It’s time to learn who will draft when in the 2017 edition of the NBA draft lottery.
NBA lottery 2017 live stream: How to watch the selection show online
The NBA’s annual lottery is here. Let’s figure out where teams are picking.
Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images
The lottery isn’t a lottery for all 14 available spots; it’s technically only a lottery for the top three picks. It works like this:
With 14 non-playoff teams participating in the lottery, 14 ping-pong balls numbered 1-14 are placed in a machine. The balls are mixed for 20 seconds before the first one is drawn. The remaining balls are then mixed for 10 seconds before the second one is drawn. This process continues until four balls have been drawn to create a four-digit combination to determine the No. 1 pick.
There are 1,001 total combinations, with one of those combinations thrown out and the other 1,000 distributed among the teams.
The team with the worst record (this year it’s Brooklyn) in the lottery gets the most ball combinations at 250 while the best (Miami) only gets four combinations. Then the process is repeated to round out the top three, and it proceeds in reverse record order (similar to the NFL draft order) from there.
See each team’s odds of winning the 2017 NBA draft lottery, and everything else you need to know. Here are several scenarios for how it could shake out:
Essentially, what we’re watching is the reveal of the draft’s order, not the actual lottery itself, as the selection process is done behind closed doors with no electronics allowed.
Here’s when and how to watch:
Start time: 8:30 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN.com
This makes the event pretty stale in general, which is why we came up with some fun ways to improve the proceedings just a few years ago.
The list of attendees is always interesting.
Some teams choose to send an existing player. The Timberwolves have Andrew Wiggins (himself a lottery pick a few years ago) and the 76ers are sending Joel Embiid. Other teams send legends like the Mavericks (Michael Finley) and the Knicks (Clyde Frazier) to hopefully get some good juju going. Meanwhile, Sacramento and New Orleans are sending their head coaches.
Boston’s got the best chance to come out the lottery’s victor. We’ll see if the odds are ever in their favor.
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