Draft question

The lottery (lottery ball machine) ony determines the first 4 picks.

The rest of the order is determined by W/L records and agreed-to trades between those teams.

What others have said. They call out the order in reverse so if we haven't heard our name by time they finish with #8, we know we have a top 4.

Yep.

Lottery used to determine the entire non-playoff draft order back in 1985 but that caused an outcry when the Knicks got Ewing and the team with the worst record (Warriors) got 7th.



SOP for the lottery is for something to happen to cause everyone to lose their shite and subsequent changes breaking things as a result.

Ex - The Magic winning back to back lotteries in the early 90s (Shaq and Chris Webber) cause the lottery to greatly shift odds away from teams in the back half and also make any future expansion teams (Bobcats, Raptors, Grizzlies) ineligible for 1st overall for X years.

That simultaneously tilted things toward tanking while utterly fricking over the expansion Grizzlies and Bobcats.

And if Memphis shows up at 11, then that means the almost-impossible happened and the Pels lost the pick.

So we definitely don't want to see Memphis at 11.

Just go to Tankathon and follow along in reverse order starting at 14.

If they don't call a team from that order, that team moved up to the top 4.

We want 14 through 9 to be called in order of each team slotted there then of course we don't want to hear our name at #8 as that means we vaulted to the top 4 .