How to Understand the NBA Draft Lottery

The NBA Draft is a chance for NBA teams to find the next big star and to help those teams that have performed poorly during the past season. The NBA Draft consists of basketball players one year removed from high school or at least 19 years of age. These player are from colleges throughout the United State as well as leagues and teams from all over the world. Follow these steps to learn more.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Determine teams for the Draft lottery. The NBA Draft lottery is populated by all the teams that do not make the NBA playoffs.
2. Rank the teams for lottery position. Those non-playoff teams are ranked from worst record to best record.
3. Begin the equitable distribution of lottery chances for each team. Fourteen ping pong balls numbered 1 to 14 are placed into a bin. Each team is given an allotment of four number combinations. For example, 1-5-7-12. The order of these four numbered sequences do not matter. So 1-3-2-4 is the same as 1-2-3-4. Those fourteen numbered balls with four number combination account for the 1001 possible different numbered outcomes.
4. Distribute the number combination to each NBA lottery team. The teams are then given a percentage of the 1000 combinations (one combination, 11-12-13-14 is given to no team and is ignored) based on their teams won-loss record in reverse order.
5. Conduct the lottery for the first three spots in the NBA draft. If a team does not have their numbers drawn for the first three picks they are placed in reverse order based on won-loss record from the previous year, starting with the number four position and working back to the last NBA Draft lottery pick which is number 14.