Not long after the Brooklyn Nets lost once again Friday night, this time by 40 ignominious points to the red-hot Atlanta Hawks at Barclays, word arrived from the west coast that the Sacramento Kings had won their game with the New Orleans Pelicans in a tight one that came down to the final seconds!! Huzzah!!

It was big news in Brooklyn and here’s why from Tankathon…

The Nets who reportedly had set a goal of getting a top three pick — with a 52.1% chance at at top four pick and a 14.0% chance at the overall No. 1 — are close to achieving it. Although nothing is mathematically certain, for the Nets to drop into fourth and lesser odds would require them to win three of their last five and have both the Wizards and Pacers lose out. While the latter may be likely, it’s hard to imagine the Nets, winners of five games in the last two-plus months, will add another three to the win column before closing time, no matter the competition.

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The focus on the top three was based on the assessment that the three top picks in the NBA Draft — Cam Boozer, Darryn Peterson and A.J. Dybanta — were all “franchise changers,” the equivalent of having three Cooper Flaggs in one draft! That’s changed a bit with Peterson’s maturity being a question and other prospects like Caleb Wilson and Darius Acuff rising in draftnik analyses.

Getting the first overall pick will be tough with the Nets playing four games vs. three other tanking teams — the Wizards on Sunday, the Bucks two days later, Pacers next Thursday and a return trip to Milwaukee the next night — before finishing off with the Raptors on April 12. Still, Brooklyn has a shot. They are arguably the worst team in the NBA right now and have gotten worse of late.

There are other variables of course even if the Nets finish last in the standings. They’ll have to deal with a history that is not favorable. Playing the probabilities is one thing, good fortune with the aerodynamics of small plastic balls is quite another.

The last three teams to go into the lottery with the worst record in regular season and the best odds came out of it with the fifth pick. Indeed, there’s a 47.9% of that. Moreover, no team with the worst record has won the overall No. 1 since the NBA instituted its new draft rules in 2019. And the last two lotteries were won by the Mavericks and Hawks who had 1.8% chances at the top spot. Of course, falling a bit in a generational as well as deep draft is better than winning the overall No. 1 in a bad draft.

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All that said, Brian Lewis argued before the Atlanta game, that the Nets are the neediest of the tanking legion and deserve some of that good fortune. But in that argument, he pointed to some troublesome facts.

[N]one of the 10 or so teams playing the percentages need a young star more than talent-starved Brooklyn, including the Pacers and Wizards, who they’re chasing.

They infamously haven’t produced a single homegrown All-Star since Brook Lopez in 2013, over a decade ago…

Between the beating the Nets just took from Charlotte and the matchups they still have looming, it just drives home that every single one of these tanking rivals has either veteran All-Stars or young franchise players, or both.

For all their future draft capital, right now Brooklyn has neither.

No Tyrese Haliburton or Ivica Zubac like Indiana. No Trae Young or Anthony Davis like Washington. No Donatas Sabonis or DeMar DeRozan like Sacramento. Etc. etc.

So, something else to think about as the last week of the season approaches and the lottery is now a little more than a month away. Also, things no doubt will change on Draft Night. As we’ve noted ad infinitum, Marks does his best work within 48 hours of the NBA Draft.

In the meantime, it’s Zanax and Zantac in equal portions as we watch the Nets and the scoreboard.