One lottery note that I confirmed with NBA folks familiar with today's proceedings:
There won't be a "Pelicans envelope".
There will be a Hawks envelope and a Bucks envelope, and as a fan, no mental gymnastics are required. When you see the Hawks logo, that's the Hawks' pick.
Probability Hawks get top-4 pick is 40.2 percent.
Calculating Hawks chances of getting #2 pick is detailed.
Multiply each non-ATL, non-MIL team odds at #1 (column C) times conditional ATL odds at #2 (column D), then add.
Two-part podcast: State of the Hawks with @KLChouinard#TrueToAtlanta
🎧 Apple: https://t.co/7mRyst6OcG
🎧 YouTube: https://t.co/YaYQ0BgLFV
🎧 Spotify: https://t.co/41KTDjoKUQ
My question for Onsi Saleh yesterday on evaluating the team post-playoffs:
Q: "When you try to figure out what this team is and what it might be, and you have all the evidence from an 82-game season versus what happened in six games on an elevated stage, how do you weigh all the factors in trying to analyze and process what you have and what you need?"
Saleh: "I think it's because of such a short time, it's a little trickier, but there was a big enough sample there to understand the archetypes we need, the archetypes we have, and what our guys need to work on.
The regular season is just different from the playoffs. It's just a different game. It really is. Everybody sees the physicality. Everything is ... you're working in shorter spaces. You see scoring drop off pretty remarkably, so it's (about) figuring that stuff out.
But our guys, this is their first time going through it. And I thought they did a pretty good job of adapting, and then we hit some adversity during that (latter) part of the series, and it turned, but I think, again, that experience is going to help these guys work in their asses off this summer, and I'm just confident in them to get better."
Onsi Saleh, in response to @ZachKleinWSB asking about Quin Snyder:
“He has been an unbelievable partner in all of this, and it has been so nice, just having a partner who you're so aligned with. It makes it easy. I understand the types of players that work for him and understand the types of guys that make sense for us as an organization, and we always have healthy dialogue. We talk every day. He's unbelievable.”
Quin Snyder: “I thought their physicality was significant. And we made some mistakes. We had breakdowns. We didn't make shots. They did. It was a perfect storm.”
In every other season, you would have the option of listening to the local play-by-play broadcaster in the first round, but tonight, you'll only have that option if you're a Knicks fan.
Thursday, @ESPNNBA continues its coverage of '26 #NBA Playoffs with a doubleheader on ESPN
🏀 6p ET | NBA Tip-Off
🏀 7p ET | Knicks vs. Hawks
🏀 9:30p ET | Nuggets vs. Timberwolves
🏀 Postgame | Inside The NBA