We had two ties among the lottery ranks as of Thursday morning, but the league settled those late Friday. Minnesota and Memphis had been tied with the third worst record, and New York and the Clippers had shared 5th place in Bizarro World. The coin picked the Wolves and Knicks as victors in their flippin' wars.

It means little in a practical sense going into the lottery. For instance, Minnesota will have 138 combinations out of 1,000; Memphis will have 137. The difference is 0.1%. Where the real impact comes, though, is at the June draft. If the lottery holds everyone to form, Minnesota picks third, Memphis picks fourth, New York picks fifth, and L.A. picks sixth. The lowest Minnesota can pick is sixth; Memphis could drop to seventh. It's a bit of difference.

And while this is less serious than dropping out of the Top 3 on draft day, or losing LeBron James to a blind man, Memphis continues to be snake-bitten in these draft proceedings. Remember, the Grizz finished with the worst record in the league last year, but got lotto-leaped by Portland, Seattle, and Atlanta. In 2004, the Grizzlies owed Detroit its lotto pick unless it was the #1 pick. The Grizzlies won the #2 pick, which became Carmelo Anthony Dwyane Wade Chris Bosh ... nevermind.

Previously at FanHouse:
Kings Sending Lucky (Hopefully) Fan to Lottery

The Sonics decided to win out (two-game win streak! woo!), while Memphis and the Knicks stoked the Derby fire with nothin' but losses to finish out the year. All the developments of the past few days have been tallied, and here's your Ping Pong Derby: Final Report.



Miami ends up with a 25% shot at Pick #1, and a 64% probability of getting a Top 3 pick. They cannot fall further than 4th. Seattle's got a 20% chance at #1, and a 56% probability of sticking in the Top 3.

The two ties make things ... interesting. The league will flip a coin in each case later this week. The result will have no real bearing on the lottery proceedings on May 20 -- Minnesota and Memphis, for example, will split the balls available for the #3 and #4 teams. If it's an odd number, the coin flip winner will take the extra one. But the coin flip does have serious import with regards to draft order. A Minnesota coin flip win means Minnesota picks ahead of Memphis, unless Memphis vaults into the Top 3 by way of lottery win. It also means the lowest Minnesota could pick would be #6, while Memphis could fall as low as #7.

The same goes for New York and the Clippers. Last season, there was a three-way tie between New York, Charlotte, and Sacramento for #8. The coin flip results ended with Charlotte picking #8, New York giving Chicago its #9 pick, and Sacramento picking #10. That's a pretty big difference. The gulf between #3 and #4 (or #5 and #6) doesn't seem to be as large, but if some prospect comes out and wows everyone next month, this coin flip could end being huge.

Previously on FanHouse:
Ping Pong Derby Update: The Knicks Falter
Miami Wins Ping Pong Derby
Miami Takes Lead in Ping Pong Derby

As we head into the final four days of the regular season, all the proverbial marbles are at stake for the six teams battling at the bottom of the standings. Your updated Ping Pong Derby scoreboard:



Minnesota wrested sole possession of third place from Memphis, sending the Grizz careening toward the Knicks and ... the insurgent Clippers! The Knicks, of course, could be in the 4th slot and battling for #3 (and its 50% shot for a top-3 pick). Instead, we might see the Knicks end up with only the sixth worst record in the league. Bummer.

We should note that last year's #4, 5 and 6 teams in the derby ended up with the top 3 picks ... in reverse order. (#6 Portland got #1 overall, #5 Seattle earned the second pick, and #4 Atlanta got the third pick.) Of course, the Grizz, Knicks, and Clips would be counting on lightning striking in the same spot twice.

Previously on FanHouse:
Miami Wins Ping Pong Derby
Miami Takes Lead in Ping Pong Derby

With just nine days left in the regular season, it's time to start figuring out who's going to be taking home the end of the year awards. Your FanHouse crew has started to do exactly that, and in today's first installment, we take a look at who might be crowned the league's Most Improved Player.

Five of us named our top three choices, and the consensus results came out like this:

1. Hedo Turkoglu
2. Andrew Bynum
3. Rudy Gay, Chris Kaman (tie)

Hedo received three first place votes, while Andrew Bynum and Rudy Gay received one apiece. The other players that we had in the conversation were Rajon Rondo, Mike Dunleavy, Jose Calderon, Manu Ginobili, and even Monta Ellis as a possible repeat offender.

Like many awards, there is always a debate on what defines "Most Improved." Some would say that it has to be a player that comes out of nowhere to be recognized as a top performer, while others would contest that a star that rises to superstar status (like Ginobili or Chris Paul) should be eligible. I think Hedo Turkoglu this year is a nice combination of those two schools of thought.

It's been almost two years since Larry Brown's debacle in New York ended, and to the surprise of, well, no one, he's hoping to get back on the sidelines. From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

"I've got to figure out if I can get a coaching job," Brown said. "I want to get back so bad. I'm so bored."

[...] "I just miss it. I don't miss the games so much, but I miss being around the coaches and the players. I still have something to offer. . . . After my last experience [in New York], I just want to go where I can do a better job and move forward."

For the time being, Brown has sated his coaching jones by assisting Mo Cheeks in evaluating players, as well as helping out at Villanova practices. In fact, he doesn't care if he coaches in the pro game or returns to his college roots, he just wants a job -- any job (so long as it's a head coaching job, natch -- he's turned down offers to be an assistant for the Celtics as well as Marquette over the past 12 months).

For only the sixth time since Christmas, Miami wins. No, not a game. Of course not a game. Miami has basically sewn up the Ping Pong Derby, which means they'll have a 25% of drawing the #1 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, and will pick no lower than 4th. Unless the Heat go on some sort of winning streak behind Blake Ahearn and Kasib Powell, they won't be caught by Seattle, Memphis, or Minnesota.

Here's the scoreboard. The jockeying is clearly for third at this point.



We could be on our way to five 60-loss teams! Yippee. By the way, each ping pong ball represents a 1% chance at the top pick in the draft. Miami comes in with a 25% chance, the Knicks have a 8% shot. (And that's basically their worst case -- the Clips, with 22 wins, probably won't catch them.)

Kobe had been a little irritated the last couple of days, not speaking to the media after picking up two more technicals in his team's loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. He was clearly in eff-you mode from the start, scoring the team's first 12 points and finishing with 23 in the quarter. But even though Kobe finished with 53 points and 10 rebounds, that wasn't enough to prevent the Memphis Grizzlies from picking up just their 19th win of the season.

How did the Lakers lose to one of the worst teams in the league at home, while in the midst of battling for the top spot in their conference? Jacking up a team record 45 three-pointers is a start. Phil Jackson said that it wasn't necessarily bad shot selection, but he did mention that the missed attempts lead to too many fast break opportunities for the Grizzlies. Long shots equal long rebounds, you know.

The main reason the Lakers dropped this one though was poor defense, especially on the perimeter. Kobe mentioned after the game that until the big guys (Gasol and Bynum) return to bail them out with some help defense inside, the team is going to continue to struggle. Memphis shot almost 50% from the field for the game and scored 114 points, so yeah, I would say defense is definitely an issue. DJ Mbenga played 16 minutes, and by one unofficial account committed five "and-1" fouls, where he hacked a player but they scored anyway. That's not exactly providing help defense.

As a side note, I wonder why the Lakers even bothered signing Ira Newble to a 10-day contract eight days ago if they aren't going to give him any minutes. He played four minutes in a blowout over Seattle a week ago, and none since. When Mbenga fouled out, Chris Mihm got the call instead, his first action since December 23rd.

More serious to Memphis fans than sinister rumors of Marc Iavaroni's demise might be news from the Commercial-Appeal's David Williams that locals now only own 5% of the team, versus the 30% they owned before. Majority owner Michael Heisley (a Chicago businessman who has been trying to sell the team for more than a year now) made a "capital call" to local investors recently; they were forced to pay up their share of financial losses the franchise has incurred, or see their stake dwindle.

Williams reports that with the stake shrinkage, the locals have also lost their ability to make a "matching offer" of sorts if Heisley finds an outside buyer. So basically, the local owners have little say in the affairs of the franchise at this point. The report notes that the Grizzlies' lease with Memphis is particularly tight -- the franchise faces hefty fines if it slips out prior to 2021. Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins has previously done work to show the soonest the Griz could reasonably leave would be roughly 2016.

So we're left to figure out Heisley's intentions. The story says the local investors recently made a $300 million offer to purchase Heisley's 70% share. The Sonics cost Clay Bennett $350 million a year ago; for some reason, Heisley values the Griz at 11% more than the Sonics. Hmm.

Scenario A: The Grizzlies really are losing tons and tons of money (not hard to believe) and Heisley really needs help covering the costs (unlikely).

Scenario B: Heisley has a prospective owner, knew the locals would balk at the cap call, and wants to consolidate the shares in order to make the most bread off his sale. Positioning the franchise's payroll as flexible and thrifty would help. Adding the specter of a market relocation in eight years does not hurt.

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News cites a few anonymous sources saying Memphis plans on firing rookie head coach Marc Iavaroni this summer if they can replace him with Larry Brown. A Grizzlies fan emailed to note Memphis radio jock Chris Vernon -- who correctly predicted the out-of-nowhere Pau Gasol trade -- can't find any source to refute the rumors.

Iavaroni was the prize of the coaching free agent market last summer. Roughly a half-dozen teams were rumored to have interest before the Griz made a bold play to interview and basically hire him during the Suns' playoff run. Brown, meanwhile, has become radioactive. No team will touch him in a coaching role, and new Sixers GM Ed Stefanski even made a point to push L.B. (a Hall-of-Fame coach) away from Mo Cheeks' general vicinity (to prevent any Brute action).

We often rue the incessant instability in the NBA -- teams give up on young players too fast, and franchises give up on coaches before they've gotten much of a chance. Firing a coach with Iavaroni's pedigree after one season -- when he still has his team playing hard, despite a bullet-riddled roster -- would be the most egregious edition of knee-jerk decision-making.

Seriously, would L.B. have gotten this team to the playoffs? Really? Give Iavaroni a frickin' chance.

Yesterday morning, we chided an Associated Press reporter for buying Isiah Thomas's wolf tickets regarding the impact of a few nights off for Zach Randolph. Isiah said New York would be worse; I argued it would be difficult to be worse than the Knicks have been. It is crepes du crow for dessert. I was wrong.

Mike Miller scored 24 of his season-high 34 points in the first half, and the Grizzlies snapped an 18-game road losing streak Friday night with a 120-106 victory over the New York Knicks.

Memphis had actually passed Minne-freaking-sota for #2 in the Beasley sweepstakes this week before beating New York. Since Pau's been gone, the Grizzlies have gone 4-19. And the Knicks lost to them at home.

Kudos, Isiah. Your plan actually worked to perfection. Good luck against the Wolves tonight.