NBA Draft Lottery 2020

The NBA draft pick lottery will take place at 8:30 p.m. ET Thursday from remote locations across the U.S. – on the mark for 2020! And when the ping-pong balls stop, the future of a franchise can be changed forever.

Warriors, horsemen and forest wolves all have the best odds to experience the best possible outcome, with a shared 14.0% chance of winning the lottery, and therefore, the overall first choice. But as we saw last year with the New Orleans Pelicans – who had only 7.5% odds and won the lottery – anything can happen on lottery night.

As we prepare for Thursday, here are six scenarios to follow while the official lottery order is settled.

1 – Which player will be the big winner?

A year ago, it was obvious to everyone that the pelicans, immediately after winning the lottery, would choose Zion Williamson with their pick. And they did.

But this year, we still don’t know who the best prospect in this class is, and the scouts I’ve talked to think it’s a three-way race between James Wiseman, LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards, with adjustment and need serving as a tie-breaker. (Wiseman is a center, LaMelo is a head guard, Edwards is a guard/shot wing.) It won’t be immediately clear which player will be the big winner, but we should get a lot more clarity with the order etched in stone .

2 – Can pelicans make history?

The Pelicans won gold last season by going from the outside of the top five to first place, using the pick to select Zion Williamson. But to repeat that season would be virtually unheard of (and, in fact, record-breaking). New Orleans has the 13th best odds to secure the No. 1 pick, with only 1.2% odds. No team has ever had a smaller chance of winning the lottery and has continued to win the lottery (although the Magic in 1993 came close, winning the lottery with an odds of 1.52%). As ironic as it is, the Magic is the only team to have won the lottery in consecutive seasons as the pelicans could do on Thursday.

3 – The Knicks’ attempt to end the lottery’s bad luck has taken center stage.

The Knicks have not progressed in the NBA Draft lottery since 1985 – the year they won the first pick and selected Patrick Ewing. But with team president Leon Rose as the team’s official lottery representative, perhaps a new face will bring new fortunes.

New York has a 9% chance of winning the lottery and a 28% chance of getting one of the top three picks in the draft. If ever there was a year to come up, this could be a good one: the Knicks need a playmaker, and LaMelo Ball and Killian Hayes look like two viable franchise caliber lead guards worth considering. The team’s 9% rating only follows Golden State, Cleveland, Minnesota, Atlanta and Detroit.

4 – Cleveland is the king of the lottery

The Cavs have won the NBA Draft lottery more than any other team in the league over the past two decades, resulting in huge successes (LeBron James, Kyrie Irving) and equally huge puffs (Anthony Bennett). Now they’re back in the mix again. They have a 40.1% chance of staying in the top three in the draft, an astronomically high 79.9% chance of staying in the top five and a 14% chance of winning with choice #1.

The Cavs have spent a lot of draft capital in recent years on their backfield, with Collin Sexton and Darius Garland, the team’s main guards, being drafted in the lottery in recent years. As such, winning the lottery in Cleveland may be a particularly positive development for James Wiseman, who is considered by scouts to be the best hope of the great men in this class, simply because it seems more likely than not that the Cavs will try to balance their roster to reflect recent investments in the guardroom (potentially reducing the likelihood of LaMelo Ball or Anthony Edwards landing there).

5 – The dash of the Golden State dynasty advances

Golden State will be in the top five. Because of the restructured lottery system, this is a guarantee; it’s just a matter of height – warriors can’t go lower than No. 5. If they get choice #1, prepare accordingly for the outrage that the system is rigged.

Golden State counts for three of the last five NBA champions. But rigged, the lottery isn’t. If it secures the No. 1 pick, however, we could be witnessing the resuscitation of one of the NBA’s greatest dynasties.

6 – Inevitable conspiracy theories, start…

The NBA Draft lottery is not rigged. But, dude, let’s give people some conspiracy theories themselves.

How about the 1985 conspiracy theory that the corner of the envelope was slightly bent, causing David Stern to pick it, and thus paving the way for the Knicks to win the Patrick Ewing lottery?

Or the theory that LeBron James’ home team, Cleveland, winning the lottery was almost a storybook ending too good to be true?

Or that Anthony Davis was the promised prince for New Orleans as the franchise recovered from Hurricane Katrina?

There’s always drama to spark wild controversy, imagined or not. That’s why the lottery remains one of the most fascinating sporting events of our time, and why, frustrating as it may be for many, we won’t do anything on Thursday, but break down the full 30 minutes like the movie Zapruder for anything that seems even slightly offbeat.

Image source : https://pixabay.com/fr/