Louisiana State’s Ben Simmons and Duke’s Brandon Ingram are expected to be the top two picks in the June 23 draft.
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From left, NBA draft prospects Jaylen Brown, Skal Labissiere, Jamal Murray and Brandon Ingram talk before the start of the NBA basketball draft lottery, Tuesday, May 17, 2016, in NY.
The Sixers landed the top overall pick, with the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics earning the second and third choices. They have the right to swap picks with Sacramento from a trade involving Nik Stauskas, so adding the Kings’ 1.9 percent chance of moving up to No. 1, Philadelphia actually has a 26.9 percent chance. The deepest cut was the 1.7% chance in 2014, a chance which landed higher than the Philadelphia 76ers hopes at 19.9% for the second worse finish in the National Basketball Association.
The Lakers already received the benefit of the protection a year ago, as they had the fourth-best lottery odds in 2015 but jumped into the top three to keep the choice and select D’Angelo Russell. But the Lakers (19.9 percent) and Celtics (15.6 percent) weren’t far behind.
The 2016 NBA Draft Lottery is on Tuesday night in NY (8 p.m., ESPN), and there’s no shortage of key storylines heading into it.
However, shifting the pick back also dramatically increases the 76ers’ uncertainty. There are ramifications in the upcoming years if that happens, as Philadelphia could get an unprotected 2018 pick out of it from Sacramento.
It’s a product of organizations’ willingness to invest in the draft, specifically the lottery, take risks and invest in odds.
It’s up to the ping-pong balls. In fact, let’s look at it from the percentages, for that’s really what the NBA Draft Lottery is all about. Or is this a team we want to take from 33 to 40 wins and continue to move in the right direction? Their pick, as you might know, is Top-3 protected this year.
The Suns have a stronger aggregate chance stay where they are or rise up (47.64%) than they do to drop to the 5th pick. With that pick swap in place, the Knicks later traded it outright to the Raptors for Andrea Bargnani.
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Thanks to an earlier trade, the Lakers’ pick goes to the 76ers if it is not in the top three. Not only would the Suns be out their second lotto pick, the Wizards would have bumped the Suns top pick down a notch in the process. If they do not, they send it to the Sixers, via the Suns, and then the 2018 pick goes to the Magic, so long as it is not within the top five.
