Detroit Pistons: Fans already calculating odds for Victor Wembanyama

All of the talk last offseason was about the Detroit Pistons competing and possibly even making a move towards being a play-in team this season.

So far that has not happened, and Detroit has instead gotten off to a nightmare 3-11 start, putting themselves in a huge hole before the season is even a quarter over.

It’s not just that they are losing, but they are doing it in historic fashion and are currently on pace to be one of the worst teams since the “Process” Sixers.

The Pistons have yet to have their full roster of players available in the same game, and after tonight, will start a six-game West coast road trip and will be missing Cade Cunningham for at least some of it.

This season has been ugly so far and has a chance to get far worse over the next 20 games, as the Detroit Pistons will not likely be favored in any of them.

I was hoping we wouldn’t get to this point until later in the season, as covering this team is a slog when the only thing to cheer for is lottery balls. But that’s what some fans are already doing, as there is a generational talent coming to the NBA.

Detroit Pistons lottery odds

When your team is struggling and without its best player, there isn’t much to fall back on except the hope that at least another lost season could lead to another top pick.

Of course, even if the Detroit Pistons are the worst team in the NBA, they will still only have a 14 percent chance to draft Victor Wembanyama, though at this point in the season, even those measly odds are the best we can hope for.

The Pistons are currently tied with the Charlotte Hornets for the second-worst record in the NBA, a game behind the Houston Rockets, who have only managed two wins. Currently Detroit would have a 14 percent chance for the number one pick and a 52.1 percent chance of landing in the top-4, so even a top-4 pick is basically a coin flip.

If things ended like this, Detroit’s best odds for any one pick would be 26 percent for the sixth spot, not exactly inspiring.

They’d have a higher chance to get the 5th or 6th pick than the first, so even though tanking is the carrot dangled in from of us donkey fans, the odds of actually getting the first pick and adding Victor Wembanyama are still long.

This season is going to be long if things don’t turn around soon, as the double-digit losses are piling up and already have fans taking spins at Tankathon, which is not a good sign this early in the season.