NBA Draft Lottery: Lakers Pick Odds

With the draft lottery set to take place tomorrow, the Lakers’ fate is in the hands of a couple ping pong balls. The somewhat complicated process of the draft lottery is made simpler by taking a look at the draft odds for the Lakers, which favor the Lakers to pick at the 6th spot or higher. Here’s an overall look at the lottery odds:

1^st – 6.3%
2^nd – 7.1%
3^rd – 8.1%
6^th – 43.9%
7^th – 30.5%
8^th – 4%
9^th – 0.1%

Given the way the draft lottery works, the Lakers can pick anywhere in the top nine, save for the 4th and 5th picks. The complex lottery system simplified sees the top three picks drawn based on the weighed percentages of each team, with the remaining lottery picks slotted by winning percentage.

The percentages are the important part of the matter. The Lakers obviously have the best chance at picking sixth, but have a 21.5% chance of finding themselves with a top three pick. The chances the Lakers find themselves outside the top seven is minimal, at just 4.1%.

The Lakers will be sending James Worthy as their representative to the draft lottery, clearly a symbolic selection. Worthy was the last #1 overall pick by the Lakers, back in 1982. The pick the Lakers acquired in which they used to select Worthy came via trade with the Cavaliers two years prior. After the Cavs finished with the worst record in 1982, the Lakers then won a coin toss for the #1 pick, selecting Big Game James and solidifying the Showtime Era.

The last time the Lakers were in the draft lottery was 2005 when they selected Andrew Bynum, who we know would become an integral part of three Final runs and two NBA titles.

Stay tuned as we’ll have all the coverage to the draft lottery in the coming day and a half leading up to it and the aftermath following.