OKC Thunder Finish Tied for No. 11 in Reverse Standings
Following one of their more exciting regular season, the Oklahoma City Thunder have landed tied for No. 11 in the NBA reverse standings.
Headlined by first-time All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, second-year guard Josh Giddey and soon-to-be Rookie of the Year Runner-Up Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City blew their projected preseason win total out of the water en route to a 40-win season. The result was featured plenty of good basketball down the stretch and a postseason berth as the Western Conference’s 10-seed.
Barring a potentially likely trade, in which the front office packages their unprecedented amount of future firsts, or bizarre draft luck, Oklahoma City will select outside of the top ten in the NBA Draft for the first time since the 2020 draft.
At 40-42, several teams snuck past the Thunder in hopes of landing better draft odds themselves.
The Mavericks shut down stars Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving in the final few games to potentially preserve a top ten pick. A reward for their disappointing season. And the Jazz, Pacers and Wizards, who have all intermittently been seen close to OKC in the standings, fell too.
The Chicago Bulls, who sit catty corner from Oklahoma City in the Eastern Conference’s tenth and final Play-In spot, also sit at 40-42. Should both teams lose their initial nine versus ten matchup, they’ll go to a coin flip to decide who has the eleventh-best odds in the 2023 NBA Draft.
The differences in odds between the eleventh and twelfth-best records are marginal among the top four, with the primary separator being a 77.6 percent chance at No. 11 and an 85 percent chance at No. 12 for the respective spots.
For now, Oklahoma City looks to their matchup versus the New Orleans Pelicans at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12.
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