For the second year in a row, I’m putting out a mock lottery before I release a mock draft closer to the actual draft night. It’s been said a lot, but this draft is not very strong. There isn’t too much separating the top four players to me–and that’s not in a good way–and the back end of the lottery is far from spectacular.

But I still think it’s important to predict the order in which nineteen year old men will be selected, only to change that order in a few weeks. Yeah.

You should also check out my writeup dispelling some common misconceptions about the NBA Draft Lottery.

1		Nerlens Noel
		C	7-foot	206 lbs	Kentucky	19 Years Old

The Cavaliers luck out again, winning their third lottery in eleven years. They have cornerstone starters at point guard, shooting guard, and power forward, so that leaves them essentially looking at Nerlens Noel and Otto Porter Jr. for the first overall pick. Porter will help more right now, but he doesn’t have nearly the ceiling of Noel, who could be a better version of Anderson Varejao.

2		Ben McLemore
		SG	6-foot-5	189 lbs	Kansas	20 Years Old

Had the Magic landed the number one pick, there’s no chance Noel could have lived up to the other three number one picks Orlando has had: Shaquille O’Neal, Chris Webber, and Dwight Howard. The Magic is a bit of a mess and really just needs talent, so Ben McLemore makes the most sense since he’s the next best player on the board.

3		Otto Porter Jr.
		SF	6-foot-9	198 lbs	Georgetown	19 Years Old

Porter is probably my third favorite player in the draft after Noel and Bennett, and he’s a perfect fit for Washington. They already have franchise building blocks in John Wall and Bradley Beal, so they just need a forward who make an impact even without the ball. Bennett also makes some sense here, too.

4		Anthony Bennett
		PF	6-foot-8	240 lbs	UNLV	20 Years Old

The Horncats need help at about any position other than point guard and small forward. The Bobcats biggest issue last year–besides a lack of talent–was a lack of a quality big man. Anthony Bennett is only 6-foot-8, but he has a 7-foot-1 wingspan, and he dominated on the glass last year. Like fellow Charlotte draft pick and former Running Rebel Larry Johnson, Bennett overcomes his lack of height with a strong perimeter game.

5		Victor Oladipo
		SG	6-foot-4	213 lbs	Indiana	21 Years Old

No team is in a bigger mess than the Suns. They have no young player you can point to and say that they will be a starter in the future. Kendall Marshall, the Morris twins, and Wesley Johnson may all become nice role players, but nobody will win a NBA championship with Michael Beasley starting. With Marshall and Goran Dragic on roster, Trey Burke doesn’t make a ton of sense here, but Victor Oladipo is the hard-working type of player the Suns need to build around.

6		Trey Burke
		PG	6-foot-1	217 lbs	Michigan	20 Years Old

New Orleans would be lucky if Trey Burke fell this far. They desperately need an upgrade at point guard since Austin Rivers looks like he may go the way of Jonny Flynn, and Burke could supply some extra star power to the team. Burke, Eric Gordon, and Anthony Davis would be a very nice core.

7		Tyler Zeller
		PF	7-foot	230 lbs	Indiana	20 Years Old

Zeller started the year as the favorite to be the number one pick, and at one point nearly fell out of the lottery. But after putting up ridiculous numbers at the NBA Draft Combine, I think his stock will rocket back up in the coming weeks. He’s definitely better than Alex Len. But the Kings need a forward who can make an impact without needy the ball–since the draftee wouldn’t get the ball playing with Tyreke Evans, Jimmer Freddette, Marcus Cousins, John Salmons, Isaiah Thomas, and DeMarcus Cousins.

8		Shabazz Muhammad
		SF	6-foot-6	222 lbs	UCLA	20 Years Old

I’m still a big Shabazz Muhammad fan despite a so-so freshman year, a poor combine, and the revelation that he is a year older. The Pistons need a wing player to compliment Brandon Knight, Greg Monroe, and Andre Drummond, and Muhammad would fit  the bill. This could be the fourth consecutive lottery that a potential All-Star falls to the Motor City.

9		C.J. McCollum
		SG	6-foot-3	197 lbs	Lehigh	21 Years Old

I’m not a huge fan of McCollum since he’s undersized and didn’t face much competition at Lehigh, but the similar thing (schedule-wise) was said of Damian Lillard last year. The Wolves are lacking on the wing, and they’ve been searching for a shooting guard since Randy Foye left (that’s a low bar). The Timberwolves like the guy, so maybe they’re onto something. I don’t know.

10		Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
		SG	6-foot-6	204 lbs	Georgia	20 Years Old

I’m not really sure what took so long for teams to like this guy. He put up big scoring numbers at UGA (partially because he was the only redeemable player on the roster) and even rebounds well. And he has legitimate shooting guard size. The Blazers will likely look at Caldwell-Pope or go big with Alex Len–who probably shouldn’t still be on the board at ten.

11		Alex Len
		C	7-foot-1	225 lbs	Maryland	19 Years Old

The Sixers need size, and they’ve got plenty of options in this scenario. Alex Len has had his ups and his downs, but he has a chance to be one of the best players in the draft. He’s the tallest non-Rudy Gorbert player in the draft, and he has a nice offensive skill set that wasn’t shown off at college because he didn’t get the ball enough at Maryland. Between the options available at this point and his health, I don’t see the Sixers bringing back Andrew Bynum.

12		Steven Adams
		C	7-foot	255 lbs	Pittsburgh	19 Years Old

With the departure of Andrew Bogut, the Bucks are seriously hurting for size. Terrence is another weird character–he’s the size of a small forward, but he’s not quick enough to guard the position. He’s got a world of talent, but often will disappear for halves at a time. I see him as a stretch four in the pros–like he played at Kentucky–but he could go much lower than this in the draft.

13		Dario Saric
		SF	6-foot-10	223 lbs	Croatia	19 Years Old

This pick likely comes down to Dario Saric and Michael Carter-Williams for the Mavs. Both are home run picks and fill different needs. Darren Collison is good, not great at the point guard, and the Mavericks have no long-term players at small forward. Dallas apparently thinks Saric can be a star, and he has that upside, and he could prove to be a worth heir apparent for Dirk Nowitzki.

14		Michael Carter-Williams
		PG	6-foot-6	184 lbs	Syracuse	21 Years Old

Enes Kanter and Derrick Favors look like franchise building blocks, and the Jazz really like Gordon Hayward and Alec Burks, so that leaves them with a nice big hole at point guard. Enter, Michael Carter-Williams. He’s got incredible size and great athleticism; his only problem is that he has a broken jump shot. If he’s off the board here, Shane Larkin could make a lot of sense, even as a massive reach.

You won’t find me in any college math classes after my adventure with multivarible calculus, but I fancy myself a mathematical person. And being a big fan of the NBA Draft, you can bet I’m a fan of the NBA Draft Lottery.

Sure, I wasn’t happy when my Bobcats lost the #1 pick to the Hornets–boy this is going to be confusing looking back in a few years–after they had nearly three fewer wins than the second worst team in the league. But the Lottery disincentives tanking and adds excitement to the league, so it is a good thing.

There are a few things that bother me about the lottery. It’s not necessarily about how the process is done, but rather how people look at the lottery.

Specifically, the magical word “due.”

I’m not sure if people forgot what they learned in high school math (very possible) or if they believe in karma over logic, but this isn’t how odds work.

The lottery is a simple (?) process.

Obviously the Magic will win the lottery because they lost Dwight. Or it’s going to be the Pelicans or future Hornets because they’re changing nicknames. Or the Kings because they won’t be relocated.

There are 14 ping pong balls each numbered one through fourteen. Four ping pong balls are randomly drawn (the order does not matter), which gives us 24,024 combinations. Simplify that by a factor of 24 and you get 1,001 combinations, then drop the last combination and you have an even 1,000 combinations. Each team is assigned a certain number of combinations, determined by their record, and you have each team’s odds at landing a lottery pick.

Four ping pong balls are continuously drawn until three unique teams are selected. The rest of the picks are organized by record.

It’s all luck. There’s no “due.” And there’s no conspiracy. You can make up a conspiracy theory for any team.

This idea of a team being “due” continues even today–an article ran about it in the Dallas Morning News–despite it making no sense.

Yes, the Bobcats, Suns, and Pistons have never won the lottery, but that doesn’t mean they’re more likely to win it now. The fourth pick has never won the lottery, but that doesn’t mean Phoenix has a better or worse shot. The Magic have won it three times, but that doesn’t mean anything either.

Each draft is completely separate. It’s just odds each time.

Imagine using Chad Ford’s Mock Lottery Machine nineteen times, never coming up with the Phoenix Suns first. What is the chance you get the Suns with the first pick on your twentieth try? Is it 80% since they haven’t come up yet so they have to soon? Is it 2% since they haven’t been chosen yet, so they probably still won’t?

Nope, it’s still 11.2%, like always.

Since the lottery was weighted in 1994 so that the team with the worst record has a 25% chance of landing the top pick, the team with the best odds has only won twice. Two out of nineteen is not very good–10.5% is less half the odds of 25%. Yeah, I can do math.

So is the NBA rigging it so that the team with the worst record doesn’t get the number one pick? We can check if that 10.5% actually statistically significant–suggesting the lottery is rigged–or if it is just due to random variation by using a binomial distribution. Who’s excited for some math?!

And in fact, the binomial distribution gives us a p-value of .07, which is bigger than .05 and therefore too large for us to reject the null hypothesis. In layman’s terms, there is not enough evidence for us to say that the lottery is rigged.

Well maybe they’re not just preventing the worst team from winning the lottery, they’re just selecting the first winner because of a narrative. We can check this by running a chi-square test on the lottery winners.

Again, the chi-square test gives us a p-value of .089, which is still to large for us to reject the null hypothesis. We don’t have enough evidence for us to say the first overall pick is rigged.

But maybe it’s not the first pick that’s rigged, but rather all three winners of the lottery. We can check that again by running a chi-square test.

No surprise here, the p-value is very high: .355. Using that data, it’s almost comical to suggest that the lottery is rigged.

I know the last thing anyone wants before they excitedly watch grown men drawn ping pong balls is a math lesson, but this should help dispel any misguided thoughts about tonight’s lottery.

Something very big happened in the sports world–something larger than wins and losses.

We like to think of ourselves as living in a progressive society with acceptance for all people, yet we’re reminded how backwards things still are when Mississippi finally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment less than ten weeks ago.

But this morning, Jason Collins did something no active athlete had ever done before. To quote his Sports Illustrated first-person story:

“I’m a 34-year-old NBA center. I’m black. And I’m gay.”

Collins became the first active athlete in the four major American sports to come out, something for which he should be commended. It takes a lot of courage, especially in our culture that is still insensitive to many minorities. Especially in a league like the NBA, where there is a sadly prevalent use of hurtful slurs, even by star players who are supposed to be roles models. Especially when artists like Lil Wayne will drop that same word without a second’s thought in his verse in Look At Me Now.

Side note: how did nobody ask Collins why he wore the number 98? The great Hamed Haddadi is the only other player in NBA history to don that unique number.

But who Jason Collins is doesn’t change the player he is. Even if he never plays another minute in the Association–he’s a free agent this summer coming off his sixth team in twelve years–today’s news doesn’t change the fact that he’s a very strong interior defender, a near-champion in the NCAA and NBA, and a beloved teammate. My opinion of him as a player–like all teams’, players’, and fans’ should–remains the same as it was less than twenty-four hours ago.

Jason Collins’ true legacy will be the day when an athlete coming out will not be news. Because it won’t matter. Hopefully Collins’ big decision will even inspire other players to open up about themselves. Jason Collins should return to the NBA because he is still a serviceable rebounder, defender, and mentor–or at least better than 40-year old Juwan Howard–not because it would make a good story.

But there’s a solid chance that Jason Collins won’t be back in the league next season. Not because he’s black. And not because he’s gay. Because that doesn’t matter in player evaluation. And if anyone thinks it should, Collins was, by all accounts, a fantastic teammate, and he’s the same person today that he has been for the past twelve years. The man never caused any problems in the lockerroom before, so if an issue arises, that becomes the teammate’s problem.

Jason Collins may never play another minute in the NBA–but that’s because he’s a 34-year old center with no post game. When running an team, that’s all that matters. Strip away the fear, underneath Collins is the same as any other 7-footer. And that’s the way things should be.