With their loss to the Chicago Bulls last night, the Toronto Raptors sit with the fifth-worst record in the league.
But does that mean they'll end up with the fifth-best shot at the number one overall pick in the draft?
Not necessarily and so we decided here at the HQ to start taking a look on a regular basis at how "well" the Raps are doing in terms of increasing their odds of grabbing what will likely be Anthony Davis, in this summer's NBA Draft.
And so we introduce...the NBA Power Tankings, or, "The Tanking Rankings."
(Shout out to @gourmetspud at Foodcourtlunch.com for the help on the title.)
We're going to try and get these out a couple times a week to keep Raptors' fans in loop on Toronto's "tanking" efforts are stacking up against some of the league's other basement dwellers.
How does it work?
We've simply used John Hollinger of ESPN.com's "Playoff Odds" list, where he not only looks at the chances NBA teams have of making the playoffs, but also their chances of landing the top overall pick in the upcoming draft.
Hence the "Likelihood of winning lottery" column below gives us a pretty solid idea of how good of a shot the Dinos have at Mr. Davis, as well as what Hollinger, based on his various calculations, predicts Toronto's final win total to be.
We've added in the "Games Remaining" as well to give readers an idea of how much of a push Toronto needs to make to finish the season in tanking style:
Rank |
Team Name |
Likelihood of Winning Lottery |
Projected Wins |
Games Remaining |
1 |
Charlotte Bobcats |
23.40% |
11 |
22 |
2 |
New Orleans Hornets |
17.00% |
18 |
20 |
3 |
Washington Wizards |
16.00% |
18 |
21 |
4 |
New Jersey Nets |
12.40% |
21 |
18 |
5 |
Toronto Raptors |
9.00% |
22 |
19 |
6 |
Detroit Pistons |
6.10% |
24 |
20 |
7 |
Sacramento Kings |
5.30% |
25 |
20 |
8 |
Cleveland Cavaliers |
4.80% |
25 |
22 |
9 |
Golden State Warriors |
1.80% |
29 |
22 |
10 |
Phoenix Suns |
1.00% |
32 |
19 |
As you can see, right now the Raps are a shade behind the Nets for fourth place in the rankings, and need to do some work to catch the Wizards and Hornets.
Luckily the Raptors next five games are against the Knicks, Bulls, Heat, Nuggets and Magic so by the time we check back in here, Toronto may have surged ahead!