After watching a season of tanking basketball, Mavs fans will find out tonight if it was worth it.
The NBA Draft Lottery airs on ESPN at 6:30 pm and the Phoenix Suns, who finished with a league-worst record 21-61 have a 25% chance of landing the top overall pick. The Memphis Grizzlies have a 20% chance, and our Dallas Mavericks have a 14% chance the ping pong balls bounce in their favor.
Don't get your hopes up though. The Mavs have a history of bad luck when it comes to the Draft Lottery. Since 1985 when the Lottery started, the Mavs have qualified for the lottery 13 times yet never won the Number 1 pick, and they've never moved up in the Draft Lottery either. Maybe this is the year?
How does it work? well, 14 ping pong balls numbered 1-14 are placed in a container. Each four-digit combination that is drawn has been pre-assigned to a team, and the number of chances each lottery team has is based on their regular season record. After the first combination is drawn, the balls are replaced and the process repeated. This is done for the first three picks, and picks 4-14 are determined by inverse order of regular season record.
The 2018 NBA draft takes place June 21 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.