The Utah Jazz should be sleeping well at night knowing that the infamous Derrick Favors trade didn't end in disaster for them. If it had, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the reigning NBA Champions with a solid chance of becoming an NBA dynasty, could have gotten richer. Utah will not help them in that regard, but there's still a chance they could get lucky in the draft lottery.
By clinching the fourth-best odds in the NBA Draft, the Jazz now officially have zero chance of giving their pick to the Thunder. It wasn't like the odds were high that the Thunder would get the Jazz's pick had the latter clinched the fifth-best odds, but at least there's no risk now.
However, the Thunder still have a non-zero chance of moving up in the lottery. Because of the now-infamous Paul George trade, the Thunder have the 12th-best odds of getting the No. 1 pick via the Los Angeles Clippers.
More specifically, if they by some chance move up in the lottery, it means other team could move down, and there's a chance that could be the Jazz. It's extremely unlikely, but it's still a possibility. Utah might not directly ensure Oklahoma City's future, but there's still a nonzero chance the Thunder legitimately troll the Jazz this coming Sunday.
Last year is a good reminder that anything can happen
Because of the Clippers, the Thunder has a 1.5% chance of getting the No. 1 pick and a 7.2% chance of getting a top-four pick. In other words, the chances of this happening are astronomically low to the point that it is downright laughable.
However, such was pretty much the same case with the Dallas Mavericks last year, and look what happened. Their winning the lottery played a part in sealing the Jazz's fate. Luckily, the draft was so loaded that Utah gladly took Ace Bailey and didn't think twice, but it was still comical how badly the lottery turned out for them again.
This time, the odds aren't even as strong for the Jazz as they were last year. No one would complain about getting the No. 8 pick, and the odds Utah getting it are also quite low (2.4%). However, low odds are not the same as zero odds.
It's a scary thought for the league in general that there's a slight chance the Thunder could add yet another scary talent to a team that is already as close to invincible as it gets. The Jazz may not have anything to do with that, but they could suffer from such a cruel twist of fate.
Not just because the Thunder could get stronger, but also because the Jazz hope to enter the same territory as soon as this coming season.
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