Category archive: Minnesota Timberwolves
The NBA regular season ended Thursday night. While most of the attention is rightfully directed toward the 16 teams that made the playoffs, Thursday night also had some interesting implications for the NBA draft lottery.
Wins Thursday night by the Kings and Raptors cost both teams some lottery chances, and losses helped the Hornets, Cavs, Kings and Nets.
The NBA held a drawing on Friday to determine tiebreakers between the Hornets and Cavs, the Kings and Nets, the Warriors and Raptors, the Knicks and Mavs, the Clippers and Hawks, the Lakers and Grizzlies, and the Bulls and Spurs.
The results are as follows:
• Cleveland (21-45) won a tiebreaker with New Orleans.
• Sacramento (22-44) won a tiebreaker with New Jersey.
• Golden State (23-43) won a tiebreaker with Toronto.
• New York (36-30) won a tiebreaker with Dallas, and Dallas won a tiebreaker with Utah.
• L.A. Clippers (40-26) won a tiebreaker with Atlanta.
• L.A. Lakers (41-25) won a tiebreaker with Memphis.
• Chicago (50-16) won a tiebreaker with San Antonio.
Of the tiebreakers, the one with the biggest impact was between the Warriors and Raptors. The Warriors won the coin toss, upping their chances significantly that they will have the seventh pick in the draft (72 percent) and will therefore retain their pick. If they had lost the toss, they likely would have drafted eighth (everything is still contingent on the lottery) and would have had to turn their pick over to the Jazz due to a previous trade agreement.
Final odds for the draft lottery were set, as well. You can play at the different scenarios on our Lottery Mock Draft simulator. But here's a quick look at where the 14 lottery teams stand.
Charlotte Bobcats (7-59)
25% chance of winning the lottery
Not much has gone right for the Bobcats in the Michael Jordan era. The Bobcats' .106 winning percentage will live in infamy for a long time. Their only solace? This team desperately needs a star and currently has the best odds of any team in the NBA of landing him. If the Bobcats can win the lottery and land Anthony Davis, they will quickly get back on track. If they don't? It could be a long road of ugly.
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David Thorpe
David Thorpe is an NBA analyst for ESPN.com's Scouts Inc. and the executive director of the Pro Training Center in Clearwater, Fla., where he oversees the player development program for NBA and college players. David has trained Kevin Martin, Corey Brewer, Omri Casspi, Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas, Yi Jianlian, Courtney Lee, Kyrylo Fesenko, Earl Clark, Jrue Holiday, DeJuan Blair and others.
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