Another NBA Draft Lottery is in the books and this year’s winner is the Cleveland Cavaliers, who will have their pick among the consensus top-three of Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker and Joel Embiid on June 26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. This is the second consecutive year the Cavs will pick first and the sixth time in their history. However, as Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight reminds us, no team with the No. 1 overall pick has won the NBA title since 1998. Of course, Silver’s analysis indicates that a team would rather win the lottery than not, but it serves as an important reminder that the best pick and the highest pick aren’t always the same thing.
The Cavaliers were obviously the big winners on Tuesday night, as they possessed only a 1.7 percent chance of landing the top selection (not to mention only a 6.1 percent chance of landing in the top three). The Cavs leapfrogging eight teams dropped the Pistons down to the ninth pick, which they must now forfeit to the Hornets as a part of a 2012 trade involving Corey Maggette and Ben Gordon. Had Detroit stayed in the top eight, which had an 82.4 percent chance of happening, they would have retained their selection, undoubtedly making them the biggest losers of the night.
Here are all 60 picks that, barring trades, are officially set in stone for June 26:
Round One
- Cavaliers
- Bucks
- Sixers
- Magic
- Jazz
- Celtics
- Lakers
- Kings
- Hornets
- Sixers
- Nuggets
- Magic
- Timberwolves
- Suns
- Hawks
- Bulls
- Celtics
- Suns
- Bulls
- Raptors
- Thunder
- Grizzlies
- Jazz
- Hornets
- Rockets
- Heat
- Suns
- Clippers
- Thunder
- Spurs
Round Two
- Bucks
- Sixers
- Cavs
- Knicks
- Jazz
- Bucks
- Raptors
- Pistons
- Sixers
- Timberwolves
- Nuggets
- Rockets
- Hawks
- Timberwolves
- Hornets
- Wizards
- Sixers
- Bucks
- Bulls
- Suns
- Knicks
- Sixers
- Timberwolves
- Sixers
- Heat
- Nuggets
- Pacers
- Spurs
- Raptors
- Spurs
Does anyone else hate the draft lottery or is that just me?