The Portland Trail Blazers going on an extended winning streak during the stretch run of the NBA season has been great for their chances of securing home-court advantage. And while it's a good problem to have, those wins have not been so great in terms of where Portland's first-round pick will land in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Case in point: just a few weeks ago, Jonathan Givony of ESPN, using their proprietary Basketball Power Index, had the Trail Blazers selecting Croatian forward Dzanan Musa with the 16th overall pick. But today, thanks to their nine-game winning streak, BPI has the Trail Blazers finishing the season with the fifth-best record, and thus, the 26th overall pick.