When it comes to the NBA Draft and draft lottery if the Timberwolves didn’t have bad luck – they’d have no luck at all.
Wolves fans probably don’t need much reminder about the list of stars the team has missed out on drafting simply because the ping pong balls weren’t in their favor.
In 1992, the Wolves missed out on Shaquille O’Neal and Alonzo Mourning and wound up drafting Christian Laettner instead. In ’93, Jamal Mashburn, Anfernee Hardaway, and Chris Webber were off the board before the Wolves selected Isaiah Rider out of UNLV 5th overall.
Even in 1995, when the Wolves drafted Kevin Garnett, it happened again – as Joe Smith, Antonio McDyess, Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace were all drafted before the Wolves took a chance on the 19-year-old high school project.
The Wolves do have a pair of number one picks on their roster now – Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, but they acquired them in the Kevin Love trade.
So will their luck start to change on Tuesday night around 7:30 in the 2015 draft lottery?
The lottery is somewhat complicated. The league places 14 balls in a lottery machine, which creates 1,000 different combinations of four numbers. The Wolves have 250 of those number combinations – more than any other team.
Here are the Timberwolves draft odds:
- 1st pick: 25%
- 2nd pick: 21.5%
- 3rd pick: 17.8%
- 4th pick 35.7%
After Minnesota, the Knicks, 76ers, and Lakers have the best odds of snagging the top pick but each of the 14 teams in the lottery has a chance.
How likely you think the Wolves are to get the top pick might depend on how you look at the history of the NBA Draft. The Star Tribune’s Michael Rand writes that some believe there might be more than just bad luck at play.
Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard takes a look back at the 1985 draft, a draft that some believe the NBA may have rigged.
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