Philadelphia 76ers fans should be hoping for a Lakers win Thursday night in order to help draft chances.
There are four games on Thursday night’s NBA slate including our beloved Philadelphia 76ers versus the Atlanta Hawks at the Wells Fargo Center Monday at 7:00 PM. One game that I will be watching closely will be the Los Angeles Lakers vs the Sacramento Kings. Both of these teams play a major part in our rebuilding process based on how well (or should I say how poorly) they do this regular season.
The 76ers own the Lakers first round pick this year as long as it does not land in the top three picks via the Michael Carter-Williams trade. Though anything can happen in the NBA Lottery, I feel it is important to have the best odds possible. The more the Lakers win, the better our odds are of obtaining that pick this year. If the ping pong balls go our way for once we could have two top prospects in the 2016 NBA Draft including LSU’s forward Ben Simmons, Duke’s small forward Brandon Ingram, Providence’s point guard Kris Dunn, California’s small forward Jaylen Brown and International big man Dragan Bender. The Lakers are currently the 2nd worst team in the league. Their odds of landing a top three pick are currently at 55.8%.
The good news is that entering tonight’s games the Lakers are only two and a half games behind the Brooklyn Nets, four games behind the New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns and five games behind the Denver Nuggets. The Nets and Suns lost key players for the season in Jarrett Jack and Eric Bledsoe respectively. The Pelicans are underachieving this season so I can see them blowing it up at the trade deadline to get a better draft pick. The Timberwolves are trying to learn how to win with their two number one overall picks from the last two drafts in Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns.
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The Nuggets are a bad team combined with getting hit with the injury bug lately to key players such as Emmanuel Mudiay, Kenneth Faried and Danilo Gallinari. The Lakers chances of being in the top three decreases to 46.9% if they finish 3rd worse, 37.8% if 4th worse, 29.1% if 5th worse and 21.5% if 6th worse. It’s tough for me to want the Lakers to win games (I am a Laker hater) but if it helps out our 76ers, so be it.
The 76ers have the option to swap first round picks with the Kings thanks to the Nik Stauskas trade/salary cap dump. Because of this, the odds that the 76ers landing the number one pick will increase the lower the Kings sink in the standings. They are currently the 10th worst team in the league which gives them a 1.1% chance of landing in the number one pick. Since we have the right to swap picks with them that increases our chances to 26.1% which is the highest of any team in the lottery. Barring major injury, I do not see the Kings falling too low in the standings due to the other teams I mentioned that are below them but I am still keeping hope alive.
I hope that when I wake up tomorrow and check my NBA mobile app I see that the Lakers beat the Kings. It might only be one game in January but every game counts in the standings and we need all the help we can get to turn this team around!