It’s official, the Grizzlies are guaranteed to finish the 2006-07 season with the worst record in the NBA. That’s not good, except in one respect. It means we have the best chances of any team in the 2007 NBA draft lottery. I spent some time reading the Wikipedia entry about the draft lottery, and I must say, the way it works it rivals the BCS National Championship in terms of confusion. Here’s a summary of what Grizzlies fans need to know.
- The lottery will be held Tuesday, May 22.
- The Grizzlies, as a result of their last-place record, have the best chance of any team (25%) at receiving the number-one draft pick. The team with the second-worst record will have a 20% chance, and it goes down from there through the 14 teams that did not make the playoffs. The 14th-worst team has an 0.5% chance of getting the #1 pick.
- At worst, the Grizzlies will get the 4th pick.
- The probability of their getting the 2nd pick is 21.5%.
- Probability of their getting the 3rd pick is 17.7%.
- Probability of their getting the 4th pick, the worst they can do, is 35.8%.
For complete info you can check out the Wikipedia page, but unless you like math a LOT I suggest you don’t bother with it.