Rockets @ Kings Game Thread

[Nighthawk1]

http://nba.fanhouse.com/standings?date=2008&breakdown=conference

Kings: 17-65
Clippers: 19-65
Wizards: 19-65
OKC: 23-59
Minn: 24-58

The initial claim was that if the Kings won a couple more games, they don't get Tyreke. A couple more wins gives the Kings the same record as the Clippers, who won the draft. The Clippers, with a couple more wins than the Kings, had a chance to get Tyreke.

But your standings are incorrect. The Kings could have won 7 more games before it had to worry about Minnesota even winning a coin flip w/them. Two more and the Kings would have been in a 3 way tie w/Washington and LA. The records show Washington had the 5th before it was traded pick and Minnesota had the 6th by virtue of their record.

I don't disagree w/Tyreke's importance. I'm not even debating right now the potential value of winning or losing games. But it is incorrect to say a couple more wins and we don't get him. In fact, a couple more wins, win a coin flip, and the Kings are still #1 before the lottery.

Even if they completely lose the coin flip and get #3, Minnesota would not have been ahead of the Kings before the lottery. And even at that point, the Kings still had more ping pong balls than Minnesota and would have had a better chance to win or get a top 3 pick than Minnesota.

You can say the Kings were fortunate to get Tyreke. Correct and great. But there are no facts to show the Kings would not have had the #4 pick or even the #1 pick if they had won 2 more games and not been able to select Tyreke at any of those points.

If we went into a 3 way tie with the Clips and Wiz, we could have very well been the team who picked 5th (where the Wiz would have picked). And chances are Tyreke wouldn't have been there. The thing you are forgetting is with the worst record you pick no lower then 4th in the draft - winning those extra couple of games would have put us in a 3 way tie for the worst record where we could have potentially came out with the 3rd worst record and could have picked around 10. The worse your record, the higher % you have to pick lower in the draft once the lottery balls decide your fate. Those extra couple of wins meant nothing to our season last year or this year, but they can be the difference in great players in the draft (Noah vs. Hawes, Evans vs. Rubio/Flynn, etc...)

 

[Kingster]

What interests me about the "what if" ping pong debate is the following: What if the Kings would have gotten the #1 pick in the draft? Would they have picked Griffin or would they have picked Tyreke?

People on this board thought I was a lunatic for wanting Tyreke over Griffin. I wonder if the Kings management would have gone with Griffin, like 99% of this board would have. If they would have, it would have been a sad sad story.