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

In Closing:

It’s going to be a busy weekend across the board with so many positions and seeds undecided. The fact only four teams (Rockets, Celtics, Raptors, and Spurs) out of 30 know where they’ll finish the season is mind-boggling.

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

Several more positions should be locked down Friday but there will still be copious teams who won’t know where they’ll finish until the final game is played on Sunday. Although this has been an atypical season the fact not one series has been cemented is also highly unusual.

For the teams in the mid-range of the tanking ladder, this weekend will determine seeding or isolate the number of coin flips required to finalize that seeding. As of this posting that would mean four different groups being decided by heads or tails.

Of course, we’re assuming the Thunder won’t have any desire to win their game tonight versus the Jazz or Sunday versus the Clippers.

As much as Thunder Nation would prefer the Pistons and Magic to win, those scenarios are also highly unlikely. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, and Al Horford (among others) will be cheering from the sidelines for their teammates this weekend but after a tough season of losses don’t expect them to be pushing for victories. That would defeat the purpose of losing 49 (and hopefully 51) games.

It’s crazy to think about how invested the OKC Thunder was in their tanking goals and a coin could dramatically impact what position the Thunder will make their selection. For now, pull on your tanking caps and hope for the Magic specifically to surprise. And, if not – we’ll be figuring out if Sam Presti the Magician has any coin tricks in his act!