JasonStern wrote:From what I've read, the Blazers have the 14th pick regardless. Memphis could be locked out of both the lottery and playoffs if they play poorly.
It says the 14 lottery teams are the teams that are eliminated from the playoffs and in inverse order of their 3/11 record. This means Blazers pick 14 if they are eliminated from playoffs. If Blazers make the playoffs, our draft order is the inverse order of the 16 teams in the playoffs. This puts us behind the 14 lottery teams and 2 teams in the east likely to have worse record. So, Blazers pick 17th if they make the playoffs.