Although the NBA’s 2019/20 regular season is unlikely to be completed in full, the league isn’t expected to make any changes to its lottery format, league sources tell ESPN’s Tim Bontemps.
In other words, the lottery order will still be determined by the NBA’s reverse standings, even though teams may have played a different number of games, with no clubs playing a full 82-game schedule. The lottery has been indefinitely postponed and now figures to take place in the summer or fall.
Bontemps suggests that some executives will “inevitably grumble” about the lottery order being determined by an incomplete season, but notes that every team has played at least three-quarters of its overall schedule. That should make for a “more than representative sample,” writes Bontemps, noting that 23 of 30 teams would have to approve any changes to the format.
“I don’t see anything changing,” one executive said to ESPN. “Where will the collective will come from to do it?”
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We took a closer look in March at what the 2020 lottery odds would look like if the regular season can’t be resumed. Of course, if the NBA is able to play a handful of regular season contests before the playoffs this summer, that order would be subject to change.
When we presented those tentative odds in March, we assumed the lottery order would be determined by reverse winning percentage for teams that haven’t played the same amount of games. For instance, the 19-45 (.297) Timberwolves would have better odds than the 20-47 (.299) Hawks. Bontemps doesn’t confirm that point one way or the other, but I’d be surprised if that’s not how it works.
GREAT !!
I was counting on the Minnesota Timberpuppies getting SCREWED once more in the NBA Draft.
If they hold the lottery now, the order would not be very different from how the official RS determines it, but lesser teams would be more inspired to win games in resumption. They would not hurt their draft spot by winning.