The New Orleans Pelicans haven’t done much winning of late and that includes their tiebreaker with the Bulls and Kings.
The three teams had identical records so had a coin flip for draft position. The Pelicans had bad luck and ended up with the in 10th spot, with Sacramento getting the 9th and the Bulls winning the 8th position.
The New Orleans Pelicans have five picks in the 2021 NBA Draft, one in the lottery and four in the second round.
They could try to trade up with some of those picks, or use them as assets in a bigger trade, so the Pelicans are in a good position entering the draft.
And that position won’t be affected by what happened in the tiebreaker.
New Orleans Pelicans: What are the Pelicans lottery odds?
The Pelicans have a 20.3 percent chance at at top-four pick and a 4.5 percent chance at the number one overall.
These odds are the same for 8-10 so the odds of the Pelicans landing in the top four are the same as the Bulls and the Kings.
The Pelicans bucked the odds in 2019 to land Zion Williamson and are hoping to do it again this year to land a top-four pick in a draft that has at least 4-5 guys projected to be impact stars.
Even if the Pelicans end up choosing closer to 10th, they can still find a talented player to complement the young core of Zion, Brandon Ingram, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Jaxson Hayes, Kira Lewis Jr. and hopefully Josh Hart and Lonzo Ball.
I think that the Pelicans will definitely keep the pick if they luck out and jump into the top four, but if their pick is 10th, I could see them packaging it in a trade for a proven veteran player, someone like Malcolm Brogdon comes to mind.
This is an important offseason for the New Orleans Pelicans that they hope starts with some luck in the lottery.