NBA Draft Lottery 2015: New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers Hoping For Draft Luck

NBA Draft Lottery time is here for New York Knicks and Los Angeles Lakers fans. The 2015 NBA Draft Lottery takes place Tuesday night (May 19), with a lot on the line for the teams that finished with the worst record in the league. A report from Yahoo! Sports reveals that it will take place on ESPN at 5 p.m. PT, before Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. The Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets are playing in that series, deciding which team will advance to the NBA Finals.

The team with the best shot at winning the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery is the Minnesota Timberwolves, with 25 percent of the ping pong balls thanks to a 16-66 finish. The New York Knicks are next on the list at 19.9 percent, and the Philadelphia 76ers are at a 15.6 percent chance. The Los Angeles Lakers are also up there in chances, with 11.9 percent of the ping pong balls favoring them as the team to get the first overall selection. If the Knicks or Lakers were to win the No. 1 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, it could certainly help turn those franchises around very quickly.

In an updated mock draft from USA Today, the top three picks are predicted to be center Karl-Anthony Towns from Kentucky, center Jahill Okafor from Duke, and guard D’Angelo Russell from Ohio State. They have the Lakers selecting point guard Emmanuel Mudiay with the fourth selection, giving Kobe Bryant someone to work with that has a lot of athleticism. With two centers at the top of the draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the New York Knicks could both walk away with franchise-altering rookies.

As previously reported on the Inquisitr, Kentucky has seven players that are in the pool for the 2015 NBA Draft. Several are expected to become first-round selections, with several more projected to go as early second-round selections. Kentucky Wildcats fans will have a reason to tune in and stick with the draft for both rounds, especially with the potential that all seven names could be called by the commissioner and his assistant.

There are several other intriguing scenarios that could play out during the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery, and it includes the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat having a shot at the top overall selection. Though the odds are stacked against the teams due to the limited number of ping pong balls they get, it would certainly be eye-opening if the Thunder could add a top pick to a core of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

One other noteworthy facet of the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery is that if the Los Angeles Lakers fall out of the top five selections, that pick would then go to the Phoenix Suns to complete the 2012 deal for Steve Nash. For the New York Knicks, it becomes a “now or never” prospect, as the team doesn’t have a first-round selection in 2016.

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