2014 NBA Draft: Who’s in, who’s out?

The top picks in the 2014 NBA Draft will be determined when the draft lottery is held on Tuesday at the Barclays Center in New York. Unlike the NFL and MLB, the NBA determines the order for the top of its draft by following a weighted lottery system that distributes more ping-pong balls to teams that finished at the bottom of the regular season standings. Let’s take a look at how it all works.

Fourteen ping-pong balls will be placed into a lottery machine, and a four-ball combination will decide which team earns the No. 1 pick. The Bucks own 250 out of 1,000 combinations. The Phoenix Suns, who ended the season with the 14th-worst record, have just five combinations in the machine.

Payton enjoyed an excellent junior season with the Ragin’ Cajuns, averaging 19.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 2.3 steals while shooting 50.9 percent from the field. The 6’3 guard led the Sun Belt Conference in steals for the second consecutive season, and his stellar defense earned him the 2014 Lefty Driesell National Defensive Player of the Year award.

The 6’8 forward is headed to the NBA after a productive first season with the Blue Devils. He averaged 16.1 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game last season. He proved to be a versatile player during his career and showed the ability to shoot from deep, hitting 42 percent of his three-point attempts in 2013-14. His scoring was up from his freshman season at Mississippi State, where he averaged 10.3 points per game.

Hood’s decision to declare doesn’t come as much of a surprise since Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski talked openly about the probability of Hood heading to the NBA.

The 6’10 240 lb. product of Haverhill, Massachusetts was head coach Tom Crean’s top-rated freshman recruit in 2013, ranked No. 8 overall by Rivals.com. In just 30 games at Indiana, Vonleh is averaging 11.3 points on 52 percent shooting, including nine rebounds and 1.4 blocks per-game.

Despite his impressive physical size and recent production, Vonleh is sill considered a project, with his draft value mostly being potential rather than NBA readiness. One NBA GM said that he would spent a significant amount of time in the D-League next season if he were drafted, according to the report.