumulate enough cornerstones through the draft in 4 years, then maybe you don't deserve a 5th chance and should start looking to other avenues anyways.

If we didn't have capspace I would agree with needing go the cost effective route building through the draft, but when we have max capspace thats not necessary like you are making it to be. You can't just build a team entirely through the draft.

We have our cornerstone already in Drummond. Most teams don't get more than 1 young superstar to build around.

[haulerch]

For all those saying the culprit is Joe Dumars... Why wouldn't you blame Tom Gores over Dumars? I mean, Dumars cannot amnesty BG without Gores approval.

There isn't a need to get rid of BG if BG wasn't signed in the first place.

You could also say... Dumars wouldn't of crapped his pants and signed two players out of panic if the organization wouldn't have went in lockdown mode for two years under Karen Davidson. The arguments could go on and on, I don't blame Dumars here as much as I blame Gores.

[Laimbeer]

We got this fellas

And you knew this how?

[BNelley24]

Lmao I honestly believe this is embarrassing for the league. Winning the lottery 3 times in 4 years with another top level pick is unbelievable with their level of odds. There's no other team that has been this lucky to my knowledge and it just so happens to fall upon them after Lebron leaves.
Best case scenario: they honestly believe Lebron will come back so they draft Embiid. He looks like Bennett did last year. Lebron stays in Miami. Kyrie demands out of Cleveland. And that hell hole can continue to win the lottery for the foreseeable future while we somehow end up relevant in the playoffs again under SVG. /rant.

How about the Magic of the 90s

[NickLidstrom]

For all those saying the culprit is Joe Dumars... Why wouldn't you blame Tom Gores over Dumars? I mean, Dumars cannot amnesty BG without Gores approval.

There isn't a need to get rid of BG if BG wasn't signed in the first place.

You could also say... Dumars wouldn't of crapped his pants and signed two players out of panic if the organization wouldn't have went in lockdown mode for two years under Karen Davidson. The arguments could go on and on, I don't blame Dumars here as much as I blame Gores.

The fact of the matter is that Dumars made the moves, regardless of the pressure being put on him. And he didn't just fail to improve the team, he basically destroyed it while trading away a valuable future asset.

[MotorCityFanBoy]

At least we can count on Irving in FA and whoever this pick turns out to be for Cle in FA in about 5 years.

[DETermination]

Cavs are my most hated team in history of sports. Yet again they get the number 1 pick after messing up last years pick. But a few years from now we will be laughing at this as Drummond will be a superstar and the pistons will be in the playoffs.

[Invictus88]

At least we have tons of capspace to improve in FA.

Getting into the top 3 would've been awesome, but the 8th pick wasn't likely to be a star anyways, so keeping things in perspective its not as bad as it seems right now. We had to give them a pick at some point. At least now the trade has been complete.

Vets in FA and trades were going to be the most impactful avenues to improvement anyways. So not having this pick isn't changing my outlook for next season at all.

Gores is lucky he got SVG when he did though, otherwise this situation would look really grim right now, if we had no GM, no coach, and no pick.

If you had told me a week ago that we could trade our 8th pick for SVG I would've done it, so in a way I feel like we already won our lotto, just a week early.

- We are going to have to overpay for anyone of value to choose to come to Detroit over most clubs.
- The draft class next year is much weaker. It would have been much more preferable to give up that pick.

- I'd be shocked if we were as bad next year as this one, meaning we likely won't have the 8th worst record and thus a worse pick to boot.

- We are a long ways from winning and need cornerstone pieces. The most cost effective (and in our case effective in general) to get those is by drafting well and developing talent.

We've been in the lotto for 4 years straight. If you can't accumulate enough cornerstones through the draft in 4 years, then maybe you don't deserve a 5th chance.

If we didn't have capspace I would agree with needing go the cost effective route building through the draft, but when we have max capspace thats not necessary like you are making it to be. You can't just build a team entirely through the draft.

We have our cornerstone already in Drummond. Most teams don't get more than 1 young superstar to build around.

You are absolutely right that we've been terrible at drafting. This is *Undeniable*.

But that doesn't change the fact that it would have been preferable to have the pick this year over next. Or that it's better for the Pistons to build the team via drafting then by signing free agents.

[The Penguin]

Lmao I honestly believe this is embarrassing for the league. Winning the lottery 3 times in 4 years with another top level pick is unbelievable with their level of odds. There's no other team that has been this lucky to my knowledge and it just so happens to fall upon them after Lebron leaves.
Best case scenario: they honestly believe Lebron will come back so they draft Embiid. He looks like Bennett did last year. Lebron stays in Miami. Kyrie demands out of Cleveland. And that hell hole can continue to win the lottery for the foreseeable future while we somehow end up relevant in the playoffs again under SVG. /rant.

Best case scenario: they trade the #1 for Kevin Love. Kyrie refuses to sign the extension and plays on the QO. Kyrie and Love walk next summer to LA. They win the lottery again and the league gets exposed as rigging the lotto and a new system is implemented.

[HornetJail]

Wow, that's some **** luck. It's happened to us all to often, so I sympathize.

On the bright side, this opens things up for you guys to rebuild. Tank if you wish, which I honestly feel might be for the best of your team's future.

[Q00]

Statement from Stan Van on the lottery:

[kf96]

Here is maybe a little good news.
null (via [url="http://ble.ac/teamstream-"]Team Stream App from Bleacher Report[/url]) [url="http://teamstre.am/1gjGQAy"]Twitter / SHowardCooper: Just filed to ...[/url]
If Kings want to trade pick for.some veteran maybe they are stupid enought to take Josh Smith.
Lets hope so.

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

[haulerch]

There isn't a need to get rid of BG if BG wasn't signed in the first place.

You could also say... Dumars wouldn't of crapped his pants and signed two players out of panic if the organization wouldn't have went in lockdown mode for two years under Karen Davidson. The arguments could go on and on, I don't blame Dumars here as much as I blame Gores.

The fact of the matter is that Dumars made the moves, regardless of the pressure being put on him. And he didn't just fail to improve the team, he basically destroyed it while trading away a valuable future asset.

We wouldn't of lost that asset had Gores agreed to pay BG to go away. I'm not defending Dumars because he was horrible, but IMO this is Gores fault more than Joe D... Plus, Gores could have just cleaned house coming in and not let Dumars CONTINUE to screw this up.

[BangerBrotha]

I am so glad you guys didn't get the pick. Another big piece with Drummond would have been terror for the rest of the Eastern Conference Teams.