2007 NBA Draft - Draft Lottery

Draft Lottery

Further information: NBA Draft Lottery

The first 14 picks in the draft belonged to teams that had missed the playoffs; the order was determined through a lottery. The lottery would determine the three teams that would obtain the first three picks on the draft. The remaining first-round picks and the second-round picks were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win-loss record in the previous season. On April 20, 2007, the NBA performed a tie-breaker to determine the order of the picks for teams with identical win-loss record.

The lottery was held on May 22, 2007 in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Portland Trail Blazers, who had the seventh-worst record in the previous season, won the lottery with just a 5.3% chance to win. This was the fourth time that the Blazers had the first overall draft pick and the first time that the Blazers won the draft lottery since it was introduced in 1985. The Seattle SuperSonics, who had the fifth-worst record, and the Atlanta Hawks, who had the fourth-worst record, obtained the second and third pick respectively.

Three teams who had the worst records—the Memphis Grizzlies, the Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks—obtained the fourth, fifth and sixth pick respectively. These were the lowest possible picks they could have obtained through the lottery. The most recent draft in which the three worst teams did not receive the top three picks was in 1993.

Below were the chances for each team to get specific picks in the 2007 Draft Lottery, rounded to three decimal places:

^ Denotes the actual lottery results
Team 2006–07
record
Lottery
chances
Pick
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th
Memphis Grizzlies 22–60 250 .250 .215 .178 .357^
Boston Celtics 24–58 199 .199 .188 .171 .319 .123^
Milwaukee Bucks 28–54 156 .156 .157 .156 .226 .265 .041^
Atlanta Hawks1 30–52 119 .119 .126 .133^ .099 .350 .161 .013
Seattle SuperSonics 31–51 88 .088 .097^ .107 .261 .359 .084 .004
Minnesota Timberwolves 32–50 53 .053 .060 .070 .439 .331^ .046 .001
Portland Trail Blazers 32–50 53 .053^ .060 .070 .572 .226 .018 .000
Charlotte Bobcats 33–49 19 .019 .022 .027 .725^ .196 .011 .000
New York Knicks2 33–49 19 .019 .022 .027 .784^ .143 .005 .000
Sacramento Kings 33–49 18 .018 .021 .025 .846^ .087 .002 .000
Indiana Pacers3 35–47 8 .008 .009 .012 .907^ .063 .001 .000
Philadelphia 76ers 35–47 7 .007 .008 .010 .935^ .039 .000
New Orleans Hornets 39–43 6 .006 .007 .009 .960^ .018
Los Angeles Clippers 40–42 5 .005 .006 .007 .982^

^ 1: Atlanta Hawks' pick would be conveyed to the Phoenix Suns if it was not in the top three.
^ 2: New York Knicks' pick was conveyed to the Chicago Bulls.
^ 3: Indiana Pacers' pick was conveyed to the Atlanta Hawks because it was not in the top ten.

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