The NBA Draft Lottery takes place tonight at 8:30 pm EST on ESPN. The only real policy we have in any of the major American sports that is used to deter tanking, it’s the annual Burning Man for conspiracy theorists. Frozen envelopes, league payoffs, Dikembe Mutombo tweets; this event was hand crafted for NBA Twitter. Here are six fun things to root for tonight:
- Philadelphia wins the top overall pick, knocking the Lakers out of the top-3, therefore giving them ownership of the Lakers pick as well as their own. This would give the Sixers two top-5 picks in a loaded draft just a year after firing Sam Hinkie and giving up on the #process.
- New Orleans wins, meaning they get to keep their draft pick from the DeMarcus Cousins trade and we all get to keep making fun of Vlade Divac’s ineptitude.
- Sacramento wins the lottery with their own pick, but are therefore forced to send it to Philadelphia as part of that horrifying Nik Stauskas trade… and we all get to keep making fun of Vlade Divac’s ineptitude.
- Minnesota wins the lottery, placing three of the last four number one overall picks on the same roster, thanks in large part to the extra ping pong balls they acquired when the Knicks unwittingly won on the final day of the regular season.
- The Lakers fall just one spot in the lottery, from third to fourth, meaning they are forced to send their draft pick to Philadelphia because they decided to win five of their final six games and let Phoenix end the season with a worse record.
- Phoenix wins the lottery and decides to draft yet another point guard and go all-in on the five point guard lineup.
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