This past weekend the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery took place, and we have a lot to cover. First, if you didn’t watch the lottery on May 12th, don’t feel bad because a lot of people missed it as it occurred on a Sunday. Now, for a brief overview of what the NBA Draft Lottery is, here is a description. The lottery contains the worst 14 teams in the NBA (unless a trade happened) and the worse the team did during the previous season, the higher the odds that they strike NBA lottery gold: the number one overall pick. Now 14 ping pong balls numbered 1-14 will be placed into the lottery machine. Then in 10-second intervals, the ping pong balls will be picked out. Each team was given a 4-digit number in a closed room; the first team to have their 4-digit number drawn will be awarded the number one overall pick. This process will repeat through picks 1-4. Now let's get to the big major topic that shocked most of the NBA: the Detroit Pistons, who had an unimpressive 17-65 record, was given the #5 overall pick in the draft. The Pistons were tied with the highest percentage to win the draft at 14%, but they came up short again. This has happened to them for the past 3 years! But this isn’t the end of the world, because the 2023-2024 NBA Draft class is one of the weakest we have seen, not to mention that the year before was packed with big-ticket players like Victor Wembanyama.
Now besides that, nothing else seemed shocking. The San Antonio Spurs were rewarded with the 4th pick in the draft to hopefully pick up a player that will complement Victor. The Houston Rockets found a way to squeak their way into the top 3 after barely missing the play-in. Then we found out that the Washington Wizards would be given the 2nd pick in the draft, which was expected because they also had 14% to win the lottery. Falling one place short wasn’t too bad, but this created a question: if both of our teams with the highest odds had already captured pick 2 and pick 5, who would win the lottery itself? The answer is quite shocking. The Atlanta Hawks, a team that made the play-in and only had a 3% chance of winning the #1 pick, had found a way to accomplish the unimaginable. Also with constant rumors circling that their two-star guards Trae Young and Dejountae Murray might be traded, this might help keep the guards in Atlanta.
So what's next? Well, as I said before, this is one of the weaker drafts, but the potential in some of these guys is astronomical. Most likely the Hawks will select Alexander Sarr, a French center with the number one pick, and then after that reporters can only guess. But the main takeaways of this event are that the Atlanta Hawks might be one of the luckiest teams, the weak draft class has high potential, and the Detroit Pistons have no hope whatsoever!
Works Cited
“Everything to Know About the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery and Utah's Odds.” NBA.com, 10 May 2024, https://www.nba.com/jazz/news/everything-to-know-about-the-2024-nba-draft-lottery-and-utahs-odds. Accessed 17 May 2024.
“NBA draft lottery results 2024: Top takeaways and questions.” ESPN, 12 May 2024, https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/NBADraft24-40132847/2024-nba-draft-biggest-post-lottery-questions-12-teams-atlanta-hawks-washington-wizards-houston-rockets. Accessed 17 May 2024.