Rocket's Lottery Pick: Rockets are guaranteed to at worst the six pick so long as they lose one of their remaining three games against Brooklyn, Toronto, or Atlanta - seems pretty certain. Orlando seems likely to lose its next three games against Cle, Cha, Mia (unless Mia clinches and pulls all its starters to rest them). The Rockets are unlikey to pass Orlando and so the Rockets will either have a 10% chance to get the 6th pick if they tie Orlando, or a 20% chance for the 6th pick if they have more wins than Orlando, with a less likely chance for the 5th pick. Brooklyn's Pick: Brooklyn can still get the 7th or 8th seed which is important as it means they get two chances to win one game, and that will likely lead us to getting the 17th pick. To make Brooklyn at risk of missing the playoffs, you need to make them play two games they have to win. This means both Cle and Atl have to finish higher them, which is very possible if three things happen. Cle beats Orlando Atlanta beats Toronto And Houston beats Brooklyn (or any other Brooklyn loss to NY, Cle, Indiana). If Brooklyn were to miss the playoffs, we'd likely get a 14th pick instead of the 17th pick, and Houston winning Tuesday greatly increases the odds of this outcome. So it begs the question, would you take a slightly bigger risk you end up with the 6th pick vs the 5th pick (none of the top 4 would change) in exchange for a much better chance of getting the 14th pick instead of the 17th pick?
**** yea go for it and beat the Net’s ass! It will be a huge confidence booster for our young guys and our young core. And I don’t want KD in the playoffs lol
At this point, it's more so about keeping Brooklyn out of 8th seed than just beating them. Keeping Brooklyn out of the 8th seed means they must win 2 consecutive games to make the playoffs, as opposed to winning just one game. In a hypothetical situation that Brooklyn is guaranteed to be 9th seed, Rockets have no incentives to beat them because pushing them down to 10th seed really isn't going to change anything. However, as long as Brooklyn has a shot at the 8th seed, Rockets will want to beat them.
Beating the Nets is less about getting the 13/14th pick and more about having a 3% chance at another top pick. If the season ended today, there would be a coin flip between Hou and Orl, and we would still have a 50% chance of losing it. We might as well try to beat the Nets and hope for a miracle!
5th and 6th pick aren't that much different this year. unless some GM goes rogue and selects Shaedon Sharpe
Beating the Nets won’t matter. No way are they losing the play-in games, and the league probably wants them in the postseason.
They have recently lost to Charlotte and Atlanta with both their stars, and the Cavs will most likely have Allen and Mobley back by the playin. So those would not be two easy games. Even if you give them a 70% chance of winning any one game, it becomes a coin flip if they have to win two.
As if the rockets have a choice to beat them lmao 2-6 incoming. Rockets will get demolished. Naive folks like OP acting like there’s some kind of choice LOL Net are spotting 19 pts as favorite and someone wants to ask do you want to beat the nets. Hahahahah
Is the Nets pick only based on their regular season record? I thought it was including playoffs? So no matter their regular season records, if they go to the second round we will pick in the 20s, right?
I would want to play Cleveland if I were Brooklyn. Hawks showed how scary they could be last year and Cleveland is relatively unproven without LBJ and Kyrie has some unfinished business with Cleveland. Nash is pretty bad at coaching. A normal coach would have at them at 7th easily.
