For the 4th season in a row, the Detroit Pistons are far more concerned with the NBA Draft Lottery than they are the regular season.
The Pistons hold the league’s worst record, and injuries have ruined any chance of seeing their young players get reps together as the season winds down.
While the optimistic fans dreamed of chasing a play-in spot this season, in reality the Detroit Pistons are once again chasing lottery dreams instead.
The payoff could be big this season, as Victor Wembanyama is a game changer, and the Pistons will have maximum odds to get him. These fantasies will be at the forefront as the season winds down and we start to gear up for another important NBA Draft Lottery.
When is the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery?
The 2023 NBA Draft Lottery will be on May 16th, 2023 at 8:00 PM ET. You can watch on ESPN and should be praying to the Lottery Gods that the Pistons buck the odds and land the #1 pick for the 2nd time in three years.
What are the Detroit Pistons lottery odds right now?
Even with the league’s worst record, the Detroit Pistons still only have a 14 percent chance to land the #1 pick, but they can drop no lower than 5th overall.
Here are their odds for each pick as it stands right now with 14 games remaining in the season:
- 1st: 14%
- 2nd: 13.4%
- 3rd: 12.7%
- 4th: 11.9%
- 5th: 47.9%
As you can see, there is a 52.1 percent chance that the Detroit Pistons stay in the top four, but their highest odds are for the 5th pick, which is a scenario we don’t really want to think about.
Most draft experts have Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson in a tier above the rest of the draft, but the Pistons could still find a complementary wing player if they were to fall outside of the top-two.
With just over two months before the NBA Draft Lottery, fans have plenty of time to envision their dream scenarios, which would include landing Wembanyama, signing an impact free agent, and going into next season with renewed hope.
Unfortunately, all of that is still just a pipe dream right now and it’s simply going to come down to dumb luck in the end.