Minnesota Timberwolves won the NBA lottery on Thursday night, giving them the No. 1 pick. The lottery was conducted virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with officials organising the actual draw in Secaucus, New Jersey.
Golden State Warriors holds the No. 2 pick, Charlotte Hornets got the No. 3 pick and Chicago Bulls will pick fourth. The Hornets and Bulls both had a successful lottery after obtaining top-half picks. Boston Celtics now have three first-round picks (14th, 26th and 30th) in this year’s draft.
Cleveland got the fifth pick, followed by Atlanta, Detroit, New York, Washington, Phoenix, San Antonio, Sacramento and New Orleans at No. 13.
The 2020 #NBADraftLottery order is set. pic.twitter.com/6PLlYKKhY3
— NBA (@NBA) August 21, 2020
The 36th annual NBA Draft Lottery determined the order of selection for the first 14 picks of the 2020 NBA Draft. Drawings were conducted to determine the first four picks in the draft. The remainder of the “lottery teams” selected through positions five through 14 in inverse order of their 2019-19 regular-season records.
A media member, NBA officials and representatives of the accounting firm of Ernst & Young were in attendance for the lottery drawings.
Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. Before the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations will be assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams.
“We know with the No. 1 pick we have the opportunity to draft an impact player who could immediately complement our young, strong core,” Timberwolves President Gersson Rosas said. Timberwolves were 19-45 this season, marking the 14th time in 15 years that they failed to make the playoffs.
This was the second lottery since the NBA flattened the odds, which introduced more uncertainty at the top of the draft order. Last season, the New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers all jumped from the middle of the list into the top four.
Georgia guard Anthony Edwards, Illawarra Hawks guard LaMelo Ball and Memphis big man James Wiseman are the favourites to be the top 3 picks in this year’s draft.
Meanwhile, New York Knicks haven’t moved up since 1985 when they won the first lottery, selecting Patrick Ewing. The 8th pick could see them missing out on the young talent of Lamelo Ball, unless they manage a trade up.
It will be interesting to see who the Minnesota Timberwolves acquire with the No.1 pick in this year’s NBA draft on October 16th 2020.
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