2. Philadelphia 76ers jump into the top 3
After the season they had, it would be quite remarkable if the Philadelphia 76ers were lucky enough to move into the top 3 at the NBA Draft Lottery. Finishing the regular season with one of the worst records in the NBA, the Sixers will have a 42.1 percent chance to move into the top 4 and a 10.5 percent chance to earn the No. 1 overall pick. Even though the Sixers should still be able to select a really good player with their projected No. 5 overall pick, moving into the top 3 could open up so many more possibilities for this team.
If the Sixers could add a Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, or Ace Bailey with their first-round pick, it would go a long way in completely altering this team's future. If nothing else, Philly would gain plenty of flexibility moving into the future. Adding one of those three (potential) generational talents could give this team the option to continue to build around Joel Embiid or even the freedom to place him on the trade block.
I'd be shocked if the Sixers ended up doing the latter, but moving up in the NBA Draft Lottery would certainly add another interesting element to this team's offseason. What's great about the Sixers' situation is that even if they didn't have a top 5 pick in this year's NBA Draft, the overwhelming expectation would still be that Philly is probably going to have a strong bounce-back season next year.
The addition of a projected top 5 pick is only going to reinforce that line of thinking. On the flip side, there's alos a chance the Sixers could lose their pick. If it falls out of the top 6, it gets conveyed to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Those types of odds add another element for the Sixers heading into the NBA Draft Lottery.