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Sizing up the stretch run for the Kings and Sixers, and the draft implications

The Kings' trade with the Pelicans on Monday almost certainly will benefit the Sixers.

That's because the Sixers can swap picks with the Kings this year as long as the Kings' pick is in the top 10 and, of course, the Sixers have a worse pick; otherwise, the Sixers get a the Kings' second-round pick.

Also, the Sixers own the Kings' pick in 2019.

Since the Kings are the 11th-worst team in the league, and since they just traded their star, DeMarcus Cousins, they're likely to wind up near the bottom of the NBA pile. Also, they're likely to stay there for at least a couple of years.

All of that is likely, but not certain.

A quick look at the Kings' remaining schedule reveals that, with 24 wins in the bank, they might win as many as 30 this season, even without Cousins.

They play teams with losing records in 14 of their remaining 25 games. They play those losers at home in nine of those 14 matchups and have 13 home games total. They start a five-game homestand tomorrow and face losing teams in the first four games. They play the Nets, the league's worst team; Magic Johnson's tank-eriffic Lakers, the second-worst team in the West and aiming for the bottom; the Orlando Magic, the second-worst team in the East; and the worst team in the West, the Suns, twice.

Granted, even with Cousins, the Kings are only slightly better at home than they are on the road; and, granted, there's no guarantee that their recent 8-5 run would have continued with him. That's a winning percentage of slightly better than 61 percent, and while they won't keep winning at that rate, they might win 24 percent, which would be 6-19, good enough for 30 wins.

Can the Sixers reach 30? They have 21 wins, and so would have to go 9-17 over their last 26. However, 14 of their remaining games are against teams that sit in the playoffs today. The Sixers play on the road 15 times. That includes a four-game West Coast swing March 9-14 and a five-game road trip March 20-28. As a masochistic twist, on the 29th they host the Hawks, which will be the fifth time in 34 days the Sixers play back-to-back games.

Not only are the back-to-backs especially grueling, in the Sixers' case it means that star rookie center Joel Embiid, whose playing time is restricted, will sit out one of the back-to-back games. So, he will miss at least five of their remaining games. He will probably miss even more, considering Embiid has missed 14 of the last 15 games with a bone bruise and torn cartilage in his left knee.

The Sixers are 13-18 with Embiid, 8-17 without him.

When the Kings traded Boogie they got worse, true, but they have a pretty friendly schedule. They'll be bad, but they might not be bad enough to help the Sixers in June.

The Sixers' best hope is that the Kings stay bad until this year's high school juniors are ripe to harvest.