{"id":731486,"date":"2026-05-11T11:45:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/731486\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T11:45:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T11:45:17","slug":"was-nba-lottery-as-simple-as-wizards-wins-and-heat-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/731486\/","title":{"rendered":"Was NBA lottery as simple as Wizards wins and Heat loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Q: The Wizards played the game that we refused to. Our front office is out of touch. The rest of the Eastern Conference has passed us by. We are in Pittsburgh Steeler territory. \u2013 Beau.<\/p>\n<p>Q: Gotta give it to the Wizards, they played they cards right. \u2013 Mikey.<\/p>\n<p>Q: Disgrace. Reward the teams with zero integrity that lose on purpose. \u2013 Chris.<\/p>\n<p>Q: But we refuse to tank. We prefer to remain mediocre. \u2013 Bernardo.<\/p>\n<p>Q: The Wizards are officially better than the Heat.\u00a0 Everyone give it up for Pat Riley, the Godfather\u00a0 \u2013 C.H.<\/p>\n<p>Q: Or just trade for Anthony Davis It\u2019s worked two years in a row. \u2013 Willie.<\/p>\n<p>A: This was just a sampling of the responses from the Wizards winning Sunday\u2019s NBA draft lottery to secure the No. 1 overall pick, while the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/05\/10\/heat-exit-lottery-where-they-started-with-the-no-13-pick-in-nba-draft\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Heat held their lottery seed at No. 13<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So, yes, the Wizards\u2019 race to the bottom paid off, even if it meant surrendering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/05\/10\/heat-exit-lottery-where-they-started-with-the-no-13-pick-in-nba-draft\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">83 points to Bam Adebayo<\/a> along the way.<\/p>\n<p>But then consider others in the tank-a-thon, such as the Pacers, who thought they could be bad enough to obtain Ivica Zubac and also secure a top-four pick (Doah!).<\/p>\n<p>And the best the Nets\u2019 race to the bottom could get them was the No. 6 pick.<\/p>\n<p>But, yes, there is irony that the Mavericks got Anthony Davis last year and then landed Cooper Flagg at No. 1 in the lottery, with the Wizards acquiring Davis this past season and also securing the No. 1 pick in the lottery.<\/p>\n<p>The reality is that no matter how you might feel about tanking, it won\u2019t matter, with the system adopted next season to severely diminish the possibilities of tanking as a lottery pathway.<\/p>\n<p>Q: The Mavericks made a mistake and the Knicks got Jalen Brunson. That\u2019s the kind of free agent the Heat should chase, instead of all these injury-prone 30-year-olds. \u2013 Matt.<\/p>\n<p>A: But that also is the exception, with most teams locking in young players before they can reach free agency. But, yes, a diamond in the rough would come in quite handy at the moment at 601 Biscayne.<\/p>\n<p>Q: Ira, I remember when some were saying the Heat should have traded Bam Adebayo for Joel Embiid. At least Bam shows up for work. \u2013 Hank.<\/p>\n<p>A: The Joel Embiid paradox is one that makes you wonder. When he is on top of his game and on top of his health, he is the best big man in the NBA this side of Victor Wembanyama (with all due respect to Nikola Jovic, because of the two-way impact). But there simply are too many questions to ever have a comfort level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Q: The Wizards played the game that we refused to. Our front office is out of touch. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3778],"tags":[3879,7,144,165,295,189,3880,3881,6,66],"class_list":["post-731486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-heat","tag-ask-ira","tag-basketball","tag-heat","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-heat-blog","tag-miamiheat","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116555777595301976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}