2026 NBA draft thread

[F Gump]

It was the best of nights, it was the worst of nights. The bad is that the Grizz lost, and are now within 2.5 games of us. Cannot sleep on them. Must keep losing.

Meanwhile, the Jazz were unable to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and the Nets won. Now a game and a half back (in tank standings) of the Jazz, four games back of the Nets.

GS was not on the list of teams that UT was thought to be at "risk" of beating, but the Warriors laid an egg.  Yay!!!

At this point, 0-18 is now a LOCK to land the Mavs at no worse than 6 (because NO still plays both DAL and UT), and has a VERY great chance to land the Mavs at 5.

Every game for the Mavs from here to the end is against a team higher in the standings, so the Mavs should be the underdog in them all. And the Mavs haven't won a single game as the underdog since Jan 22. 

I remain hopeful. Winning even a game or two opens the door to a lot of potential slippage. 

Seed 5, as a reminder, is most likely to end up as pick 7 (not 5), but it also has a 42% chance of landing somewhere in the top 4. While 1-4 is not where the top PGs are slotted, I think it's way better to get one of those top 4, as imo that's a FAR better likelihood of getting a star player (instead of a solid starter with a lot of miss potential). There's no way I would trade down if I landed one of those picks. 

NOTE - For some irony, remember all the debates about the value of the NO/ATL pick and how the Mavs needed it? As this is playing out, the Mavs pick is almost certain to be a better one, and as NO keeps winning whatever is winnable, that NO/ATL pick has a strong shot to only be pick 9 or so! ATL perhaps made a better choice getting Kuminga, but the gushing over getting that pick has really died down. (It may turn out that Queen will be more valuable than the pick after all. Who knew.)