Race to the bottom: Who's our biggest competition?

[DetroitSho]

They released the second half of the schedule and the very end (month of May) is our easiest stretch of the year.

Charlotte
Orlando
Charlotte
Memphis
Philly
Chicago
Minny
Denver
Miami

Those last two games against Denver and Miami will likely be rest mode for teams having already cemented their spots in the playoffs. I have a feeling our position is really going to come down to those last 9 games there.

I disagree, I think both teams will either be fighting for the playoffs (Miami) or fighting to avoid a certain opponent (Denver) in the first round. As it stands with the definite exception of Minnesota and the possible exception of Orlando each game should have playoff implications from the opponent.

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[ducler]

Great win for the Cavs at Philadelphia, puts up at least a 4 wins separation between us and every bottom team but Rockets (2) who need to win some right now. Wood should be back after the All Star break, that will help them secure a couple of wins before they trade Oladipo.

Wolves seem very desperated, I'm not sure we can catch them.

[tmorgan]

If we finish second worst to the Wolves, I hope the lottery mojo craps on them. They don’t deserve a top pick yet again.

[Pharaoh]

Wolves are the perfect example of what to avoid as a organisation.

Change FOs, change coaches, lotto bound forever despite it all...

Never forget they had KG for years, somehow acquired Jimmy Butler, had Thibs as coach (who's done wonders in NY) yet consistently they're a bottom 5 team in the league!

There's something wrong there and no one wants to ask the question

We should be thankful for what we have now. Been a long time coming

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[bstein14]

Washington is now 7-3 in their last 10 and they're currently tied with the Hawks for 11th in the East. Cleveland has also recently bounced back with 3 straight wins. Starting to feel like we have no equals in the East. The good news is with the 9/10 play in games everyone but us is within reach and still hopeful of making the playoffs. The longer it stays that way the better it is for us. Some of those teams might even be buyers at the deadline to make a playoff push.

We just need to stay the course and keep playing the young guys and we'll be fine. Winning one out of every 3 or 4 games on average along the way we should still finish worst in the East.

[DetroitSho]

Washington is now 7-3 in their last 10 and they're currently tied with the Hawks for 11th in the East. Cleveland has also recently bounced back with 3 straight wins. Starting to feel like we have no equals in the East. The good news is with the 9/10 play in games everyone but us is within reach and still hopeful of making the playoffs. The longer it stays that way the better it is for us. Some of those teams might even be buyers at the deadline to make a playoff push.

We just need to stay the course and keep playing the young guys and we'll be fine. Winning one out of every 3 or 4 games on average along the way we should still finish worst in the East.

Nah man, we should be looking at draft prospects in the 12-15 range.

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[Manocad]

Washington is now 7-3 in their last 10 and they're currently tied with the Hawks for 11th in the East. Cleveland has also recently bounced back with 3 straight wins. Starting to feel like we have no equals in the East. The good news is with the 9/10 play in games everyone but us is within reach and still hopeful of making the playoffs. The longer it stays that way the better it is for us. Some of those teams might even be buyers at the deadline to make a playoff push.

We just need to stay the course and keep playing the young guys and we'll be fine. Winning one out of every 3 or 4 games on average along the way we should still finish worst in the East.

Nah man, we should be looking at draft prospects in the 12-15 range.

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The teams sitting at 12-15 right now have 14, 15, 15, and 16 wins. If you consider probability and extrapolate that for the full 66-game season you'd get 28-32 wins. For the Pistons to even get to 28 wins they'd have to go 19-14 in the second half. That's not very realistic.

[Kilo]

Houston, Minnesota and Orlando. Houston and Minnesota have every incentive to tank out. Orlando is just bad like Detroit. Houston though mostly just needs to get healthy. Wall, Oladipo, Gordon, Wood is good enough to win games.

[DBC10]

Washington is now 7-3 in their last 10 and they're currently tied with the Hawks for 11th in the East. Cleveland has also recently bounced back with 3 straight wins. Starting to feel like we have no equals in the East. The good news is with the 9/10 play in games everyone but us is within reach and still hopeful of making the playoffs. The longer it stays that way the better it is for us. Some of those teams might even be buyers at the deadline to make a playoff push.

We just need to stay the course and keep playing the young guys and we'll be fine. Winning one out of every 3 or 4 games on average along the way we should still finish worst in the East.

This, we lost plenty of depth and or guys coming off of hot streaks recently enough that the young guys despite their youthful vigor, won't carry us to close victories. They might keep it competitive but 4th quarter execution is a different ball game, which I expect a lot of fumbles and mistakes that'll solidify more L's than W's more often than not

[DetroitSho]

Washington is now 7-3 in their last 10 and they're currently tied with the Hawks for 11th in the East. Cleveland has also recently bounced back with 3 straight wins. Starting to feel like we have no equals in the East. The good news is with the 9/10 play in games everyone but us is within reach and still hopeful of making the playoffs. The longer it stays that way the better it is for us. Some of those teams might even be buyers at the deadline to make a playoff push.

We just need to stay the course and keep playing the young guys and we'll be fine. Winning one out of every 3 or 4 games on average along the way we should still finish worst in the East.

Nah man, we should be looking at draft prospects in the 12-15 range.

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The teams sitting at 12-15 right now have 14, 15, 15, and 16 wins. If you consider probability and extrapolate that for the full 66-game season you'd get 28-32 wins. For the Pistons to even get to 28 wins they'd have to go 19-14 in the second half. That's not very realistic.

But but but something something, meaningless wins to end the season that ruins the tank, something something.

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[zeebneeb]

If we finish second worst to the Wolves, I hope the lottery mojo craps on them. They don’t deserve a top pick yet again.

Got a question for you. How many teams ever, have had two #1 picks playing at the same time, and still have the worst record in the league? I honestly don't know.

The Wolves are a brutal organization. What's next? 3 #1 picks playing at the same time with the worst record in the league?

[chrbal]

If we finish second worst to the Wolves, I hope the lottery mojo craps on them. They don’t deserve a top pick yet again.

Got a question for you. How many teams ever, have had two #1 picks playing at the same time, and still have the worst record in the league? I honestly don't know.

The Wolves are a brutal organization. What's next? 3 #1 picks playing at the same time with the worst record in the league?

Timberwolves had to be close with Wiggins and Bennett

[DBC10]

If we finish second worst to the Wolves, I hope the lottery mojo craps on them. They don’t deserve a top pick yet again.

Got a question for you. How many teams ever, have had two #1 picks playing at the same time, and still have the worst record in the league? I honestly don't know.

The Wolves are a brutal organization. What's next? 3 #1 picks playing at the same time with the worst record in the league?

I mean this is the same organization and ownership group that chose Rubio and Flynn who are both PGs over Steph Curry. It wouldn't surprise me at all

That organization is among the worst in terms of how out of touch and careless the ownership is of the franchise. It's a top bottom problem

[The Moose]

Rockets lose their 11th game in a row (by 50 points)!
Twolves gonna timberwolf, they've been gifted 1st pick after 1st pick and cant do anything.

They are our biggest competition, followed by the Cavs/Magic/Kings

[ducler]

Kings with the very clutch loss BTW

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[ducler]

No Siakam, VanVleet, Anunoby for Raptors against us for tonight's game. Hope we rest Grant so we'll have a chance to lose.

[vege]

Twolves gonna timberwolf, they've been gifted 1st pick after 1st pick and cant do anything.

Who cares about them, they'll select the wrong guy with the #1 pick anyways

[Betarayjigs]

I think that Minnesota has too many good players to not go at least on a short winning run or 2. Not really worried about the Cavs but Houston is a concern.

[Piston Pete]

Houston will be fine as soon as Wood returns to the lineup

[Snakebites]

Houston will be fine as soon as Wood returns to the lineup

I dunno man. Is Wood really a good enough player to allow a team to go from losing 12 straight to being a viable playoff threat?

I know some are bigger fans of him than I am, but I can't imagine many place his value that high. There's not many guys who carry that value. They were around .500 before that streak but portions of that were with Harden.

On paper Dipo/Wood with what's still a halfway decent stable of veteran players around them shouldn't be among the worst teams, but they might still be pretty bad.

The Rockets still could be a threat. We haven't seen enough of their new core yet to know.

Cavs could play their way back into the mix. The Wolves will most likely stay behind us.

I do predict another better stretch from us at some point- I think our schedule from here on out is too easy for that not to happen eventually. The question is will that hurt us and by how much. I'm still hoping for bottom 3 but wouldn't be overly upset about 4/5 in terms of lottery position. The goal is obviously a top 3 pick but as stated before there's no way to give us better than coin-toss odds for that.