The even bigger statistical anomaly is each time they got the #1 pick a generational big man fell into their laps

Why tank multiple years when you can get a generational star in 1 year? Are the rest of the NBA teams stupid?

Does make you question why such an important aspect of the NBA is based around luck.

Utah has missed the playoffs 11 times since 1985. Not only has Utah never gotten the #1 pick, they have never even jumped up in draft position. Pacers have missed the playoffs 10 times. Neither team has gotten a top 4 pick from their own draft pick. Spurs have never jumped down in draft position, although I’m not certain how common dropping down is. Edit: Pacers drafted Rick Smits in 1988. I previously thought this was a traded pick. Both of Utah’s top 4 picks were trades.

Not only jumped up to first but all thee times there was a generational talent available

Joshua was not, in fact, Primo

I suspect people who are actual experts in statistics get exhausted at rigging comments. It’s like the NBA version of flat earthers

Proof life is indeed not fair

Thank goodness they ended up with 2nd and didn’t get first to pair Flagg with Wemby.

league had to do it for wemby’s sake. imagine him on the kings or something

This shit is rigged lol

Is it really jumping up 2 spots in 2023 when they had equal best odds?

Yep, odds are funny

Those big women in San Antonio tilting the odds

Pablo gonna be hunting out there 

More proof nba rigging for small market

“sPuRs hAvE a WeLl RuN oRgAnIzAtIoN”

Naw it seems like they legitimately do, but the luck they’ve gotten in the draft is frustrating 

Meanwhile the Pacers are the exact opposite with continually moving back and never getting the #1 pick.

The Spurs are a well-run team. On the other hand there’s a very easy to imagine world where they draft Chauncey Billups at two and win exactly 0 championships. Luck matters a lot more than people like to pretend

I don’t see the benefit of manipulating a market that isn’t the likes of LA NYC Chicago etc

Everyone loves glazing the competence of their management, yet I don’t see them hitting on any late draft picks or 2 way players like other successful teams do. It’s quite easy to be successful without much brainwork when you get such a ridiculous lottery luck. No shit they picked Wemby, Harper and Castle at these position, this doesn’t tell me anything about their talent evaluation. 

Every franchise goes through periods where they suck. The Spurs have had a tendency to suck at the right times. But one has to give them credit for taking advantage of the situation and getting the right guys to go with the generational talents for sustained success (the Celtics have done this well too with the exception of 1997).

And by contrast, in 30 lottery appearances…the Kings only moved up 4% of the time and dropped 47% of the time…40% being no change.

It feels unfair

Lol forgot about Joshua Primo, that deviant.

This is how you know the draft isn’t rigged. San Antonio is one of the smallest markets in the league. Their playoff games routinely have some of the worst ratings. If the NBA was fixing things, you’d have seen the Knicks and bulls have more luck.

It’s fixed - the NBA clearly favors the Spurs because San Antonio is a huge media market ! s/

Luckiest franchise of all time

witchcraft.

What happened the season before they got Timmy? Didn’t the admiral get hurt ?

Well, if there’s any claims of conspiracies, feel free to search for the recording of the drawing of the more recent draft lotteries. It’s still very lucky of course, but there’s video proof that Wemby’s draft wasn’t rigged.

I imagine it has to be frustrating for fans of teams like the Jazz that Spurs fans were wearing Wemby jerseys before they even won the lottery. League now wants to make it harder for other teams to get better after Spurs got Wemby from tanking and OKC got Chet from tanking. 

A wise man once said “there is a lot of fat women in SA.” Therefore, their ping pong balls must be heavier.

its like the opposite of my redwings, they haven’t had the 1st pick since the 80s and have either stayed where projected or moved back the last decade

The Cavs meanwhile have gotten the #1 4 times and gotten LeBron with 2 of them (assuming trading Wiggins was a condition)

The NBA keeps the Spurs relevant, but San Antonio has no business having one of the 30 franchises. I’m joking; I just don’t like the Spurs because they’re not my favorite team.

Nothing to see here, totally legit.

Rigged obviously.

This is why you tank. NBA success is built in the tank.

Maybe Miami can take some notes instead of pretending like they’re going to land every big name that becomes even somewhat available.

Perennially a lottery team the kings haven’t gotten the number one pick in over 40 years.

I don’t know if I believe in karma, but Spurs fans definitely should. They develop their talent and run a top class organization. Hats off to them.

can all the people who think it’s soooo tinfoil hat crazy the mere idea that the NBA might rig the lottery do me a favor and google gulf of tonkin and maybe reconsider if it’s as crazy as it sounds, relatively speaking

³⁄₉ hits doesn’t sound that egregious at first, but in 4 of those years they didn’t really have a realistic shot at getting the top pick (1.7% in 2021, 2% in 2020). So in the 5 years with bad records they won the 1st pick 3 times!

Randomness is only random in large batches

Is there an actual point to this post?

Incredible luck, but I’d argue that when we got Wemby, we were bottom three, and had a tie for the highest chance to land the no 1 overall

Hell yeah

Ill get this out the way early. The Spurs are extremely lucky. They aren’t one step ahead of everybody or anything dumb like that. Their best trait is just unrelenting competency and consistency. And yes this post shows just how lucky they’ve been.

It also shows something else. They’ve been really really good at putting playoff teams on the floor and maximizing that luck.

First off in those 41 years, the Spurs have only missed the playoffs 9 times and 6 of those are in a row. That means for 35 years, the Spurs only missed the playoffs 3 times. Before this recent stretch they had only missed the playoffs 5 times total in franchise history until 2020.

For reference, Kobe missed the playoffs 4 times in his career and one time in the middle of his prime. Not a knock on Kobe, its just to show having an all-time greats doesnt guarantee playoffs every year without competence and yes luck.

The other thing overlooked is the Spurs arent some face of tanking. Of those 9 lotteries, only 3 are actually tanks.

Two of those tanks resulted in generational luck (Duncan, Wemby). Im also counting Castle although I could argue they were just regular bad i.e. Castle is more a result of the tank to get Wemby and not being dumb and going all in out the gate but we’ll count it.

2020-2022, they attempted to make the playoffs; they just failed. 2024, they attempted to make the playoffs and Wemby got hurt. 1987 regular bad post Gervin. 1989 regular bad because Robinson still hadnt shown up yet which means they actually made the playoffs after drafting him even though he wasn’t on the roster yet then missed again.

FTR, that 1988 “playoff” team was really really bad. The West was truly awful in the 80s.

And finally 1984 regular bad because Gervin was getting old and they barely missed the playoffs.

I think 3 tank years and only 11 missed playoffs since 1974 is pretty good – luck or no luck. And one of those “tanks” is during what was supposed to be one of the worst drafts ever and instead they got a potential all-star at pick 4.

So yeah its luck. But its also unrelenting competency and knowing when to hold em and when to fold em.