The NBA is run by smart people, 76ers head coach Brett Brown said. And on Wednesday morning, those “smart people” sided with the Sixers. The league’s Board of Governors voted against making reforms to the draft lottery, changes that would have limited the Sixers’ odds of landing the top pick in June’s draft.
The proposed changes would have given the league’s four worst teams identical odds (12 per cent) to receive the first overall pick. The changes also would have allowed the league’s worst team to receive as low as the seventh pick.
Under the current format, the worst team has a 25 per cent chance to win the lottery and is guaranteed a top-four selection. The second-worst team has a 19.9 per cent chance to land the first pick, the third-worst team has a 15.6 per cent chance, and the fourth worst team has a 10.4 per cent chance. The lottery setup has been in place since 1994.
Brown said he had not given much thought to the lottery changes and was unsure how the vote would play out. Reports on Tuesday indicated that the reforms would pass by a wide margin. Instead, the league voted 17-13 against changing the lottery.
“The league spoke and that’s what they decided to do,” Brown said. “Here we are. Here I am, just moving forward and coaching. I think we just keep going with it.”
The 2015 draft is expected to be deep in talent, similar to the quality of last season. Point guard Emmanuel Mudiay, who opted to play a season in China instead of attending Southern Methodist, is the projected top pick. Kentucky center Karl Towns, Duke center Jahlil Okafor, and Texas power forward Myles Turner are expected to be among the first four selections.
Online sports book Bovada has set the Sixers’ win total at 16 games, the league’s lowest mark by eight games. The Sixers have not finished with the league’s worst record since the 1973-1974 season.
The league’s worst team has not won the lottery since 2004. Cleveland won last season’s lottery with just a 1.7 per cent chance to receive the first pick.
