The Detroit Pistons are almost assuredly not making the playoffs this season. If the team doesn’t close out the NBA lottery with a top four pick, it also loses its first round pick to the Los Angeles Clippers. There are roughly 10 teams ahead of the Pistons in the race for the top pick. In other words, the Pistons need a miracle.
The Detroit Pistons are in desperate need of a miracle.
At 30-37, the Pistons are currently 5.5 games back from the eight seed in the Eastern Conference with only 15 games left in the season.
That gives the Pistons less than a one percent chance of making the playoffs according to fivethirtyeight.com.
Even worse, due to the Blake Griffin trade, the Pistons are in danger of losing its first round pick this season.
In fact, if the Pistons do not finish the NBA lottery with a top-4 pick, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
Even worse, there are currently 10 teams with a worse record than the Pistons.
Realistically, the Pistons can “move up” in the lottery standings only three places, ahead of the Charlotte Hornets, New York Knicks, and Chicago Bulls. Even those odds could be considered a bit of a stretch.
It would take almost a total winless stretch the rest of the way for the Pistons to catch up with any other team.
The point is, the Pistons are firmly out of the playoff race, and it is almost a certainty that they do not finish with one of the top four worst records in the NBA heading into lottery night.
That means that the Pistons are going to need a miracle one way or the other to salvage any reasons for optimism.
Let’s hope that’s what the team gets. It could certainly use a break with the way things have went for the team over the last two seasons.