NBA Draft Lottery odds are set, the schedule is about to begin, and the L.A. Lakers are at great risk. The 2016 NBA Draft Lottery takes place on Tuesday, May 17, with the hopes of many teams now on the line. As explained by the Minneapolis Star Tribune , the NBA Draft Lottery will air before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals on May 17. ESPN will cover the event from New York City with 14 teams clamoring to possibly secure the first overall selection in the 2016 NBA Draft. It all begins at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET.
Per the rules of the NBA Draft Lottery, every team that fails to make the 2016 NBA Playoffs will receive chances to move into that No. 1 slot. 1,000 combinations are assigned to the 14 teams that fail to make the postseason, with those combinations correlated to ping-pong balls that are drawn from a machine. The teams with the worst regular season records secure more combinations, giving them a greater chance at becoming one of the top three teams to select on draft day.
By having the worst record in the league, the Philadelphia 76ers receive 25 percent (250) of the combinations. The L.A. Lakers have a 19.9 percent (199 combinations) chance at the top pick, followed by the Boston Celtics at 15.6 percent (156), the Phoenix Suns at 12.0 percent (119), the Minnesota Timberwolves at 8.9 percent (88), followed by the New Orleans Pelicans, and then the Denver Nuggets. The remaining teams have a very slim shot at securing the top pick, but anything can happen when the ping-pong balls are drawn.
As part of the tradeto acquire Steve Nash from the Phoenix Suns, the L.A. Lakers offered a 2016 first-round pick. That pick was later traded by the Suns to the Philadelphia 76ers. That transaction could come into play during the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery. The pick stays with the Lakers if the team remains in one of the top three slots. If, during the NBA Draft Lottery, the Lakers fall out of that top three, the pick then goes to the 76ers. That would be a worst-case scenario for a rebuilding franchise like the Lakers.
The odds of the Lakers keeping the first-round draft pick is at 55.8 percent, because even if the team doesn’t secure the first overall selection, they could still wind up at No. 2 or No. 3. Anything can happen when the ping-pong balls are selected, which is how the Orlando Magic wound up with the top selections in consecutive years to draft Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway. The Cleveland Cavaliers then benefited from a similar situation when they took Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins.
The reason that the Boston Celtics could appear at the top of the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery is due to a trade with the Brooklyn Nets dating back to 2013. The first-round pick wasn’t expected to be this valuable, but when the Nets posted the third-worst record in the NBA for the 2015-16 season, the Celtics suddenly had an even more valuable asset. Depending on where the team ends up in the overall draft order, that could become a very valuable trading asset for team president Danny Ainge to work with.
There could be added excitement during the NBA Draft Lottery if a team like the Chicago Bulls (0.5 percent chance) or the Washington Wizards (0.6 percent chance) got fortunate enough to secure the first overall pick. That could certainly re-shape either franchise, giving the team an immediate push during the 2016-17 NBA offseason. It’s also possible that the Minnesota Timberwolves could secure another elite player to add to its growing list of stars. Could the Philadelphia 76ers even wind up with two top 4 picks? For the L.A. Lakers, though, the 2016 NBA Draft Lottery might have more importance than any other franchise.
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