How does NBA Draft Lottery work? Explaining the process and rules as per 2021

The NBA Draft Lottery is scheduled for 8:30 PM ET and will determine the order of the picks selected in the 2021 NBA Draft. The current system of the NBA draft lottery was decided in 1990 after decades of rule changes. The Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons and Orlando Magic have the best shot at grabbing the coveted first overall pick as they finished the regular season at the bottom of the league standings.

How does the current NBA Draft Lottery system work?

The system ensures that the teams with the worst records get the best chance of high picks. With a total of 140 combinations out of 1000, the worst three teams all get a 14% chance of getting the first overall pick, i.e winning the lottery. This system was introduced in the 2019 NBA Draft.

Under the current rules, only the top four picks are decided through the lottery and the rest of the first-round draft order is set in inverse order of the win-loss record for the remaining non-playoff teams. For example, the Golden State Warriors have the best record among non-playoff teams so they are bound to be 14th in the draft order (unless they get lucky with the top 3 lottery picks).

NBA Draft Lottery

The NBA Draft lottery process is rather simple. The 14 non-playoff teams participate in the NBA Draft lottery and are seeded in the order of their season records, worst to best. Fourteen ping pong balls numbered 1–14 are placed in a standard lottery machine and four balls are selected at random, one at a time. The balls are churned in the machine for 20 seconds to ensure they are randomized for the first ball drawn and the same is repeated for 10 seconds each before the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ball drawn.

There are 1001 possible combinations of four balls numbered 1-14. Only one combination of 11-12-13-14 is ignored if accidentally drawn. The remaining 1000 combinations are distributed among the 14 lottery teams. For example, Houston, Orlando and Detroit have a 14% chance of getting the first overall pick this season and so they are each given 140 out of the 1000 combinations. Similarly, Golden State is given just 5 of the 1000 combinations, making their shot at the first overall pick 0.5%.

The 2021 NBA Draft Lottery, broadcast live tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, will determine the order of selection for the first 14 picks of the 2021 NBA Draft.Below are the individuals who will represent their respective teams. pic.twitter.com/XZksBCgwfg

— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpears) June 21, 2021

A team cannot win multiple picks in the NBA Draft Lottery. So if a team, who has already been assigned a pick, is drawn again, the ball will be ignored and will be redrawn. However, an exception to this rule is when the winner of the lottery pick acquired the said pick via a trade made earlier.

Then the team who acquired a pick will get to keep it and also get a pick because of its own record. For example, the Warriors own Minnesota's top 3 pick but it's protected so if it ends up outside of the top 3, Golden State gets to keep it and they will certainly also get their own pick.

The NBA Draft lottery ceremony of drawing the balls is held in private in front of independent auditors and representatives from each team. The results are then presented on television as a sort of an unveiling, with each team sending a famous representative.

The NBA Draft Lottery event often takes place prior to or at halftime of an NBA playoff game but has lately been an hour-long special aired on ESPN. To keep things interesting and the viewers engaged, the 14th pick is announced first and then they work their way up to the 1st.

The NBA Draft Lottery is set to air at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN. Be sure to tune in because if your team is participating in the lottery, they might get fortunate enough to bag a high pick.