The NBA Draft Lottery Is Tonight

One of the most controversial elements of the NBA is the draft lottery, a system that allows all teams that don’t make the postseason a chance at the first overall pick in the upcoming draft. The lottery usually gives way to conspiracy theories, like the bent envelope in the 1985 lottery that netted the Knicks the first pick to draft Patrick Ewing. Considering that the worst team in the league has only won the first pick four times in the 30 years of the lottery, little has been done to quell the uproar from fans that occurs more often than not following the lottery proceedings. For example, in the past ten draft lotteries, only three times has a team won the lottery with more than the fifth best chance. During that span, Cleveland won the lottery three times, with the third, eighth and ninth worst record. While it certainly keeps it exciting for the fans of teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, who own a 0.5 % chance of winning tonight’s lottery, despite owning a 45-37 record and a roster boasting the likes of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, it’s tough to think that a team like that could win the lottery (although the lowest percent chance of a winning team was Orlando in 1995 with a 1.52% chance), pushing teams with true needs further down the draft order.

How the lottery works

Based on overall record, from worst on up, each of the 14 teams that have been at home since the second week of April are assigned number combinations. There are 14 ping pong balls, numbered 1 through 14, and the combinations are assembled by drawing four of these balls at once. There are 1,001 possible combinations and 1,000 of them are assigned to teams.

10 NBA Things You’d Never Believe 10 Years Ago

Ten years is a long time. A decade is a life-changing time for an individual. But in the NBA, ten years isn’t just life-changing, it’s a lifetime. Here are ten things that “2004 you” wouldn’t believe even if “2014 you” came back in time, Biff Tannen style.

1. LeBron James plays for the Cavs and has two rings, but the Cavs are still looking for their first title.

This statement by itself quantifies the true ridiculousness of the whole LeBron saga. You don’t even have to tell 2004 me for it to be a crazy fact, 2014 me hardly believes it in the first place. You could also twist this many ways to make other slightly different crazy facts. For instance, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James still play for the teams the were drafted by, but they won two championships together. Not buying this Biff, but since you appeared out of thin air, please continue.

Day 3 Free Agency Notes

Teams and agents agree: Outside of role players now, the market is frozen until Miami's free agents and Carmelo Anthony make decisions.

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 3, 2014

With LeBron and Carmelo still on the market, nothing too significant is happening in NBA free agency. There have been multiple signings, but the big boys who will put the pieces in motion have yet to come to a decision. So that’s where we can start.

As stated before, LeBron has been reported to be demanding the max contract from his suitors. That’s about the only concrete thing we know other than he’s on a fishing trip with his family. Which makes you think that he’s waiting for Miami to sign a significant free agent to please him enough to stay in South Beach. But the longer Miami goes without signing said free agent(s), the more the mind wanders to other options. Could he really be leaving? I’m not going to speculate anymore about him. Where ever he ends up, they’ll be contenders at least.

In Carmelo’s case, he’s been on a nationwide tour since Tuesday morning. He began in Chicago, then did Texas two-step on Wednesday visiting Houston and Dallas, and today he took meetings with the Lakers and his current Knicks team. Like I said Tuesday, I still think he goes to the Bulls, because who in their right mind would come to the Western Conference right now. If LeBron and Carmelo move West, we might as well rename it the Western Conference Basketball Association & Friends.

Now, on to the factual stuff. 

The Finals Never Felt So Good

Summer is the time for sequels.

Good news for the Spurs, who clinched their second straight NBA Finals berth late Saturday night with a gritty 112-107 overtime victory over the Thunder in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. They will meet the Miami Heat in San Antonio on Thursday for Game 1, a privilege the Spurs earned while cruising to a 62-20 regular season record, eight games above the 54-28 Heat campaign.

Winning for the first time in Oklahoma City since March 16, 2012 (longest road losing streak to one team during Popovich era) took guts from a Spurs team that was without its all start point guard Tony Parker during the second half. With classic performances delivered by Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, a career night from Boris Diaw, and Kawhi Leonard’s double-double and timely defensive stops, the Spurs overcame a furious Thunder rally in the fourth quarter and withstood an early deficit in overtime to win the franchise’s sixth Western Conference Championship.

NBA Playoffs: First Round Predictions

The playoffs have snuck up on us, and the Saturday quadruple-header is less than 48 hours away. With Wednesday night’s shuffling of seeding in the West, the schedule is finally set, and David Stern is laughing from his perch above the rest of the league. Somehow, the NBA has managed to get every single first round matchup that it wanted in the Western Conference. But I’m not going to turn this into another NBA conspiracy post, this is about the PLAYOFFS! 

A Church In Choctaw, OK

They still believe out in Oklahoma

What To Expect In Miami

With the first two games of the NBA Finals in the books and the series headed to South Beach, there are a few things fans should be on the look out for that will likely determine who leaves Miami with the advantage (because this thing isn’t going to be over in five).

What has been talked about by the sports media since the end of Miami’s Game 2 win on Thursday was the slow starts by Oklahoma City. Rumblings of Scott Brooks starting James Harden in Game 3 were put to rest by Brooks today, saying he hasn’t even thought about tinkering with the starting lineup.

It’s the right call by Brooks, who would eliminate most of his bench firepower by starting Harden. Thunder fans shouldn’t panic about their slow starts to the first two games. However, it would seem that Miami fans should be worried about not being able to hold a lead.