2014 NBA draft lottery primer: 5 things to know about this year's lottery (Ball Don't Lie)

[Yahoo! Sports - NBA -]

The 2014 NBA draft lottery will take place at Times Square Studios in New York City on Tuesday night, setting the order for the first round of the June 26 NBA draft. Below, we help you get set for this year's drawing with a handful of items you might find interesting. 1. When is the lottery, exactly? The 2014 NBA draft lottery will air on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 20, before the broadcast of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat. Again: Before the game, not at halftime, so make sure you're tuned in at 8 Eastern. 2. Which team has the best odds of getting the No. 1 overall pick? Based on the NBA's weighted lottery system, the team with the worst record gets the best chance of landing the top overall pick. This year, that'd be the Milwaukee Bucks, who finished the 2013-14 season with a league-worst record of 15-67 . Some people don't like that system, which has been in place since 1990, because they believe it encourages bad teams with no shot at competing for a title to give something less than the ol' college try, ostensibly losing as many games as possible to try to increase the likelihood of netting a higher draft choice. (More on that later.) That wasn't the case with the Bucks, though. They were actually trying to win this year , but an awful lot went awful wrong for Larry Drew's crew. As a result, the Bucks wound up being awful enough to sink to the bottom without additional chicanery, besting (worsting?) a Philadelphia 76ers team that was pretty openly not trying too hard to win games, lost an NBA-record-tying 26 in a row , and still couldn't out-lose Milwaukee. Remarkable stuff. Here are the odds each of the 14 teams in the 2014 NBA draft lottery have of coming away with the No. 1 overall pick: 1. Milwaukee Bucks (15-67): 25 percent 2. Philadelphia 76ers (19-63): 19.9 percent 3. Orlando Magic (23-59): 15.6 percent 4. Utah Jazz (25-57): 10.4 percent 5. Boston Celtics (25-57): 10.3 percent 6. Los Angeles Lakers (27-55): 6.3 percent 7. Sacramento Kings (28-54): 4.3 percent 8. Detroit Pistons* (29-53): 2.8 percent 9. Cleveland Cavaliers (33-49): 1.7 percent 10. New Orleans Pelicans** (34-48): 1.1 percent 11. Denver Nuggets (36-46, via New York Knicks)***: 0.8 percent 12. Orlando (via Denver)****: 0.7 percent 13. Minnesota Timberwolves (40-42): 0.6 percent 14. Phoenix Suns (48-34): 0.5 percent * If the Pistons fall below eighth in the lottery, this pick could go to the Charlotte Bobcats, thanks to the Corey Maggette-Ben Gordon trade . ** If the Pelicans remain outside the top five, this pick could go to the 76ers, thanks to the Jrue Holiday/Nerlens Noel trade . *** The Nuggets get this pick thanks to the Carmelo Anthony trade . **** Thanks to the four-team deal that landed Dwight Howard with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Magic will get whichever pick winds up closer to the end of the first round between the Nuggets' and Knicks' selections. The smart folks at Orlando Pinstriped Post have termed this the "WoNK" pick ("Worst of Nuggets/Knicks"). 3. Who's in the running for that No. 1 spot? Who goes where will likely depend on which team winds up winning the lottery, but there are three players whom most analysts, mock draft aficionados and observers have suggested will likely draw the most serious consideration for the top overall pick:

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