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

[The Moose]

3 down 2 to go

[Snakebites]

2 games vs playoff teams left.

Do they have anything to play for? The Heat look like they still have a shot at the 5th seed, they may want that. The Nuggets? Not sure it matters whether they're 4th or 3rd from their perspective.

Weird season. Who had Utah and Phoenix finishing as the top 2 seeds in the West this year?

[bstein14]

I guess the good news is, even if we win 1 of our last two games we're still tied for 2nd worst record. It's just a matter of how many teams are tied for 2nd worst at 21 wins.
2/3 tie or a 2/3/4 tie or a 2/3/4/5 tie

So at this point, still being able to win one game and finish tied for 2nd worst record is a pretty good buffer for us to have.

[The Moose]

2 games vs playoff teams left.

Do they have anything to play for? The Heat look like they still have a shot at the 5th seed, they may want that. The Nuggets? Not sure it matters whether they're 4th or 3rd from their perspective.

Weird season. Who had Utah and Phoenix finishing as the top 2 seeds in the West this year?

Miami's last game is almost certainly going to be important, Denver game has a chance to be meaningless plus its a back to back for them, but if we run the lineup we have the last 2 games, I think we should be fine against both teams even if they are resting

[El Chivo]

we can't give up, Denver and Miami will be in b2b and we need to lose both games.

Cleveland, Orlando, Oklahoma City won't win another game.

[Collymore]

This is as close as it gets. Casey have to gather the worst writers available and prepare a reverse Pacino Any Given Sunday speech to completely suck the air out of the locker room before the last two games. Bring in Kuester if necessary. It's all hands on deck now.

[kpt]

I don’t really want to put this out there but.... how do the tie breakers work for the lottery?

[chrbal]

we can't give up, Denver and Miami will be in b2b and we need to lose both games.

Cleveland, Orlando, Oklahoma City won't win another game.

Heat, Hawks and Knicks are all tied. Heat may still have something to play for.

Denver is 4th and a game back of 3rd. So who knows there.

But you are right about those 3

[DetroitSho]

Y'all keep bringing up other teams' "nothing to play for" rotations, but how much clear does it have to get that our nothing to play for rotation is just flat out going to lose regardless?

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

[Manocad]

I don’t really want to put this out there but.... how do the tie breakers work for the lottery?

Tied teams get the average of the odds at each potential draft position.

[Manocad]

I guess the good news is, even if we win 1 of our last two games we're still tied for 2nd worst record. It's just a matter of how many teams are tied for 2nd worst at 21 wins.
2/3 tie or a 2/3/4 tie or a 2/3/4/5 tie

So at this point, still being able to win one game and finish tied for 2nd worst record is a pretty good buffer for us to have.

Orlando, Cleveland and OKC are going to finish with 21 wins; unless something crazy happens they're not winning another game given their remaining opponents. If the Pistons win one more to get to 21 wins they're likely tied with Orl/Cle/OKC, meaning the Pistons would be at equal odds with Orl/Cle/OKC to fall as far as 9th. I much rather like the idea of losing two games and falling no further than 6th, plus not having the odds for getting a top 3 pick reduced due to getting the average of the odds for positions 2-5 in the 4-way tie at 21 wins scenario.

These last two games won't take a lot of work to lose, thus ensuring the Pistons lose won't take much effort. They just need to do it.

[theBigLip]

Need the 2nd slot for sure. It's not just about odds for the #1 pick, but also limits us as to how far we can fall if we don't win the lottery.

[440BB]

Although a number of posters here were claiming Casey would be the biggest problem in the race to the bottom, I believe he has been very effective at balancing losing with development and chemistry. Losing the last two games will bear that out.

We may still have the lottery screw us again, but it won't be for a lack of effort on our part.

[NYPiston]

Y'all keep bringing up other teams' "nothing to play for rotations, but how much clear does it have to get that our nothing to play for rotation is just flat out going to lose regardless?

Sent from my SM-N975U using RealGM mobile app

Because there's a better chance of them losing to those teams if they're more motivated to win.
Yeah the Pistons will probably lose regardless but why not root for Denver and Miami to have something to play for in those games to make it an easier potential loss.

[zeebneeb]

All I know is that if the Pistons win one of the last few games, my mind will be blown. Weaver has to of made it really clear to everyone by now that winning is not an option at this point.

If the Pistons end up with pick #6 so be it, but man do I want a punchers chance at a top 2 pick.

[Manocad]

All I know is that if the Pistons win one of the last few games, my mind will be blown. Weaver has to of made it really clear to everyone by now that winning is not an option at this point.

If the Pistons end up with pick #6 so be it, but man do I want a punchers chance at a top 2 pick.

Not few--two. Which speaks even more to your point. It's TWO GAMES. JUST EFFING LOSE 'EM.

[zeebneeb]

All I know is that if the Pistons win one of the last few games, my mind will be blown. Weaver has to of made it really clear to everyone by now that winning is not an option at this point.

If the Pistons end up with pick #6 so be it, but man do I want a punchers chance at a top 2 pick.

Not few--two. Which speaks even more to your point. It's TWO GAMES. JUST EFFING LOSE 'EM.

It's excruciating. Two damn games between a guaranteed top 6 pick, and a potential nightmare scenario.

Goosfraba.

[Snakebites]

The back to back thing is all that makes me nervous, truthfully, and even that doesn't concern me too much.

We should have no business beating either of those teams. It looks like the Heat will be playing for something on the last day. I don't think they're in play-in danger but hopefully they'll be fighting for the fourth seed.

If Jokic and others are sitting for the Nuggets...well, that'll just make me sad.

It seems like we're on this path right now though- I don't EXPECT us to win either game. The biggest worry now is the ping pong balls themselves- nothing to be done about that.

None of our opponents have any lotto-bound teams (unless you count the Cavs vs Wizards, which you shouldn't because the Wizards are likely a play-in team) to play against. So I doubt we're getting any more help from them.

2 and 3 are not all that different for me (as the worst case scenarios, 6th and 7th, are roughly equivalent and the top 4 odds are identical), but at this point the odds of ending up in sole possession of the third spot are pretty much nil.

[Sort]

Weaver has been running a clinic on tanking, so I can't imagine he's going to blow it now. I could see Denver playing only its scrubs though in that last game, making it hard.

The only problem with this strategy is that the young guys clearly are beat and deserve a break. I mean watching Josh Jackson get nine turnovers even in a game Pistons are trying to lose is just painful.

[chrbal]

We have like 9 healthy players, devidis is our current 8th or 9th man, we play Hayes OR Joseph never both...I think we’ve got this.