NBA Analysis Network

With the regular season concluded and the NBA lottery odds locked in, general managers of every non-playoff team should be toiling over their big board right now, preparing for every possible scenario. The NBA lottery will commence on May 17, in which the official draft order will be determined. The NBA’s new lottery rules — constructed to prevent as many teams from tanking as possible — have added a new wrinkle and level of excitement to the draft. Since the new lottery odds were implemented, there have been a number of jumps and drops in draft position that have reshaped the NBA landscape tremendously. In 2019, the New Orleans Pelicans finished the season with the eighth-worst record after Anthony Davis’s boycott to force his way out to the Los Angeles Lakers. Thanks to the new system, they still had an outside shot at six percent to land the number one overall pick; the new lottery allowed them to segue their franchise from AD to Zion Williamson.