Before the two best teams in the Eastern Conference show us what good basketball looks like (or, at least we can hope the Raptors are up to that task), the NBA’s worst teams get to watch fate play a hand in their fortunes.
The NBA’s Draft lottery is Tuesday night in Brooklyn.
The 14 teams that didn’t make the playoffs — well, except the Brooklyn Nets, New York Knicks, both of whom traded away their picks — will have representatives on hand hoping to land a spot to draft Ben Simmons or Brandon Ingram in the top two spots (because there is a drop off after those two). Below is everything you need to know for the evening.
• What are the lottery odds? Here you go:
Team, odds of No. 1 pick, odds of Top 3 pick
1. Philadelphia 76ers, 25%, 64.3%
2. Los Angeles Lakers, 19.9%, 55.8%
3. Boston Celtics (via Nets), 15.6%, 46.9%
4. Phoenix Suns, 11.9%, 37.8%
5. Minnesota Timberwolves, 8.8%, 29.1%
6. New Orleans Pelicans, 6.3%, 21.5%
7. Denver Nuggets (via Knicks), 4.3%, 15.0%
8. Sacramento Kings, 1.9%, 6.8%
9. Toronto Raptors (via Nuggets), 1.9%, 6.8%
10. Milwaukee Bucks, 1.8%, 6.5%
11. Orlando Magic, 0.8%, 2.9%
12. Utah Jazz, 0.7%, 2.5 percent
13. Phoenix Suns (via Wizards), 0.6%, 2.2%
14. Chicago Bulls 0.5%, 1.8%
• If the Los Angeles Lakers’ pick falls out of the Top 3 — and there’s a 44% chance that happens — the pick goes to the Philadelphia 76ers to close out the Steve Nash trade.
• The Brooklyn Nets traded their pick unprotected to the Celtics as part of the Kevin Garnett deal.
• The Denver Nuggets traded the rights to swap picks with the Knicks. Denver gets to keep their own pick or take New York’s whichever is better (combined that gives then a 21 percent chance to jump into the top three). Then the Nuggets traded the rights to the lesser of those picks to the Raptors. So the Knicks are frozen out, and it all stems back to the Andrea Bargnani trade. Yes, Andrea Bargnani is once again haunting Knicks fans.
• The Wizards’ pick is Top 9 protected, so if it does jump to the Top 3 (2.2 percent chance) then the Wizards get it back from the Suns.
• If the Sacramento Kings’ pick jumps to No. 1 (a 1.9 percent chance), it goes to the Sixers as part of the Nik Stauskas deal. If three teams below the Kings jump them into the top three (the odds of this are infinitesimal) it falls out of the Top 10 and the Bulls get the pick.
• There will be three players from the 2015 Kentucky Wildcats on the NBA Draft Lottery Stage.
• Who is representing the teams on the stage? No owners’ sons this year, the league tightened those rules (hallelujah!). Here is the list of representiatives:
1) Brett Brown, coach, Philadelphia 76ers
2) Mitch Kupchak, GM, Los Angeles Lakers
3) Isaiah Thomas, player, Boston Celtics
4) Devin Booker, player, Phoenix Suns.
5) Karl-Anthony Towns, player, Minnesota Timberwolves
6) Alvin Gentry, coach, New Orleans Pelicans
7) Michael Malone, coach, Denver Nuggets
8) Willie Cauley-Stein, player, Sacramento Kings
9) Masai Ujiri, GM, Toronto Raptors
10) Jason Kidd, coach, Milwaukee Bucks
11) Rob Hennigan, GM, Orlando Magic
12) Steve Starks, president, Utah Jazz
13) Jimmy Butler, player, Chicago Bulls
14) Zach Leonsis, vice president, Washington Wizards (in case the pick jumps to the top three and they get to keep it)