Only one month remains in the 2015/16 NBA season, and for the next three weekends, plenty of eyes will be on the NCAA Tournament. Scouts and executives for teams around the league are getting a clearer picture by the day of where they’ll be picking in the 2016 NBA draft at a key time for observing some of the top talent. With our Reverse Standings, which list the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, you can easily follow along, too. Hoops Rumors is continuing to update these standings daily to reflect the outcomes of the games that took place the night before.
The Reverse Standings take into account playoff teams in each conference, so they’re essentially a reflection of what the 2016 first-round order would look like with no changes to lottery position. Traded picks are included via footnotes. For instance, the note next to Washington’s pick indicates that if the team finishes outside the top nine, it’ll relinquish the pick to the Suns. The Wizards are currently in spot No. 12 but just two and a half games away from No. 9, so it’s a situation that bears watching the rest of the season.
The existence of the lottery means the teams atop the Reverse Standings aren’t guaranteed to draft in the order in which they finish, but the worse a club’s record, the better shot it has at landing the cream of the 2016 draft class. This year’s group of prospects, which includes Ben Simmons, Brandon Ingram and Jaylen Brown, is top-heavy with forwards, and we’ll be finding out more about them in the month ahead with posts under our 2016 NBA Draft tag.
Our Reverse Standings feature can be found at anytime on our right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2016. Be sure to check back often!