Inside The Thunder

Standings Watch: Thunder Continue to Improve Lottery Odds

While the other teams near the bottom of the standings win games, the OKC Thunder continue to lose, increasing their lottery odds by the day

Nick Crain

Since the NBA trade deadline, the Oklahoma City Thunder have the worst record in the league at 2-20. This has resulted in their lottery odds skyrocketing them to the fourth-best in the NBA.

When it comes to the teams who they’re competing with down the stretch to improve these odds, the Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers are among the teams who fill out the bottom of the league. While Oklahoma City has continued to lose of late, most of these teams have won here and there along the way.

With just seven games remaining in the 2020-21 season for OKC, they're within striking distance of entering the draft lottery with the second-best odds at the top pick.

In an extremely talented upcoming draft class, the Thunder should get a franchise cornerstone wherever they land in the draft. While a recent mock draft has them taking USC’s Evan Mobley, there are quite a few different options as the Thunder should choose the best available player at their picks, regardless of position.

READ MORE:

Mock Draft: Thunder get their center of the future

Rookie Tracker: Maledon and Pokusevski lead the way

Here are the current lottery odds:

  1. Houston Rockets (16-49)
  2. Detroit Pistons (19-46)
  3. Minnesota Timberwolves (20-45)
  4. Oklahoma City Thunder (21-44)
  5. Orlando Magic (21-44)
  6. Cleveland Cavaliers (21-43)
  7. Chicago Bulls (26-39)
  8. Toronto Raptors (27-38)
  9. Sacramento Kings (27-37)
  10. New Orleans Pelicans (29-36)

Currently in a tie for the fourth-best lottery odds, Oklahoma City likely won't move too much over the final days of the season. They're positioned in a way that regardless of how things shake out the rest of the way, they'll have a great shot at a top-five pick. Over the next few days, the Thunder will travel to California to take on the Kings and Warriors.

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Nick Crain
NICK CRAIN

Nick has spent the last four seasons covering the Oklahoma City Thunder and has grown quickly in the media since starting. He’s continued to produce Thunder content through writing for Forbes.com and podcasting with The Uncontested Podcast, as well as branching out to cover the NBA as a whole for SLAM Online.

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