Holy hell, Covington just hit two yuuuggggeee threes to put the Sixers up one over the Blazers with four seconds to go!
Keep on winning, Sixers! It literally helps us in countless ways lol
Lol and some great D by future Celtic Noel wins the game for them! Keep on winning, Sixers. You don't need another high pick in this draft anyways, and you just make it more likely that the Kings have to blow it up and trade Cousins.
The Sixers have a pick swap with the Kings and they also have the Lakers pick (top 3 protected). If the basketball gods give them maximum luck, the Sixers could make the playoffs and still get the #1 and #4 picks in this draft.
The Kings would end up losing their pick to the Bulls and the Lakers would lose their 2017 pick to the Sixers and their 2019 pick to the Magic.
Nope, the pick's status to Chicago isn't related to the Philly swap. The Kings will have to be 11th or worse on their own to send the pick to Chicago, because it's not subject to the Philly swap. So if by some miracle the Sixers make the playoffs, the Kings would have the 15th pick themselves without having to give it to Chicago.
At this point, the Sixers are in real danger of losing the Lakers pick. They're the 4th worst team right now, and it seems likely that they'll tank the rest of the season to try and get that top-3 lottery position to keep their pick.
And the Kings situation is really fluid right now. If they keep Cousins, then that pick is probably right there where it always is around the 7th-10th pick, which would probably end up meaning a swap with Philly. However, if they would trade Boogie to Boston, which is really the only logical option for a trade now given the context and us having the Brooklyn pick, then they very well could drop down lower to the 4th or 5th spot or so, though doubtful any lower with the couple of wins they'll pick up before they trade him.
So it's a very fluid situation. Philly could have two top 5 picks at the very best scenario, which is highly unlikely, or they could get stuck with something like the 10th pick and the 15th pick with no Lakers pick at the worst case scenario, which is also unlikely.
My guess is that the Lakers will ultimately get something like the third pick in the draft, meaning they keep their pick, and the Kings will land somewhere around 6th to 7th for the Philly swap, who just misses out on the playoffs with the 12th or 13th pick.
EDIT: But Sacramento is really in a predicament going forward. They have no incentive to tank right now with Philly improving and playing equal ball with them with the swap rights, yet at this point their playoff potential is virtually unrealistic without Gay. They'll have to make a decision on their future direction really soon.