The Nets’ race to the underside of the standings — and prime of the draft lottery — has been a stride-for-stride dash towards the 76ers.
The groups are in a digital tie after the Nets’ 115-112 win over the Wizards on Saturday.
With the end line mercifully in sight, it begs the query of what’s at stake for the “‘winner,” if one can use that time period? And what occurs in the event that they tie?
The Nets have probably the most property within the June draft, 4 first-round picks and their very own second.
Although they appear more likely to make all 5 of these alternatives, the prize is their lottery decide, assured once they had been formally eradicated Thursday night time.
Brooklyn (24-51) has simply seven dates left on the schedule. They held the fifth-best odds of successful the lottery coming into Saturday.
Sitting 3 ¹/₂ video games behind No. 4 New Orleans and three ¹/₂ forward of No. 7 Toronto, the Nets are vying with sixth-place Philadelphia (23-50).
Of the 25 days from March 3-27, the Nets have spent 16 tied with the Sixers (and one other tied with Toronto).
With Philadelphia’s decide prime six-protected — thus at risk of going to Oklahoma Metropolis — the 76ers have proven single-minded dedication to tanking.
So if the Nets’ race with Philadelphia ends in a flat-footed draw on April 13, what does that imply for the lottery a month later?
In a season all in regards to the Nets positioning themselves for this generational draft, here’s a primer in regards to the new guidelines and what they imply:
The NBA doesn’t use head-to-head tiebreakers for the draft.
Within the lottery, each staff is allotted a selected variety of pingpong balls decided by their document.
The league attracts for the highest 4 picks, every staff’s odds of touchdown a kind of coveted picks determined by their variety of pingpong balls. As soon as these have been drawn, picks Nos. 5-14 are awarded by document.
If the Nets and Sixers are tied for the fifth spot, there will probably be a random drawing days after the season finale.
The winner of what basically quantities to that coin flip would decide forward of the loser, presuming neither staff jumps up into the highest 4.
The entire Nets’ and 76ers’ pingpong balls can be break up evenly, giving them nearly equivalent odds at a prime 4 decide — that “nearly” caveat vital as a result of the odd the rest of pingpong balls would go the winner of the “random drawing,” in order that staff would get a tiny edge.
Final yr, six ties acquired damaged by way of random drawings on April 22, eight days after the regular-season finale
They had been performed in Secaucus by NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell and overseen by Ernst & Younger.
If the Nets find yourself alone in fifth — as they had been coming into Saturday — they’ve a 42.1 % likelihood of touchdown someplace within the prime 4 (10.5, 10.5, 10.6 and 10.5 every). The fifth (2.2), eighth (8.7) and even ninth (0.6) spots are all lengthy photographs, with the likeliest touchdown spots being seventh (26.7) or sixth (19.6).
But when the Nets find yourself deadlocked with the Sixers, their probabilities at presumptive No. 1 decide Cooper Flagg fall barely to 9.7 %, and a prime 4 choice to 39.5 %.
The Nets even have Milwaukee’s decide — at the moment seventeenth, although the Bucks had been solely two video games from falling as a lot as 4 spots to twenty first. As of Saturday, they maintain the Knicks’ (twenty sixth) and Rockets’ (twenty seventh) alternatives, in addition to their very own second (thirty fifth).
Contemplating Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead, each 20, are youthful than a 3rd of this class, it might be troublesome to concurrently develop what quantities to seven rookies subsequent season.
And with the Nets having just one first-round decide in subsequent yr’s equally loaded draft, they may deal a decide or two by June.
However don’t anticipate their lottery decide to be one.
And in the event that they find yourself tied with the 76ers, the intrigue will begin inside per week, lengthy earlier than they get to Chicago on Could 12.
