Here's how a loss to the Sixers could benefit the OKC Thunder
It's March, which means weirdness around the NBA has been amped up. From role players going off to teams' injury reports rivaling a CVS receipt, the final six weeks of the regular season invite chaos.
Disarray will land at Paycom Center tonight. The Oklahoma City Thunder will host the Philadelphia 76ers in a matchup that closely resembles a G League game with NBA ticket prices.
Once Joel Embiid was ruled out for the season, any faint hopes of a postseason push were erased. Instead, the Sixers pivoted to tanking. Their entire rotation is out. Paul George was recently ruled out for the rest of the year. Philly is back in its natural habitat of strategized losses. Nobody is better at this than The Process.
The Sixers had to return to their old identity because of a 2020 trade. To shed Al Horford's bloated contract after a one-year disaster, Philly attached a 2025 top-six protected first-round pick and traded it to the Thunder. They were gladly willing to give a helping hand in exchange for some future draft capital.
Five years later, that pick might land in the Thunder's best-case scenario at the No. 7 spot. The Sixers currently have the sixth-best record in the reverse standings. The fifth-placed Brooklyn Nets are just half a game up and the seventh-placed Toronto Raptors are just half a game back. It'll be a tight finish.
If you want the best odds to land at the No. 7 spot, you're rooting for the Sixers to stay in sixth place. That has the best lottery odds to land at the No. 7 pick at 29.7%. Want to play it safer to ensure the pick protections don't convey and the Thunder are gifted a free lottery pick regardless of spot? Your best bet is for the Sixers to land between seventh and 14th place in the reverse standings. The lower, the higher the odds the Thunder get a lottery pick.
Realistically speaking though, the worst the Sixers can finish in the reverse standings is likely seventh place. The eighth-placed San Antonio Spurs are five games back from moving up. With less than 20 games left in the season, that may be too much ground to cover.
Now, what about the Thunder? Why are they seemingly punting this game? Mark Daigneault laid the groundwork that they might rest several players for this contest when he talked about how banged up their roster is even after a two-day break. 14 games in 24 days with mostly all on the road will do that.
The Thunder will be without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Lu Dort. Isaiah Hartenstein and Cason Wallace will likely join them. Are they hoping to get a loss to help the Sixers get a win and increase the chances of being gifted a lottery pick from another team for the second straight year? Maybe. It's a good strategy. Especially when you're up 12.5 games in first place.
But more likely though, this is just a rest game for the Thunder. With such a gigantic lead in the West standings, they're afforded that luxury. As the regular season enters its final weeks, expect them to sporadically rest players in games that are ultimately meaningless.
As Daigneault said, the Thunder would like to enter the playoffs healthy and confident. They can ensure that happens by not pushing their guys to the brink of exhaustion while the rest of the West fights it out like gladiators in the Colosseum.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Here's how a loss to the Sixers could benefit the OKC Thunder
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