Detroit Pistons Need NBA Draft Lottery Luck Yet Again

Detroit has again snagged the top odds at the No. 1 pick, but that’s only landed in their favor once in the past few years.

The Detroit Pistons have again landed the top odds at landing the No. 1 pick, finishing with a 14-68 record in one of their more demoralizing seasons in some time.

The team actually won more games last season, still managing to finish with the worst record and earn the top odds. So far, those lottery odds haven’t exactly been kind to the Pistons.

This season marks the fourth-straight year the team has finished within the bottom three to earn the best odds (14%) at the No. 1 pick. The team has only landed the top pick once, selecting Cade Cunningham in 2021, and has fallen in each other season. 

In 2022 they finished as the league’s worst team, falling to No. 5 in the draft to select guard Jaden Ivey. Last season was the 17-win year, and again fell to five — their lowest possible spot — to grab Ausar Thompson.

Now, the Pistons are again staring down the barrel of the same odds they owned last year, hoping they won’t land the fifth pick for the third straight season.

Unluckily, the numbers don’t really favor them. They’ll share a 14% chance at No. 1 with two other teams, followed by a 13.4% chance at No. 2, a 12.7% chance at No. 3, a 12% chance at No. 4 and a whopping 47.9% chance at the fifth spot.

Mathematicians would likely reasons the chances of Detroit again dropping to No. 5 would be slim. But there are likely battle-hardened Pistons fans that would disagree.

Regardless, the only thing left for them to do is wait for the ping pong balls to drop on Sunday, May 12.

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