The Lottery is far less of a lottery than the draft itself. From 2010 to 2015, the draft has produced 26 All-Stars. The average draft slot for these 26 guys is 14.1. Can you hear it? That little decimal is giggling. Fourteen point one. The Lottery is laughing at us.
The laughter is especially sharp this year, in this draft, because this one — as you may have heard — is a “bad” draft. Really, all drafts are bad, and all teams are bad at drafting; some just look like they’re good compared to others who are going through a particularly bad streak of picking the wrong teenage question mark. Often, teams that are crowned “good” at drafting are more likely just good basketball teams, and good basketball teams tend to be be better environments to become good basketball players than bad basketball teams.