NBA Draft Lottery Odds 2023: This Is The Detroit Pistons’ Biggest Lotto Draw Since Darko

The Detroit Pistons and nearly half the league await their draft fate in the upcoming 2023 nba draft lottery,

It is one of the most anticipated events in American sports each year, with dramatic and franchise-swinging results in its presentation, all on a whim of ping pong balls. Smart Play Lottery Machine,

But the anticipation for this year's lottery has been building for several months. Why?

Well, the jewel at the top of the June draft Victor Vembanyama is, one of the most attractive prospects ever in any sport. This is probably the most important NBA draft lottery since 2003, when LeBron James was waiting for the prize winner. (The Pistons, you'll remember, took Darko Miličić with the next pick, More about Vembanayama and the rest of the top prospects later.

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Here's what you need to know about the lottery process, the odds and pre-lottery order, how it all affects the Pistons, and a little bit about this year's top draft prospects.

What is the NBA Draft Lottery?

The league does not guarantee a draft spot after the season. Instead, it draws in a lottery to select the top-four. The remaining draft positions are determined by the inverse of the regular season record. All 14 teams that make it out of the playoffs (or the team that owns their pick if it has been traded) have a chance to win the No. 1 pick.

When is the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery?

Lottery results will air Tuesday, May 16 on ESPN beginning at 8:30 p.m. ET in Chicago.

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How does the NBA Draft Lottery work?

Since the lottery's inception in 1985, the NBA now has a very strict and transparent way of conducting its lottery, which seeks to eliminate decades of conspiracy theories. Here's how the 38th Annual Lottery drawing worked:

• there are 14 ping-pong balls numbered 1 to 14Which makes 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn from the 14 balls.

• 14 teams have been assigned 1,000 of those 1,001 four-digit combinations. Teams at the bottom of the standings receive more combinations than those with better records.

• 14 balls are dropped into a lottery machine and mixed for 20 seconds.

• One at a time, each ball is selected every 10 seconds, monitored by a time keeper. The team with the winning combination gets first choice.

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This process is repeated for the second, third and fourth selections. If the same team's combination comes up more than once, or if a single undecided combination is drawn, the result is discarded and the balls are drawn again. Once the four teams are drawn for the first four selections, the remaining 10 teams are seeded at numbers 5–14. The team with the worst record gets the fifth pick and so on. (Playoff teams are awarded picks 15–30 by reverse order of regular season record, regardless of playoff outcome, as are all second-round picks, 31–60.)

The results are then placed in envelopes and brought into the studio for the ESPN television broadcast, where deputy commissioner Mark Tatum opens the envelopes and reveals the teams in descending order. Neither Tatum nor each team's representatives on stage know the results until after they are revealed. (The lottery room remains in seclusion until the results are broadcast live.) The team whose logo is on the last envelope will have the No. 1 pick in the June 22 draft.

Later, the NBA backroom posts video from the lottery drawings.

What are the chances of the Pistons winning?

Since the Pistons finished with the league's worst record of 17–65, they have a 14% chance of winning the top pick. The league's two other worst teams also have 14% chances (Houston and San Antonio) to gain the No. 1 overall pick. The pistons can't drop further than fifth.

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What are the chances of the Pistons getting picked at the 2-5 spot?

• Choose 2: 13.4%

• pick 3: 12.7%

• 4 Choose: 12%

• Choose 5: 47.9%

The Pistons have a 40.1% chance of picking in the top three – where there appears to be a unanimous top-three prospect – but most likely for them is the fifth, They cannot bear any less.

Four teams jump over the No. 1 team and send them to No. 5, a feat that has not happened in the last four lotteries since the current format was instituted in 2019, where The odds were flattened across lotteries, This makes it tough, odd-wise, for the worst teams to be top picks, and makes it easier for teams to move up in the middle of the lottery. (Before the change, the Pistons would have had a 25% chance of winning the lottery.)

Here's what happened to the worst team in the last four lotteries:

• 2019: knicks fall from No. 1 to No. 3

• 2020: Warriors drop from No. 1 to No. 2

• 2021: Rockets fall from No. 1 to No. 2

• 2022: Rocket dropped from number one to number three

What is the order to enter the NBA Draft Lottery 2023?

1. Detroit Pistons, 14%

2. Houston Rockets, 14%

3. San Antonio Spurs, 14%

4. Charlotte Hornets, 12.5%

5. Portland Trail Blazers, 10.5%

6. Orlando Magic, 9%

7. Indiana Pacers, 6.8%

8. Washington Wizards, 6.7%

9. Utah Jazz, 4.5%

10. Dallas Mavericks, 3% (Knicks get this pick if it falls out of the top 10)

11. Orlando Magic, 1.8% (from Bulls; Chicago retains pick if it goes to top four,

12. Oklahoma City Thunder, 1.7%

13. Toronto Raptors, 1%

14. New Orleans Pelicans 0.5%

What is the Pistons' recent lottery history?

The Pistons are in the lottery for 2020. Here's how they fared in each of the last three:

• 2020: Pistons drop from No. 5 to No. 7 (drafts Killian Hayes)

• 2021: Pistons move from No. 2 to No. 1 (drafts Cade Cunningham)

• 2022: Pistons drop from No. 3 to No. 5 (drafts Jaden Ivey)

Who is Victor Vembanyama?

Vembanayama is a French basketball player who stands at about 7 ft 5 in shoes and weighs close to 225 pounds. He turned 19 in January and plays for Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 in the LNB Pro A, the top league in France. the skills they have for their height and age not seen before, He can dribble like a smaller player, shoot off bounces and drop catches. He has forward mobility, and his 8-foot wingspan allows him to swallow up shots defensively.

Know more about Wembanyama and the draft on the May 2 episode of Free Press “Piston Pulse” Podcast, featuring ESPN special guest Jeremy Wu. Listen below or wherever you find the podcast.

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Who else can the Pistons draft if they don't get the No. 1 pick?

Based on talent and fitness two possibilities emerge if the Pistons end up with the 2nd or 3rd pick – a dilemma recently argued On “The Piston Pulse”.

• Scoot Henderson, a 6-foot-2 point guard, skipped college and spent the last two seasons in the G League. He brings deft ball handling, athleticism and touch around the rim.

• Brandon Miller, a 6-foot-9 freshman forward from Alabama, brings size and shooting on the wing that the Pistons could desperately use.

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If the piston drops to four or five, the board is too fluid. Five names to watch include:

• Cam Whitmore, the 6-7 freshman wing from Villanova with scoring propensity.

• Jerez Walker, a 6-8 freshman forward from Houston with size and defensive versatility.

• Anthony Black, a 6-7 freshman guard from Arkansas with high intelligence and defensive chops.

• Amen Thompson, a 6-7 point guard from Overtime Elite with dynamic athleticism and passing vision.

• Auser Thompson, a 6-7 wing from the overtime elite with athleticism and high intelligence.

pay attention “The Piston Pulse” every Tuesday morning and on demand on freep.com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Watch all our podcasts and daily voice briefings here freep.com/podcasts,

This article was originally published on the Detroit Free Press: NBA Lottery Draft Odds 2023: Date, Time, TV Channel, What to Know