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2011 NBA Draft Order: Cross your fingers, Pistons fans

Update: It's official. The Pistons will have the 8th overall pick.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, and for the Detroit Pistons, the first step in their journey back to respectability takes place tonight during the 2011 NBA Draft lottery, which kicks off at 8:30 PM ET (ESPN).

The most likely scenario will be for the Pistons to head into next month's draft with the seventh overall pick, but as you can see in the odds below, there's roughly a 15 percent chance they'll move into the top three. (Of course, the flip-side is true -- if any of the teams currently slated to pick from the No. 8-13 spots move up, Detroit would slide down accordingly, perhaps all the way to 10th. But you know how this works, so I'll refrain from explaining doomsday scenarios.)

Here are the odds for each team in the lottery, courtesy of NBA.com:

Team

Record

Chances

1st Pick

2nd Pick

3rd Pick

Minnesota Timberwolves 17-65 250 25% 21.5% 17.76%
Cleveland Cavaliers 19-63 199 19.9% 18.8% 17.11%
Toronto Raptors 22-60 156 15.6% 15.73% 15.57%
Washington Wizards 23-59 119 11.9% 12.59% 13.29%
Sacramento Kings 24-58 76 7.6% 8.44% 9.49%
Utah Jazz (from NJ Nets) 24-58 75 7.5% 8.34% 9.39%
Detroit Pistons 30-52 43 4.3% 4.94% 5.78%
Cavaliers (from Clippers) 32-50 28 2.8% 3.26% 3.88%
Charlotte Bobcats 34-58 17 1.7% 2.0% 2.41%
Milwaukee Bucks 35-47 11 1.1% 1.3% 1.58%
Golden State Warriors 36-46 8 0.8% 0.95% 1.15%
Utah Jazz 39-43 7 0.7% 0.83% 1.01%
Phoenix Suns 40-42 6 0.6% 0.71% 0.87%
Houston Rockets 43-39 5 0.5% 0.59% 0.72%

No matter what happens tonight, we'll spend the next several weeks analyzing, hypothesizing and prognosticating what the Detroit Pistons could, should and will do come draft day June 23. In the meantime, Mike Prada got the ball rolling at the SBN mothership with a look at the Pistons' current needs -- give it a look.

And with that, your open thread is open. Now your thoughts.