Race for Ping Pong Balls

[Blue_and_Whte]

Really hope the league would discretely reward the teams that are trying to stay competitive as opposed to the ones that are blatantly tanking.

Dare I say, with how the Magic have been playing lately compared to other tanking teams, we’ve been doing it with grace, maybe better odds of picking at the top.

I’d be upset if OKC won with how they’ve been tanking.

What? I hope the league is not giving teams wink/back door deals. That’s awful.

[basketballRob]

Zion's out now possibly for the year, so Chicago may catch them.

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[drsd]

Zion's out now possibly for the year, so Chicago may catch them.

Worst possible sequence of last night's results for the Bulls pick.

Pelicans lost
Bulls won
Sacramento lost

A bit of the silver lining; the Bulls win coupled to the Magic loss means Orlando cannot catch the Bulls (or Toronto).
i.e. Orlando cannot slot as the 7th worst team.

..

[drsd]

Today's tankathon pull:
Orlando 2
Chicago 10


....

Orlando sits tied at #4/#5/#6 with Cleveland and OKC
Orlando is a 1 game better than #3 Minnesota
Orlando can no longer slot at 7 !!!


Chicago sits at #8
Chicago is a 1 game better than #7 Toronto
Chicago is 1 game worse than #9 Sacramento
Chicago is 3 games out of a play-in slot
(Any combination of 2 for Washington wins or Chicago losses and the Bulls is out of the play-ins)


The computers have the Magic finishing in a 5-way tied for 2/3/4/5/6 and the Bulls at 8.

[RookieStar]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

[Wingy]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

Rest easy, those days are over. Lavine came back, covid gave his ankle time to heal, and he isn’t showing significant rust.

We just beat @Charlotte (w/o Bridges, Graham, Hayward) & Boston (w/o Brown/Time Lord) pretty easily, and the team for the first time since the trade looks like it’s starting to gel.

We’ll probably win 3 of 5 remaining I’d guess. One vs Pistons, Raptors, and then one upset of Nets (2 games) or Bucks (last game of year, maybe resting depending on 2 seed status).

I like that the team looks better, and it’s promising for next year, but I wish we could’ve optimized our ping pong balls this year even if that meant giving Orlando 7.

Now we may be in that sweet spot giving you a decent pick while moving farther away from the likelihood of jumping into the top 4.

Hopefully anti-tanker karma works for us all.

Curious...how bad would it hurt to defer the Bulls pick til next year if you won the lottery and got #1 with your own?

[basketballRob]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

I think they'll probably end up 9th, since Zion is out now. That'll give them about a 20% chance of getting into the top 4.

If they end up 8th, they'll have around 25% chance at a top 4.

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[RookieStar]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

Rest easy, those days are over. Lavine came back, covid gave his ankle time to heal, and he isn’t showing significant rust.

We just beat @Charlotte (w/o Bridges, Graham, Hayward) & Boston (w/o Brown/Time Lord) pretty easily, and the team for the first time since the trade looks like it’s starting to gel.

We’ll probably win 3 of 5 remaining I’d guess. One vs Pistons, Raptors, and then one upset of Nets (2 games) or Bucks (last game of year, maybe resting depending on 2 seed status).

I like that the team looks better, and it’s promising for next year, but I wish we could’ve optimized our ping pong balls this year even if that meant giving Orlando 7.

Now we may be in that sweet spot giving you a decent pick while moving farther away from the likelihood of jumping into the top 4.

Hopefully anti-tanker karma works for us all.

Curious...how bad would it hurt to defer the Bulls pick til next year if you won the lottery and got #1 with your own?

Thats all we want..a sure lotto pick this year.

As to your question, it would hurt if the pick will be next year.. I mean even as early as 2 seasons ago a lot of basketball junkies were already talking about this draft class. This draft from top to bottom is loaded. Next year... not so much. You got Chet and Paulo... Bates could be 2 years down... the rest? unknowns...

We are hurting for scoring wings and your pick is juat right where those top guys are projected at.

[thelead]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

Nope. They've won 2 in a row and blowouts at that. They going to try (and fail) to catch Washington.

[drsd]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

Mathematically the Bulls cannot catch Orlando and cannot go worse than 7th.


..

[Wingy]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

Nope. They've won 2 in a row and blowouts at that. They going to try (and fail) to catch Washington.

It’s incredibly doubtful either way, but I’d say it’s more likely we catch the Pacers than the Wiz. Maybe the drama w/coach Nate will sink Indy? Their W vs the Hawks Thursday was their first quality win in the last 14 games.

[basketballRob]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

Nope. They've won 2 in a row and blowouts at that. They going to try (and fail) to catch Washington.

It’s incredibly doubtful either way, but I’d say it’s more likely we catch the Pacers than the Wiz. Maybe the drama w/coach Nate will sink Indy? Their W vs the Hawks Thursday was their first quality win in the last 14 games.

It'll be interesting to see how the Bulls perform next week. They had 2 consecutive days off last week, plus Vuc and Lavine had rest. They have 5 games in 8 days starting tomorrow.

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[DiplomaticMagic]

Curious...how bad would it hurt to defer the Bulls pick til next year if you won the lottery and got #1 with your own?

10 times out of 10, i will gladly sacrifice the Bulls pick to win the #1 pick this year.

[Wingy]

Curious...how bad would it hurt to defer the Bulls pick til next year if you won the lottery and got #1 with your own?

10 times out of 10, i will gladly sacrifice the Bulls pick to win the #1 pick this year.

It’s a literally impossible proposition (to guarantee 1), but I thought it was an interesting philosophical question.

There are definitely some nightmare scenarios for the Magic. I just did a tankathon pull where it was Tor, Sac, Chi, OKC - which pushed Orlando’s pick down to 9. I’ve got nothing against the Magic, so do not wish to experience that sort of schadenfreude. I’m old enough that I was starting to really be a fan back when Scott Skiles 30 assist game happened...so I know there has been a lot of disappointment for the fan base over the years.

I of course would love to jump into the top 4, but wouldn’t mind Orlando doing so as well over the crazy blatant tankers (eg - Houston, Det, OKC, Cavs). I’m not convinced these guys are superstars on the order of KD, prime Penny, Giannis types...but the top 4 have really high all star potential if they can reach it. They make the lottery pretty exciting this year.

[Rainwater]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

I am not scared at all. I hope they finish 7th. I doubt it falls in the top 4 regardless of the odds.

[RookieStar]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

I am not scared at all. I hope they finishes 7th. I doubt it falls in the top 4 regardless of the odds it does.

Well...have you been a MAgic fan for long? Trust me, you always expect the worst possible scenario for us coming true lol

[RookieStar]

Is anyone else but me scared that the suckier the bulls get the higher chanve they can leap over the leading tankers to secure a top4 pick?

Mathematically the Bulls cannot catch Orlando and cannot go worse than 7th.


..

OH Im not afraid nor caring that the Bulls catch us or not. What I am afraid of is that the Bulls somehow land top-4 this draft and thus we say bye-bye to it this year and say hello to a probably 20ish draft pick in a weaker draft next year.

[basketballRob]

Plumlee, Grant, and Joseph back for the Pistons tonight. Embiid is out, because they played last night.

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[RookieStar]

Plumlee, Grant, and Joseph back for the Pistons tonight. Embiid is out, because they played last night.

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AND may they get lucky and win one

[Message Boar]

Embiid's played a little bit (looks like limited minutes, though). Dwight with a decent performance in relief.

Oh well, I wasn't really expecting a Pistons win anyway.