Standings Watch: Thunder Finish Season Tied For Fourth-Best Lottery Odds
The OKC Thunder capped off their season with a win over the LA Clippers on Sunday night. While this wasn't positive for their draft lottery odds, things still look just fine for the Thunder.
Regardless of how the lottery balls are drawn, Oklahoma City will have four picks in the top 35 of the upcoming draft. At this point, it's just a matter of where those picks fall.
Owning Houston's first round pick (1-4 protected) gives the Thunder another shot at pick No. 5, meaning they've got more than a 75.0 percent chance to land at least one top-five pick.
Rather than being tied for the third-best lottery odds like they were coming into Sunday, they fall just one spot to being tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers for fourth-best. This removes OKC from having the 14.0 percent chance at the top pick, but doesn't mean they're completely out of the Cade Cunningham sweepstakes.
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Here are the final draft lottery odds:
1. Houston Rockets (17-55)
2. Detroit Pistons (20-52)
3. Orlando Magic (21-51)
T4. Cleveland Cavaliers (22-50)
T4. Oklahoma City Thunder (22-50)
6. Minnesota Timberwolves (23-49)
7. Toronto Raptors (27-45)
T8. New Orleans Pelicans (31-41)
T8. Sacramento Kings (31-41)
T8. Chicago Bulls (31-41)
Now that it's all said and done, the 2020-21 season was officially a success for the Oklahoma City Thunder. While they didn't win many games (22-50), their young players got a ton of experience that gives them a head start over many of their peers around the league in terms of development. Additionally, this positioned them to have great draft lottery odds.
