Once again, the faithful fans of the Detroit Pistons find ourselves on our couches watching the playoffs for the second year in a row.
All we can do is anxiously await the result of the ping pong balls of the NBA Draft Lottery (to be held June 22) to determine if the tank this season was successful or not.
This has become an unfortunate tradition with the Pistons being in the lottery every season since 2010 (except for 2016 and 2019). Even more unfortunate for the city of Detroit, is the lottery luck of the entire city.
Like, do black cats live in the arena of the Red Wings and Pistons? Talk about bad luck!
The Detroit Pistons have terrible luck in the NBA Draft Lottery
There is a draft lottery in both the NHL and NBA, and the city of Detroit teams have never moved up in all 18 total attempts, five from the Red Wings and 13 from the Pistons.
For the Red Wings, they moved down two spots in 2017, one in 2018, twice in 2019, and three spots last season in 2020 (even with the worst record in the NHL) before staying the same place in this years’ lottery.
The Pistons went down one spot in 1993, 1994, 2013, 2014, stayed in place in 1995, 1998, 2001, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017, and then, of course, falling two spots last year in 2020.
When it comes to the draft lottery, many think the lottery is rigged as the whole thing is preformed behind closed doors with only a few present. While I personally don’t believe it is rigged, there have been quite a few times in which the results were quite convenient to the betterment of the league.
Just read the tea leaves.
How other NBA teams seem to get lottery luck, unlike the Detroit Pistons
There seems to be a strange coincidental undercurrent in the NBA Draft Lottery
Anthony Davis is leaving a weak franchise in New Orleans? Here, have a Zion Williamson! The Timberwolves are about to go on sale? Here is another No. 1 pick, go have an Anthony Edwards! LeBron left you Cleveland? Here is Kyrie Irving for you!
Other coincidences were the Bulls flying up on a 1.7 percent chance to get Derrick Rose, and the Cavs seemingly winning every draft lottery in a row from 2011-2014.
Those were the times in which many think the lottery was rigged actually but with no proof, there have been multiple times with legitimate proof.
Most famously is the dented and frozen envelope that gave Patrick Ewing to the Knicks in 1985, but, more recently, was when LaVar Ball said that Magic Johnson “guaranteed” him that the Lakers would have a top 3 pick. In addition to this, Dikembe Mutombo tweeted out a celebration of the 76ers winning the draft lottery many hours before the lottery was to air.
Officially this is a satirical article, but if the lottery can be rigged, here’s my case to the lottery gods, and Adam Silver to help out the Detroit Pistons.
What are the Detroit Pistons’ lottery odds?
Looking at the lottery standings, going into June 22nd, the order is as follows, #1 Houston and #3 Orlando each have a 14 percent chance at the top overall pick (along with #2 Detroit), #4 Oklahoma City and #5 Cleveland each have a 11.5 percent chance, #6 Minnesota has a 9 percent chance (pick goes to GSW unless top 3), #7 Toronto has a 7.5 percent chance, #8 Chicago (pick goes to ORL unless top 4), #9 Sacramento, and #10 New Orleans each have a 4.5 percent chance.
And then there are the long shots: #11 Charlotte has a 1.8 percent chance, #12 San Antonio 1.7 percent, #13 Indiana 1 percent, and #14 Golden State has 0.5 percent chance.
As I’m sure you all know by now, the Pistons have the following odds for each draft position: pick 1: 14%, pick 2: 13.4%, pick 3: 12.7%, pick 4: 11.9%, pick 5: 27.8%, and pick 6: 20.1%.
Every jaded Piston fan, like myself, surely did the same thing that I did and just looked straight at the 20.1 percent for pick 6 and said to themselves, “Yup, who is available at pick 6” knowing that we will inevitably be screwed and fall to pick 6.
At least Detroit can not fall back to its usual No. 7 draft position, as they can not fall back worse than sixth.
But enough with the odds, and percentages, let’s assume the lottery can be rigged and that we need to provide Commissioner Silver an explanation for why we, the Detroit Pistons, deserve the top pick in this years’ draft and get a potential franchise player and generational talent in Cade Cunningham.
The main suitors that will try and take Cade away from us will probably be the Houston Rockets.
In recent memory, the team that loses their franchise player has very conveniently won the lottery the year of/after every time, and with the Rockets trading James Harden, the league would love to keep Houston relevant and gift them Cunningham.
Houston was absolutely horrific this season and I believe they sealed their fate by choosing to take Victor Oladipo over Caris LeVert. They first traded Harden to the Nets for Caris LeVert, Dante Exum, Rodions Kurucs, four first round picks (2022, 2024, 2026 from Brooklyn and 2022 from Milwaukee), and four pick swaps (all with Brooklyn in 2021, 2023, 2025, and 2027).
After that, they further traded Oladipo to Miami for Kelly Olynyk, Avery Bradley, and the right to swap picks in 2022.
So let me summarize this for you: James Harden, one of the best players of our generation and two-time MVP was traded for cap space, pick swaps that won’t be needed most likely, and four picks likely in the 25-30 range. That pitiful of a haul should lead to the Rockets not being able to win the draft lottery if you ask me.
(It could have worse for Houston, the 76ers offered Ben Simmons as part of a Harden trade)
The second most likely winners are the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Orlando Magic, and for these three, there are a couple of reasons why not they get the lucky envelope.
The Cavaliers are in the top of the lottery every time and they keep screwing everything up. If they didn’t have LeBron James, it could be argued that they would be one of the most irrelevant franchises of all-time.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have seemingly every single first-round pick in the next few drafts so they will win at least one of the next few seasons, c’mon, let us have this one.
For the Magic, they have just started their rebuild, have a solid young core as it is, and will be in the lottery for the next year or two, then be a legit contender, if you ask me.
The next batch of teams include some teams that would make me throw the remote at my television if they won the lottery.
Those teams would be the Pelicans, Raptors, and Timberwolves.
The Pelicans did give the boot to ex-Piston coach and GM Stan Van Gundy who hurt this franchise for years to come with his horrific front office skills. But they have a roster loaded with talented, young players, yet continue to miss the playoffs and under-perform year after year.
The Timberwolves are in a similar situation to the Pelicans in terms of too many cooks in the kitchen. If they were to get a top three pick eve, they would have to pick yet another ball dominant guard or center Evan Mobley with Karl-Anthony Towns on the roster.
Finally, the Raptors won a title two years ago and them winning the lottery is too much happiness for me, it’s as simple as that. In that same general lottery odds area are the Bulls and the Kings, who I can’t fathom would draft a point guard in Cade Cunningham due to Zach LaVine and De’Aaron Fox respectively.
Now for the case for why the Pistons deserve the lottery.
Hey Adam, make things right and give the Detroit Pistons the No. 1 pick
The Detroit Pistons sort of remind me of the Memphis Grizzlies right before they drafted Ja Morant, a great young core that’s a young stud away from being a piece away.
I don’t need to go in detail about how great the Pistons future is or how excited we collectively all are as a fanbase. My pitch to you is to think of what’s going on in the Western Conference and how competitive it is.
Getting Cade Cunningham to come to Detroit would give the East another young and up-and-coming team similar, to what happened to the Charlotte Hornets this year.
Think of how good it was for the league with all of the highlights of the Hornets announcer losing his mind on LaMelo Ball to Miles Bridges lobs, Imagine some Cade to Beef Stew alley-oop jams!
Another reason is, whether you like it or not, the Pistons being good is simply good for basketball.
The Detroit Pistons three titles disrupted some of the better storylines in the NBA, bringing much-needed chaos to the predictable years of Bird/Magic, into Jordan, followed by Kobe/Shaq. Adding on to that, the two greatest players in the history of the game, LeBron James and Michael Jordan (in no particular order!) were hardened and “made” by the Pistons as each had to overcome the defending Eastern Conference champion Detroit club to become the legends they are known as today.
In conclusion, Cade Cunningham would take the Detroit Pistons many steps forward in the rebuild, and I wouldn’t be shocked to see the team in the play-in tournament next season, if we were to be fortunate enough to get Cade on our roster.
For the first time in a while, thanks to general manager Troy Weaver, I’m confident in our front office to make the correct pick, regardless of the outcome. In years past the Pistons have made some pretty infamous selections but with how great last years’ draft was, with Detroit finally making the sharp and shrewd picks, I have nothing but excitement for the lottery and it oddly feels like we have nothing to lose, because we will still be ok if we don’t get Cade,
However if the Pistons survive the commercial break, and get into the top three, look out NBA, Detroit will be back.