Everything OKC Thunder fans need to know heading into 2019 NBA Draft Lottery

Get ready for the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery tonight with everything OKC Thunder fans need to know including odds, times and how picks may affect the squad.

The 2019 NBA Draft Lottery takes place this evening in Chicago to determine the draft order for all lottery teams. Despite the OKC Thunder not being among the 14 teams in the lottery portion they do hold the 21st pick. The 2019 NBA Draft occurs on June 20.

A revised system will be incorporated this year with three teams have an equal 14 percent chance of winning the top pick. For the Knicks, Cavaliers, and Suns they’ll be hoping the new system works in their favor. The NBA brass implemented the revised odds system in order to stop teams from tanking. In truth, all it did was work to force the bottom tier squads placed in the bottom three of the Association to nab one of those spots.

Where this new system gets interesting is for teams who finished in the middle of the lottery teams. That’s because their odds of collecting a coveted pick in the second through fifth range.

More than ever this is important given the best picks this season fall in that range and after fifth, the depth of the draft isn’t great. Suffice to say scouting and evaluation of prospects long term potential is more important this season than it has been in years.

Draft Lottery Details:

Time:

Pregame show on ESPN: 8:00 p.m. EST on ESPN with Rachael Nichols

Draft Show: 8:30 p.m. EST on ESPN

Odds:

The tweet below offers a great one-stop overview of the odds by each team to land a specific pick.

The team with the most to lose is the Dallas Mavericks who’ll need to nab the fifth pick or higher. Failure to land in this position means the Mavs will convey their pick to the Atlanta Hawks as part of the Luka Doncic – Trae Young draft trade last season. With the lack of depth in this draft, the Mavs may want to convey the pick this season though adding a quality wing to their mix of talent could also be a positive.

Also of note, the Memphis Grizzlies pick may be conveyed to the Boston Celtics. The Kings who land in the final lottery spot at 14 won’t keep the pick no matter where it lands. Sacramento traded away their pick as part of the salary dump to send Nik Stauskas Jason Thompson and Carl Landry to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The question is who will get the pick as two teams are in the mix to land the Kings pick. If the Kings defy the odds and land the top pick the 76ers will keep it but landing anywhere else means the pick will be conveyed to the Boston Celtics.

Changes to system affect draft odds:

There are some key differences to the new system. The most obvious is the three teams who finished last have an equal (14 percent) opportunity to land the top pick. However, there are other major changes which are both positive and negative.

Teams who finished in the middle of the lottery picks have improved odds to land one of the higher picks while teams who finished just outside the bottom three have increased odds of landing a lower pick. If you’ve watched the draft lottery over the years we seldom see many shifts. Invariably teams end up with the pick they came in ranked to collect with at the potential two teams might swap positions. This new system makes that far less certain. ESPN gave the best explanation:

"The gap starts with the fourth-worst team, though the difference isn’t huge. The fourth-worst team can fall as far as No. 8, but on average that pick lands around No. 4 or 5.Look at the middle of the lottery: Teams with the sixth- through ninth-worst records have (in some cases) doubled their chances of landing in the top five."

That last point affects the Mavericks the most given they’ll need to convey a pick outside the top five to the Hawks.

NBA TV Starters pick who’ll win top seed:

As has become custom the NBA Starters team did their annual prediction for who would win the top pick via a zany method.

This year the group had 100 plates with the logo’s which represented the odds of the teams who could win the top pick.

More from Thunderous Intentions

• Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
• Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
• 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
• Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
• Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder

Therefore the Knicks, Cavaliers, and Suns had 14 plates within the 100 while Bulls had 12, Hawks 11, Wizards nine and Pelicans six.

Peanut butter sandwiches were placed on each plate, except one which contained Vegemite and  Sardines as the winner.

Tas Melas found the sandwich must to his chagrin (like most of us Vegemite and sardines isn’t a favorite of Tas). View the video to see which lucky team their sandwich lottery earmarked to win the top draft pick.

While the OKC Thunder aren’t among the lottery squads who lands the top picks does affect the team. The teams to keep an eye are in terms of how it impacts the Thunder are Western Conference squads: the Suns, Pelicans, Grizzlies, Mavericks, Timberwolves, and Lakers.

Make sure to visit Thunderous Intentions daily as we’ll be dropping updates on the Draft Combine as well as start our Draft Prospect Series this week.

Enjoy the draft tonight!