Raptors’ loss to the Heat secures their NBA Draft Lottery seed.
Although nobody had anticipated this at the start of the season, Toronto’s 125-103 loss to the Miami Heat on Friday night has led to a 15-game losing streak and a 3-20 record that dates back to the end of February, giving them the sixth-worst record in the NBA.
Toronto had not intended this. Even after dealing OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam early in the season, the team was still committed to watching Scottie Barnes take Toronto’s new, youthful core as far as possible. It appeared for a brief period that that would require a play-in berth.
After the trade deadline, Bobby Webster, general manager of the Raptors, declared, “We’re going to prioritize seeing this group play.” “It doesn’t make much sense to try to play if we wind up in the top six or out of the top six, especially with the new NBA rules in place.
“It will ultimately come down to the lottery balls.” Thus, I don’t think there’s a lot of let’s do this or that, but I do think that playing that youthful group together is our first focus.
However, defeat became inevitable with the loss of Barnes and eventually Jakob Poeltl.
Toronto now has a 45.8% probability of keeping the protected first-round choice in the top six that was surrendered to San Antonio for Poeltl during the previous year’s trade deadline. Toronto’s odds of selecting a top-four pick are 37.2% and 8.6%, respectively, to go to the No. 6 spot. If not, the pick will go to the Spurs, who have a 54.2% chance of selecting Toronto’s pick between the seventh and the tenth round.
There is one more game Toronto plays on Sunday afternoon against Miami, which will not affect the Raptors’ seeding.