Post#751 » by kingcong95 » Sat May 15, 2021 8:57 pm
Alright, so the Wolves got blown out again today, which leaves the lottery standings as follows:
3. OKC 21-50
4. ORL 21-50
5. MIN 22-49
6. CLE 22-49
Here's where things get interesting tomorrow well after our game is finished.
The Wolves host the Mavs, who need to win to clinch the 5 seed. They'll probably lose that one.
The Magic are at the Sixers, who have clinched the top seed and have nothing to play for.
The Cavs are at the Nets, who may have the 2 seed clinched tonight if the Bucks lose to the Heat (which they might prefer to do if a loss means they get the Knicks in the first round instead).
The Thunder host the Clippers, who threw their game to the Rockets last night.
The Nuggets and Clippers are tied for 3 seed, but the 4 seed might have the advantage of not facing the Lakers until the conference finals. Blazers will be desperate to win because it's the only way to bail themselves out of the play in.
With so many teams not incentivized to try to win tomorrow, the fairly realistic best case scenario for the Wolves pick odds is a three way tie for #3 where OKC, ORL, MIN each finish 22-50 while CLE finishes 23-49. Detroit at 2 is out of reach since they can't finish with more than 21 wins, and they're hosting Miami who need to beat them.
What happens in this case is that a random drawing will be conducted to break the tie for 3-4-5. Let's say that the result is MIN 3, OKC 4, ORL 5. This determines the default order going into the lottery itself. And the order would be reversed for the second round: ORL 33, OKC 34, MIN 35 (to OKC). That would be our ideal scenario for everything leading up to the lottery itself: only a 62% chance to get the pick at all, but only a tiny chance to drop even as low as 7, with 6 being the most likely outcome, and also minimizing the pick we traded away for Oubre.