I Think I Am Aboard The Tank Train Now

[Phantom255x]

Even right now being 7-7 and just outside the play-in picture as the 11 seed, we're #14 in the draft slot on Tankathon. There's actually a lot of terrible teams this year, including a few unexpected ones like Dallas and LAC who have also dealt with some bad injury luck.

Unless White or Jaylen go down with a significant injury and we hover around .500 our best bet is probably a pick in the 8-14 range, and even the higher end of that relies on some luck

You don?t think we?re due for some luck? AJ Dybansta is destined to be a Celtic.

I wish 

[rocknrollforyoursoul]

As much as I'd like for them to get a high draft pick, it's not happening unless Brown suffers a significant injury or Brad pulls off a crazy trade, the former being much more likely to happen.

[tenn_smoothie]

Let me make sure I understand - To guarantee a lottery spot, the Celts would have to finish outside the top 10 in the East. Correct ?

If we finished 9th or 10th and lost our play-in, would we be placed in the lottery ?
Are the teams with the worst records still given the most ping-pong balls respectively ?

[tenn_smoothie]

Even right now being 7-7 and just outside the play-in picture as the 11 seed, we're #14 in the draft slot on Tankathon. There's actually a lot of terrible teams this year, including a few unexpected ones like Dallas and LAC who have also dealt with some bad injury luck.

Unless White or Jaylen go down with a significant injury and we hover around .500 our best bet is probably a pick in the 8-14 range, and even the higher end of that relies on some luck

You don?t think we?re due for some luck? AJ Dybansta is destined to be a Celtic.

Feels like our luck ran out after the '86 title.
The greatest team of all time followed by years of one devastating misfortune after another.
Even when we have managed to break through and win a title, the door gets slammed shut the very next season with season-ending injuries to our best player.

[Kernewek]

Let me make sure I understand - To guarantee a lottery spot, the Celts would have to finish outside the top 10 in the East. Correct ?

If we finished 9th or 10th and lost our play-in, would we be placed in the lottery ?
Are the teams with the worst records still given the most ping-pong balls respectively ?

That's correct: the teams that lose the play-in are placed in the lottery, and teams with the worst records are given better odds via more ping-pong balls, like so:

Each team will be assigned the following odds for teams starting with the reverse order of regular season record. The default odds are as follows:
Team 1: 14.0%
Team 2: 14.0%
Team 3: 14.0%
Team 4: 12.5%
Team 5: 10.5%
Team 6: 9.0%
Team 7: 7.5%
Team 8: 6.0%
Team 9: 4.5%
Team 10: 3.0%
Team 11: 2.0%
Team 12: 1.5%
Team 13: 1.0%
Team 14: 0.5%
Note: The above odds are the default odds should no team finish with an identical record. When teams finish with the same regular season record, tie-breaking procedures are enacted which can slightly shift the odds.

https://www.nba.com/news/nba-draft-lottery-explainer

[keevsnick]

One reason I'm not down with a tank is just the way the league is shaking out makes it harder. There are 9 teams right now with 4 or fewer wins, and that doesn't even include Utah who is going to do everything they can to stay in the bottom eight and not give up their first round pick this year. That's ten teams who right now look pretty hard to out tank, the #11 odds in the lottery come with just a 9.4% chance of moving up into the top 4. If that's what you're looking at then I'd rather just win, partly just because I like the players on the team and want them to do well.

[Celtics4ever]

We don't have a great roster, but our guys are not going to play soft or tank.  Many of us want to get a good draft pick, I don't think the players or Joe Mazulla got that memo, folks.

[slamtheking]

We don't have a great roster, but our guys are not going to play soft or tank.  Many of us want to get a good draft pick, I don't think the players or Joe Mazulla got that memo, folks.

expecting the team to do poorly such that it results in a better draft pick doesn't prevent someone for rooting for wins anyway.  I'm in that boat.   I love to see the players do well and still get aggravated by bad play and dumb mistakes but I've adjusted my expectations for this year to anticipate them missing even the play-in spots just because they lack proven depth and good big men that can defend and rebound.  Q's been far better than expected but he can't play 48 minutes every night.