By Sam Massey
Happy trade deadline to everyone who celebrates! Although it has been relatively quiet compared to previous years, the past few days have undoubtedly heated up. With the large scale changes coming to contenders such as Washington, Cleveland, and OKC (damn you Daryl Morey…), I think it is a great time to do predict the rest of the season. Using Monte Carlo simulations to project final win totals, playoff seeding, and lottery outcomes, the goal of this is to forecast where the league is headed by the end of April, and what that means for both the title race and the future of rebuilding franchises. There will not be a full fledged blog post as I wrote for midseason. You can check that one out here.
Predicted End Standings
East – West
| 1st seed | DET | 57-25 |
| 2nd seed | CLE | 55-27 |
| 3rd seed | BOS | 54-28 |
| 4th seed | NYK | 53-29 |
| 5th seed | PHI | 51-31 |
| 6th seed | MIA | 50-32 |
| 7th seed | ATL | 48-34 |
| 8th seed | ORL | 46-36 |
| 9th seed | TOR | 43-39 |
| 10th seed | CHA | 42-40 |
| 11th seed | MIL | 32-50 |
| 12th seed | CHI | 32-50 |
| 13th seed | BKN | 26-56 |
| 14th seed | WAS | 26-56 |
| 15th seed | IND | 18-64 |
| 1st seed | OKC | 63-19 |
| 2nd seed | SAS | 60-22 |
| 3rd seed | MIN | 57-25 |
| 4th seed | HOU | 56-26 |
| 5th seed | LAL | 49-33 |
| 6th seed | POR | 45-37 |
| 7th seed | DEN | 45-37 |
| 8th seed | PHX | 42-40 |
| 9th seed | GSW | 37-45 |
| 10th seed | MEM | 36-46 |
| 11th seed | LAC | 32-50 |
| 12th seed | DAL | 28-54 |
| 13th seed | NOP | 26-56 |
| 14th seed | SAC | 23-59 |
| 15th seed | UTA | 17-65 |
Predicted 2026 NBA Draft Lottery
| 1st Pick | BKN | EAST |
| 2nd Pick | IND | EAST |
| 3rd Pick | UTA | WEST |
| 4th Pick | WAS | EAST |
| 5th Pick | LAC | WEST |
| 6th Pick | SAC | WEST |
| 7th Pick | DAL | WEST |
| 8th Pick | CHI | EAST |
| 9th Pick | MIL | EAST |
| 10th Pick | NOP | WEST |
| 11th Pick | MEM | WEST |
| 12th Pick | PHX | WEST |
| 13th Pick | CHA | EAST |
| 14th pick | TOR | EAST |