Today is the day. The day a franchise’s future is forever changed because they are the lucky one chosen to have the opportunity to draft Victor Wembanyama No. 1 overall. It could even be the Detroit Pistons! The odds are certainly not in their favor, but, hey, it’s gotta be somebody. Why not Detroit?
The NBA Draft Lottery will be held at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday on ESPN. The Lottery is being held in Chicago, and several Pistons reporters are on hand to cover the big event. The Pistons will be represented by franchise star and Hall of Famer Ben Wallace. The last time Ben Wallace represented the Pistons at the lottery, they did get the No. 1 overall pick. I wouldn’t be opposed to it happening all over again.
The Lottery will determine picks 1-4 with every other team falling in place based on record. The actual lottery balls are not team logos but instead a number. Each team is assigned a series of four number combinations based on their record. That is where the lottery percentages are derived from.
As a refresher of the lottery odds … well, they’re not great for anyone. And that includes the league-worst Detroit Pistons. They have a 14% chance to land the No. 1 pick with 140 potential combinations. The Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs have the same odds, courtesy of having the second- and third-worst records, respectively.
The Pistons will then have a 13.4% chance of picking second, a 12.7% chance of picking third, a 12% chance of picking fourth and a 47.9% chance of picking fifth. No. 5 is the lowest they can fall.
The candidates for the 2-5 pick range pretty wildly, and we will provide NBA Draft coverage of a wide variety of candidates unless the Pistons land No. 1 and then it’s Victor and Only Victor. Sorry, content gods, but you understand.
Picks 2-5 could be any one of Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller, Amen Thompson, Ausuar Thompson, Jarace Walker, Cam Whitmore, Anthony Black, Taylor Hendricks, or Cason Wallace.
Some folks have Henderson in his own tier, Thompson in his own tier, and Miller in his own tier. Some people say they’re all overrated with serious flaws in their games. I say we’ll figure it out and have fun arguing about it in the meantime.
Finally, every year I manage to only limit myself to one Tankathon spin per year. I mean, if you spin it enough times, you’ll get your desired results so what is the point? When you ONLY do it once???? Well, some people believe in fate and some don’t.
Here we go …
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Uhhh, yikes. Good thing Ben Wallace is there and not me.