draft-lottery Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Death, Taxes & MLB Players Being Stupid
It was yet another banner day for MLB, which seems to be having them one after another. They’ve sat next to the cooler at the casino, by choice, except that they’ll still walk out of the casino with most of their chips. After all, it’s not their chips they’re playing with. And if the players continu...

We Have Exceeded The Recommended Dose Of NBA Excitement
Sometimes there are Deadcasts where Drew and I spend twenty minutes saying, like, “soup is canceled” back and forth to each other. It’s just going to happen sometimes, because even though we enjoy talking about sports and all that, there are also just many more weeks in a year than there are good sp...

What Will Zion Williamson Put Up His Rookie Year?
Barring some unlikely outcomes—an inspiring protest that gets him out of New Orleans, a defiant but ultimately depressing return to the accursed NCAA—Zion Williamson will suit up for the Pelicans this fall. What will he do there?...

Stephen A. Smith Wrings Emmy-Worthy Performance Out Of Knicks' Lottery Agony
The day after the tragicomic New York Knicks were denied the opportunity to draft Zion Williamson, a nation alternately laughing at more Knicks misery and consoling those who got their hopes up turned their eyes to the cranky bard of Knicks angst: Stephen A. Smith....

This Is Boston's Chance To Get Anthony Davis, As Long As They Don't Fuck It Up
Annoyingly, the vile Boston Celtics might get what they wanted after all. While the draft lottery ended in the most frustrating fashion for every team involved except New Orleans, the Boston brain trust had to be ecstatic to see the main Anthony Davis trade asset (Zion Williamson) off the board. Tho...

The Knicks' Woes Have Taken Unexpected Forms
Shockingly, it wasn’t actually worth it in the end. ...

If The Pelicans Don't Deserve Zion Williamson, Every Other Team Deserves Him Less
When the New Orleans Pelicans landed the right to seize the beginning of Zion Williamson’s basketball career, the reaction was swift, predictable and consistent: “What did those people do to deserve such a prize?”...

The NBA Would've Been Better Off Rigging The Draft Lottery
The NBA’s new odds format did the job of scrambling the draft order. Four teams played especially horrendous basketball last season, and of those four teams, three were bounced out of the draft’s top four selections. This was satisfying. The Cavaliers, represented by Nick Gilbert, dropped to fifth,...

Zion Williamson Is The Pelicans' Reward For Wasting Anthony Davis
The Knicks, Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Lakers all had a shot at Zion Williamson heading into the final reveals of the NBA Draft Lottery, and the sensational Duke forward might have gotten stuck in the most disastrous possible situation. The New Orleans Pelicans—who had a six percent chance of winning ...

There's A 14 Percent Chance That A Generation Of Accursed Knicks Fandom Has Been Worth It
In tonight’s draft lottery the Knicks have a 14 percent chance of obtaining the first pick and Zion Williamson. They were the worst team in the NBA, but this year, odds have been flattened out at the top of the lottery to disincentivize tanking. So the three worst teams all enjoy a 14 percent chance...

The NBA's Anti-Tanking Reform For Sure Hasn't Solved Sucking
The NBA recently messed with the odds in the draft lottery in order to discourage teams from tanking, but the real fruits of that move will be revealed over time, and anyway certain teams—looking at you, Phoenix—need no promise of draft lottery gold in order to just profoundly suck and lose all the ...

Maybe, Just Maybe, The Knicks Might Have A Functional Defense
The Knicks did not luck out, which is basically an evergreen sentence. Their lottery pick did not leap into the top three, which had only a six percent chance of occurring last night. It instead landed at nine, as expected. I feel a little good about this. ...

It Appears The Kings, Who Always Screw Up, Can't Possibly Screw This Up
For what feels like the first time in recent franchise history, the Sacramento Kings got lucky. The Kings briefly held the reins in the NBA’s greatest-ever tank-off last season, but they were soundly out-tanked over the stretch run, and wound up finishing with the lottery’s seventh-best odds after e...

Here's How The NBA Draft Lottery Went Down
The team with the worst record in the NBA this season, the Phoenix Suns, won the draft lottery tonight, and with it the choice of either Arizona’s Deandre Ayton or Real Madrid’s Luka Dončić. Whoever of those two the Suns don’t pick will likely go to the Sacramento Kings, who defied the odds and took...

Stan Van Gundy Says The NBA Should Dump The Draft Altogether
Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy has arrived at the same conclusion as basically the rest of the NBA-watching world: this latest draft lottery adjustment probably won’t do much to curb tanking, its stated goal. Van Gundy’s suggestion is reportedly to get rid of the draft altogether:...

Report: NBA Approves Lottery Reform That Probably Won't Prevent Tanking
The lottery reform proposal that was submitted to the NBA board of governors earlier this month has reportedly been approved. The new system, designed to curtail tanking, is unlikely to curtail tanking....

Report: NBA Board Of Governors To Vote On Lottery Reform
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that a new NBA draft lottery system is one step closer to becoming a reality. According to Woj, the league’s competition committee has recommended a reform proposal that was created by the NBA, and the league’s board of governors will now vote on the proposal o...

The Lakers Narrowly Avoided Total Catastrophe At The Lottery
The Los Angeles Lakers will get the second overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, which is a fine return for a shit-filled season of tanking that very nearly went up in flames thanks to an inexplicable five-game winning streak at the end of the year. Not only is the team in the driver’s seat to pick Lo...

Here's How The NBA Draft Lottery Shook Out
The Boston Celtics advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals last night, and tonight, they won the NBA draft lottery and the right to choose between Lonzo Ball and Markelle Fultz with the top overall pick in the upcoming draft. The Lakers avoided catastrophe and secured the second pick, while Philad...

Sixers Win NBA Draft Lottery They Claim Was Not Rigged And The Ghost Of The Process Lives
Despite all assurances that the Sixers did not know that they would win this evening’s draft lottery, the ping pong balls bounced in their favor, and they’ll get the first crack at next month’s NBA draft. Was it rigged? Who knows. All we can say now is that there is some convincing evidence that Dik...