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We all know this is a year we should be eyeing a bottom 3 record to give ourselves the best chance at a top 3 pick. We're already about 1/6th of the way through this 72 game season and we're currently in first place at the bottom!

Here's the current stadnings.
30. Detroit 3-9 .250
29. Washington 3-8 .273
28. Minnesota 3-8 .273
27. Toronto 4-8 .333
26. Chicago 4-8 .333
25. Miami 4-7
24. Houston 4-7
23. New Orleans 4-7

Listed above are all the teams with 3 or 4 wins currently. So who do you think is our biggest competition in our way of landing one of the 3 worst records in the league? Washington seems to have too much talent in a Westbrook and Beal backcourt to bottom out. Westbrook isn't an efficient player but he does enough to raise your floor to win at least 35% of your games, and Beal is a great scorer. Minnesota could potentially be near the bottom so they are someone to keep at eye on for sure as they also play in the more difficult West. Toronto I can't see bottoming out either they seemingly will eventually get back into the playoff hunt unless they trade away Lowry. New Orleans, Houston and Miami also already have too much talent to be as bad as us. It seems like Chicago has a decent chance of being bottom 3 with us as well.

Will Cleveland eventually fall back down to the bottom? Their young guards have been playing great. Perhaps the Knicks fall back down as they are 5-8 but have just lost 5 in a row after having a good 5-3 start. Originally a lot of people thought Charlotte would be near the bottom but they are 6-8 and Melo has been Balling for them. OKC was also considered one of our toughest tank competitors but they're currently playing at 6-6 beating all expectations and upping the trade value of the guys that other teams wanted to get rid of.

I think Washington will come to realization that their best course of action is to trade Beal. At which point, their primary motivation would become looking toward the future and won't be concerned with trying to win games.

I think Minnesota will be a threat to challenge for the worst record. They have a lot of young talents, but they don't seem to mesh together all that well. IMO, they aren't coached all that great either.

I think Toronto rebounds, and eventually gets in the playoff race.

I think Chicago will start to gel down the line a bit. The lack of offseason, really hamstrung team's bringing in new coaches. Eventually I think Donovan gets them on the proper path, and they won't be bottom of the barrel.

I don't think any of Miami/Houston/New Orleans will be in this discussion a month from now.

IMO, OKC/NY/Cleveland are all candidates to be in this mix by season's end.

The Knicks will be competition eventually. They’ve taken a nosedive after that surprise start.

I think the bottom 5 in any order will be

1. Detroit
2. Knicks
3. Timberwolves
4. Rockets
5. Cavs

I think NOLA, Miami, and event TOR are going to be out of the 2021 sweepstakes by the next several weeks. They're too talented not to

Minnesota is bad though and with Towns testing positive for Covid means they'll be even worse. They're arguably our biggest competition right now and in the next month or so

With Covid being a factor, I wouldn't be surprised to see an otherwise decent team fall into the bottom few. We've already seen a number of season ending injuries across the league too.

I would have considered Cleveland a candidate for the bottom but with the trade they have a quality young center and Drummond will play better for a while with real competition.

Pistons, Knicks, Timberwolves and OKC are my likely competition for the bottom, in no particular order.

1.)Casey

2.)Covid

3.)Injuries(to other teams players)

Top 3 pick or bust this year for me personally.

I expect Wash, Miami, and NOLA to find their way out of the race. Minny too if KAT comes back. I think the perception of Toronto is that they're the same team from the past 2 seasons and they're really not. Chicago blows. Houston and OKC are the ones actively tanking (from a front office point of view). I think if OKC is still playing .500 ball by the deadline, theyll sell to make sure they bottom out.

New York and Chicago both winning early games today against playoff teams in Boston and Dallas. Great to see, since many here seem to think both NY and Chicago are real threats to be bottom 3 teams this year.

zeebneeb wrote:1.)Casey

2.)Covid

3.)Injuries(to other teams players)

Top 3 pick or bust this year for me personally.

No matter how bad we are we will never have better than a 40% chance at a top 3 pick.

I know they had decent starts to the season but the Knicks, Cavs and Bulls scare me. The Wolves are pretty awful (that was a big tank loss to start the season).

I think the Wizards will jump up the standings a bit eventually unless they trade Beal which, based on how upset with the team has been publicly, seems like a good possibility sadly. The Magic are horrendous now but I don't think are a strong contender for bottom 5 when all is said and done. The Rockets with Wall, Oladipo and Wood are too good or should I say, not nearly bad enough.

Essentially, I think it's still the same cluster of 5 that was projected to be at the bottom of the league when the season started. Pistons, Knicks, Cavs, Bulls and Wolves. Of course, Covid is the big wild card in all of this. Pistons need to trade Rose not only because I honestly think he could fetch a 1st but because he's good for at least several wins they shouldn't get. Keeping him past the deadline would be the ultimate fail and would make no freaking sense.

Today was a good day with the Knicks and Bulls beating contenders on the road. It offsets the Pistons win over the Heat.

Cleveland's guard play has been really good, and they also just got Allen and Prince who will both help them as well. I can't see us being better than Cleveland this year. Okoro also is going to help them more than Hayes will help us. I think they are probably good enough to be in the 9 or 10 seed in the East to get into the win and in playoff games.

Bottom 3 record

I would include Sacramento in there too - I know they have a good rookie point guard but they stink.

ByeByeDre wrote:I would include Sacramento in there too - I know they have a good rookie point guard but they stink.

Yeah thought I read theyre actually historically bad defensively

Snakebites wrote:

zeebneeb wrote:1.)Casey

2.)Covid

3.)Injuries(to other teams players)

Top 3 pick or bust this year for me personally.

No matter how bad we are we will never have better than a 40% chance at a top 3 pick.

I get it, but its all about the backend being no lower then 5 with the worst record.

The Pistons are DUE for a top pick.

Mentally preparing myself for the inevitable; Pistons will pick #6 overall.

1) we will either win enough meaningless games that we fall out of the top-5 ping-pong ball-wise.

Or

2) we stay top-5 for ping pong balls and we pull a Pistons and drop down in the lottery (someone jumps us).

Kings, Wolves, Wizards will always be the threats.

People talk about signing a bargain bin C - Kings got Whiteside cheap af and look how that's turned out. Lack of motor maybe?

Wolves brought in "leadership" via Rubio but not much else. One guy doesn't make much of a difference - Jimmy Butler couldn't get KAT & Wiggins to buy in but Rubio is gonna make KAT, DLo and Edwards better

Wizards always have no direction and the Westbrook trade just illustrates that point. Wall & Beal would have been a much better combo with Deni and Rui but nah they gotta make the big splashy move and hope Westbrook accepts being #2 to Beal? He didn't accept being #2 to James **** Harden ffs!

3 franchises that have consistently been just as bad as we've been for just as long and still seem to have very little idea of how to rebuild properly.

At least our guys usually play hard.
At least a lot of our kids are playing.
At least we have a real direction now.

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Piston Pete wrote:Mentally preparing myself for the inevitable; Pistons will pick #6 overall.

1) we will either win enough meaningless games that we fall out of the top-5 ping-pong ball-wise.

Or

2) we stay top-5 for ping pong balls and we pull a Pistons and drop down in the lottery (someone jumps us).

6th overall in next draft is an awesome pick

El Chivo wrote:

Piston Pete wrote:Mentally preparing myself for the inevitable; Pistons will pick #6 overall.

1) we will either win enough meaningless games that we fall out of the top-5 ping-pong ball-wise.

Or

2) we stay top-5 for ping pong balls and we pull a Pistons and drop down in the lottery (someone jumps us).

6th overall in next draft is an awesome pick

Yeah theres still alot of talent there especially with SGs