The overall play was dynamic last night! All the things you guys said above!!! I almost felt bad for the kings esp. the 1st quarter – they were playing like we usuallu play -Did you see the post? Mirrors.. wow… that kinda hurt!

The 3rd quarter – we let them take more than a few easy trips to the basket. But we never let up & that made the difference. We gave the same level, if not a little bit more, than we gave in the magic game…

Dave & Glenn – I was WAY over in 109!! I could SEE you both from my seat, but a visit was so far! I will be in 120 on the 25th, sop perhaps I shall be able to stop by then!!

I must have missed JaVale’s answer back to Tap — and I’m not sure I know what he was answering back *to*. Can you provide some links, or at least describe this?

I’m not going through the stats for this game. The usual guys played well. Why JaVale got so few minutes was a mystery to me, until I saw that he was called for 5 fouls! I guess he could have gotten 2.5 more minutes and the 6th? Other than the fouls (and a couple of pointless low percentage fgas) he was spectacular, getting 2 steals and 5 rebounds in less than 13 minutes. He was incredibly fun to watch — his assist to Crittenton was a thing of beauty. And it’s *always* fun to watch roles being reversed like that.

I still can not believe, however, that we have a 7′+ sharpshooter on the bench and we can’t find even a minute for him to play. Whenever he does get a few minutes he produces. I’ll bet that any other team in the league would have found some decent minutes throughout the season for Pech. It’s too bad for him that we were always in contention for first place and couldn’t take a chance to see what he could do.

I was not happy that Tap got another win. I would like to see him go down in NBA history as the coach with the most loses in one season. He deserves it. I have never seen another NBA coach who I felt was personally responsible for so many loses. His tactics are horrible, his rotations are bad, his timeouts rock our momentum. I can’t wait to see him gone.

I understand that despite all the lobbying to the contrary on a couple of blogs, Tap will not be replaced this year. However, I don’t think that he should be allowed to return as the Director of Player Development either. His behavior at the games is abhorent. He screams at the young guys, not so they can hear him, but he screams in anger and disgust (young guys only). His treatment of Nick and Critt is particularly bad. If he spoke to his wife that way he’d be accused of verbal abuse. I haven’t seen him attacking McGee since McGee answered him back about two weeks ago.

In any case, the Director of Player Development should be preparing young players both physically and emotionally to play in the NBA. Tap is a morale negative. It should not be his job.

Personally, I would like to see him with any team other than the Wizards.

As of 2008, with 30 NBA teams, 16 qualify for the playoffs and the remaining 14 teams are entered in the draft lottery. These 14 teams are ranked in reverse order of their regular season record and are assigned the following number of chances

250 combinations, 25.0% chance of receiving the #1 pick
199 combinations, 19.9% chance
156 combinations, 15.6% chance
119 combinations, 11.9% chance
88 combinations, 8.8% chance
63 combinations, 6.3% chance
43 combinations, 4.3% chance
28 combinations, 2.8% chance
17 combinations, 1.7% chance
11 combinations, 1.1% chance
8 combinations, 0.8% chance
7 combinations, 0.7% chance
6 combinations, 0.6% chance
5 combinations, 0.5% chance
Here are the odds for each seed to get specific picks if there were no ties (rounded to 3 decimal places):

Seed Chances 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th
1 250 .250 .215 .178 .357
2 199 .199 .188 .171 .319 .123
3 156 .156 .157 .156 .226 .265 .040
4 119 .119 .126 .133 .099 .351 .160 .012
5 88 .088 .097 .107 .261 .360 .084 .004
6 63 .063 .071 .081 .439 .305 .040 .001
7 43 .043 .049 .058 .599 .232 .018 .000
8 28 .028 .033 .039 .724 .168 .008 .000
9 17 .017 .020 .024 .813 .122 .004 .000
10 11 .011 .013 .016 .870 .089 .002 .000
11 8 .008 .009 .012 .907 .063 .001 .000
12 7 .007 .008 .010 .935 .039 .000
13 6 .006 .007 .009 .960 .018
14 5 .005 .006 .007 .982

In the event that teams finish with the same record, each tied team receives the average of the total number of combinations for the positions that they occupy. In 2007, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Portland Trail Blazers tied for the sixth worst record. The average of the 6th and 7th positions in the lottery was taken, resulting in each team getting 53 combinations (the average of 63 and 43). Should the average number not be an integer, a coin flip is then used to determine which team or teams receive the extra combination(s). The result of the coin flip is also used to determine who receives the earlier pick in the event that neither of the tied teams wins one of the first three picks via the lottery.

The lottery is conducted with witnesses verifying that all 14 balls are represented once as they are placed in the lottery machine. The balls are placed in the machine for 20 seconds to randomize prior to having the first ball drawn. The remaining three balls are drawn at 10-second intervals. NBA officials determine which team holds the winning combination and that franchise is awarded the #1 overall draft pick. The four balls are returned to the machine and the process is repeated to determine the second and third picks. In the event that a combination belongs to a team that has already won its pick (or if the one unassigned combination comes up), the round is repeated until a unique winner is determined. When the first three teams have been determined, the remaining picks are given out based on regular season record with the worst teams getting the highest picks. This assures each team that it can drop no more than three spots from its projected draft position.