On the eve of the NBA Draft Lottery the question on everybody's mind is who's ping pong ball will be drawn as the lucky winner. While in the Bay Area folks have their fingers crossed that the Golden State Warriors will be the team called first. There are a number of teams that have a greater chance of winning the overall first pick, but the beauty of the lottery is all 14 teams have a chance.
Here's a reminder on each team's possible chances for winning the lottery via NBA.com:
TEAM
RECORD
LOTTERY CHANCES (out of 100)
PERCENT
Minnesota
17-65
250
25%
Cleveland
19-63
199
19.9%
Toronto
22-60
156
15.6%
Washington
23-59
119
11.9%
Sacramento
24-58
76
7.6%
Utah (from New Jersey)
24-58
75
7.5%
Detroit
30-52
43
4.3%
Cleveland (from L.A. Clippers)
32-50
28
2.8%
Charlotte
34-48
17
1.7%
Milwaukee
35-47
11
1.1%
Golden State
36-46
8
0.8%
Utah
39-43
7
0.7%
Phoenix
40-42
6
0.6%
Houston
43-39
5
0.5%
Remember folks, the first three picks in the Draft will be determined by the lottery. The remaining lottery teams will then be selected for picks 4 through 14 in inverse order of their standings at the end of the 2010-11 regular season. The Sacramento Kings won a coin toss with the New Jersey Nets to be a spot ahead of them due to a tie; New Jersey's pick goes to Utah from the Deron Williams trade.
But who will the Warriors choose? Will they draft by the best available talent at the time or will they draft for team needs? I'll be taking a close look at this next week in a feature piece, but there are a number of players in this years group that could make an immediate impact for the Warriors, especially at the center or forward position. Players include Derrick Williams out of Arizona, Enes Canter out of Kentucky, Marcus and/or Markieff Morris out of Kansas, Kawhi Leonard out of San Diego State, or Donatas Motiejunas from Lithuania. All of these men have the talent to impact the W's in their first year on the team, whether as a starter of a role player. It will be up to the new head coach and his philosophy as to how to Warriors will draft this year, which is a whole other can of worms....
The Draft Lottery will be televised on ESPN at 5 p.m. PT tomorrow afternoon. Don't miss out!
For more discussion and analysis of the NBA Draft, head over to SB Nation's Ridiculous Upside to get in on the action.