The Washington Wizards had the best odds to get the No. 1 pick, tied with Charlotte and Utah at 14 percent each – but what really steams JP Finlay about them not only not getting the top pick, but even a Top FOUR pick, is that they had better chances of landing where they did than where they should.
“What I know is the whole process, both of tanking and the lottery, is so stupid and screwed up that the Wiz, Charlotte, and Utah have the best chances to get the number one pick, and the three of them land 4-5-6,” JP said in a rant to open Tuesday’s show. “There are better number-crunchers than me that are that can tell you that the Wiz had a better chance of No. 6 than they did of No. 1 – so what the hell is the point of all this?”
Indeed, Washington had a better than 50 percent chance of not being in the Top 5 at all, which is kind of silly all things considered, and what makes it worse is that only a handful of people actually see the drawing, so everyone else is left to wonder how legit it all is.
“If we're going to do this, show the actual lottery, not like the presentation of numbers; like, imagine if we don't get to watch the horse race, you just get to watch which horse gets that blanket of roses?” JP said. “Like, what are we doing here? What the hell is happening. This whole process is so incredibly stupid, and obviously it's a disappointing result for the Wizards.”
The good news is that many believe the Wiz can still get a good player at No. 6, with The Athletic’s John Hollinger making the point that historically, there’s plenty of All-Star talent available there – but you can listen to the discussion of whether or not the lottery is rigged above!