Morning After Reactions to the 2019 NBA Lottery

It's no secret that I love the NBA Lottery, and the level playing field of the new format only adds to that. Once I get a couple more years of grasping the new odds from each lottery position, I'll be back to checking Tankathon.com on a more regular basis than this past season because the chaos of the reactions with so many jumps is incredible. For example, New Orleans, Memphis, and Dallas tied in the standings, but the way the four digit number combinations were distributed after coin flips allowed the former two to move up and the Mavs to end up at #10...and thus lose their top-5 protected pick, ouch.

Here are the odds of each team landing where they did in the draft order along with my other favorite tidbits and observations of the results:

1. Pelicans (6.0%)
2. Grizzlies (6.3%)
3. Knicks (12.7%)
4. Lakers (2.8%)
5. Cavaliers (27.8%)
6. Suns (26.0%)
7. Bulls (16.8%)
8. Hawks (8.8%)
9. Wizards (3.8%)
10. Hawks, via Mavericks (24.3%)
11. Timberwolves (18.9%)
12. Hornets (86.1%)
13. Heat (90.6%)
14. Celtics, via Kings (95.2%)

• Football will probably always be king in New Orleans, but the lottery gods have certainly done their part to save basketball in that city. After franchise player Chris Paul demanded a trade in 2011, the team relented, tanked, and won the #1 pick to rebuild with Anthony Davis. Now with his future in the balance, they held onto him, tried to compete to convince him to stay, and still ended up with the #1 pick. It's awesome that in the first year of the new format that's designed to discourage teams from racing to the bottom, a team that didn't throw the season in the tank from the start won the lottery.