The Nets’ race to the bottom of the standings — and top of the draft lottery — has been a stride-for-stride sprint against the 76ers.
The teams are in a virtual tie after the Nets’ 115-112 win over the Wizards on Saturday.
With the finish line mercifully in sight, it begs the question of what’s at stake for the “‘winner,” if one can use that term? And what happens if they tie?
The Nets have the most assets in the June draft, four first-round picks and their own second.
Even though they seem likely to make all five of those selections, the prize is their lottery pick, guaranteed when they were officially eliminated Thursday night.
Brooklyn (24-51) has just seven dates left on the schedule. They held the fifth-best odds of winning the lottery entering Saturday.
Sitting 3 ¹/₂ games behind No. 4 New Orleans and 3 ¹/₂ ahead of No. 7 Toronto, the Nets are vying with sixth-place Philadelphia (23-50).
Of the 25 days from March 3-27, the Nets have spent 16 tied with the Sixers (and another tied with Toronto).
With Philadelphia’s pick top six-protected — thus in danger of going to Oklahoma City — the 76ers have shown single-minded commitment to tanking.
So if the Nets’ race with Philadelphia ends in a flat-footed draw on April 13, what does that mean for the lottery a month later?
In a season all about the Nets positioning themselves for this generational draft, here is a primer about the new rules and what they mean:
The NBA doesn’t use head-to-head tiebreakers for the draft.
In the lottery, every team is allotted a specific number of pingpong balls determined by their record.
The league draws for the top four picks, each team’s odds of landing one of those coveted picks decided by their number of pingpong balls. Once those have been drawn, picks Nos. 5-14 are awarded by record.
If the Nets and Sixers are tied for the fifth spot, there will be a random drawing days after the season finale.
The winner of what essentially amounts to that coin flip would pick ahead of the loser, presuming neither team jumps up into the top four.
All of the Nets’ and 76ers’ pingpong balls would be split evenly, giving them virtually identical odds at a top four pick — that “virtually” caveat necessary because the odd remainder of pingpong balls would go the winner of the “random drawing,” so that team would get a tiny edge.
Last year, six ties got broken via random drawings on April 22, eight days after the regular-season finale.
They were conducted in Secaucus by NBA president of league operations Byron Spruell and overseen by Ernst & Young.
If the Nets end up alone in fifth — as they were entering Saturday — they have a 42.1 percent chance of landing somewhere in the top four (10.5, 10.5, 10.6 and 10.5 each). The fifth (2.2), eighth (8.7) and even ninth (0.6) spots are all long shots, with the likeliest landing spots being seventh (26.7) or sixth (19.6).
But if the Nets end up deadlocked with the Sixers, their chances at presumptive No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg fall slightly to 9.7 percent, and a top four selection to 39.5 percent.
The Nets also have Milwaukee’s pick — currently 17th, though the Bucks were only two games from falling as much as four spots to 21st. As of Saturday, they hold the Knicks’ (26th) and Rockets’ (27th) selections, as well as their own second (35th).
Considering Noah Clowney and Dariq Whitehead, both 20, are younger than a third of this class, it would be difficult to simultaneously develop what amounts to seven rookies next season.
And with the Nets having only one first-round pick in next year’s equally loaded draft, they could deal a pick or two by June.
But don’t expect their lottery pick to be one.
And if they end up tied with the 76ers, the intrigue will start within a week, long before they get to Chicago on May 12.
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