Ah memories of Milwaukee Bucks Media Day…when I heard Luke Ridnour tell us, with a straight face no less, “I can’t wait to get back into the playoffs and do some damage!” It was almost as unintentionally funny, if not more so than the DePaul basketball preseason luncheon a few days before.
There, I heard Oliver Purnell say, again not joking, “our goal is to make the NCAA Tournament.”
Well, the Milwaukee Bucks lost by double digits to Washington Saturday night, placing them at 15-65, with a 19% winning percentage with two games to play.
The only team in “competition” with Milwaukee to finish with the worst record in the NBA are the Philadelphia 76ers, who sit at 17-63. They host 25-55 Boston on Monday night in a very very winnable game. It’s pretty obvious that Brad Stevens Boston Celtics are likely tanking too. As for the Milwaukee Bucks, they visit the Toronto Raptors Monday night, who are fighting it out with the Chicago Bulls for the #3 seed in the playoffs, and with it the chance to put off facing the Miami Heat until as late as possible.
So you can draw a straight line from this scenario. As of Monday, the Milwaukee Bucks will have a 25% chance of landing the first overall pick, the best odds of anyone. The Sixers will have 19.9%, the second best chance. And I wonder why Milwaukee Bucks material, or even NBA content for that matter, does such dreary page view numbers.
- “There’s no suggestion. It’s an absolute. But when you have so many teams tank, that creates a problem because they all have to play each other.” – Mark Cuban, owner Dallas Mavericks, March 27, 2014
- “It’s bad right now. I think last year, at the end of the season, I counted like two-thirds of the teams weren’t trying to win.” – Daryl Morey, Rockets GM, March 3, 2014
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)