The Grizzlies victory over the Atlanta Hawks in the season’s final game might prove costly. With the Minnesota Timberwolves laying down for the league-worst Sacramento Kings the same night, both the Grizzlies and Wolves finished 24-58, tied for fifth worst record in the league.
Today, the NBA announced, the Wolves won the random-drawing tiebreaker and will be seated 5th heading into the lottery. The Grizzlies will be sixth.
I misreported part of the lottery impact of this earlier this week. In terms of the odds of getting the top pick, the tiebreaker difference is minimal. The Wolves will now have 76 of 1000 lottery combinations. The Grizzlies will have 75. Of course, the difference would have been greater in the Grizzlies favor had they been alone in 5th with the Wolves sixth.
A more likely impact will be if neither team is selected in the lottery — which impacts only the top three picks. In that event, the Wolves will be slotted ahead of the Grizzlies in the draft order.
