OKC Thunder: 26 seeds up in air in wild finish to season – Tank wars 5.0

Detroit Pistons (20-50)

Another team likely to capture one of the coveted bottom three spots for the NBA Draft Lottery on June 22nd is the Detroit Pistons.

Aside from the Rockets the Pistons have the second-fewest wins with 20. Detroit will close out the season with a match on Friday versus the Nuggets and on Sunday versus the Heat.

Both of their opponents are invested in winning because it could affect their final playoff seeding. That could change depending on what occurs in the games on Friday.

Although the Pistons have recently been winning once every three or four games it makes no sense they would risk losing that coveted bottom three slot with just two games remaining.

Although it’s only a 1.5 percent difference between the bottom three and the fourth position the implications of finishing outside the bottom three is the odds increase of them getting a later pick.

For example, the top three teams are essentially guaranteed one of the top five, six, or seventh picks respectively. However, the fourth-seeded team could end up with the eighth pick. That’s a pretty major variable.