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The Suns' (slim) draft lottery odds

The last time the Suns had anything to do with the draft lottery was in 2007, when we had Atlanta's top-3 protected first round pick. Being a math geek myself, I needed to know the exact chance of us keeping their pick. Then I realized that to do that one actually has to calculate ALL chances of which team is picking at which positions, since these odds are all interconnected with each other. Then after some crunching, I came up with a table of all the odds and sent it to Henry Abbott at Truehoop (I wasn't aware of the existence of BSotS back then), who encouraged me to publish it on the web myself. So I started a little blog, and Truehoop ended up linking to it a few times.

Long story short (I can say that even if I've told you the long story already), I now have a program that, given the teams' records and tiebreakers, can figure out the chances of which team is picking where in no time.

Anyways, here are the numbers for 2009. They are all percentages. For example, The Clippers (LAC) have a 19.53% chance of picking 4th.

 

Pick#

Teams

SAC WAS LAC OKC MIN MEM GST NYK TOR MIL NJ CHA IND PHO
1 25.0 17.8 17.7 11.9 7.6 7.5 4.3 2.8 1.7 1.0 0.9 0.7 0.6 0.5
2 21.46 17.36 17.29 12.57 8.43 8.33 4.93 3.26 2.0 1.18 1.06 0.83 0.71 0.59
3 17.72 16.45 16.41 13.24 9.46 9.36 5.76 3.87 2.4 1.43 1.29 1.01 0.87 0.72
4 35.82 34.67 19.53 9.98 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
5 -- 13.73 25.02 34.99 26.27 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
6 -- -- 4.05 16.05 38.5 41.4 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
7 -- -- -- 1.26 9.32 29.4 60.01 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
8 -- -- -- -- 0.42 3.9 23.17 72.5 -- -- -- -- -- --
9 -- -- -- -- -- 0.1 1.79 16.76 81.35 -- -- -- -- --
10 -- -- -- -- -- -- 0.03 0.8 12.17 86.99 -- -- -- --
11 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0.01 0.38 9.2 90.41 -- -- --
12 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0.19 6.26 93.55 -- --
13 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0.08 3.89 96.03 --
14 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 0.02 1.79 98.18

 

So as everyone around here probably knows already, we have a 0.5% chance of hitting the jackpot and picking 1st. What you may not have known is that we also have a 0.59% chance of getting the 2nd pick, and a 0.72% chance of getting the 3rd pick. That's about a 1-in-55 chance of lucking out (and 54-in-55 chance of picking 14th).

The last time we had ATL's pick, we had a 62.22% chance of keeping it, and we all know how that went down. The Hawks drafted Al Horford and we instead got their pick the following year, which turned out to be Fropez.

The odds for us are much longer this time, and we really shouldn't be getting our hopes up. But hey, anything's possible!

The lottery is taking place next Tuesday (May 19th).

Comment 14 comments  |  0 recs  | 

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Since this is the

offseason, a little hypothetical thought experimenting is in order.

If we hit the jackpot with the #1 overall pick, who would we take?

I love Ty Lawson, but we have so much invested in Dragic that this seems unlikely.

I am not sure how Hansbrough’s game translates to the NBA, so I would stay away from him.

Thabeet is the kind of player we need, but I don’t know how much we are going to run and if he can keep up.

Any other thoughts on players? DeJuan Blair, perhaps?

"it’s a great time to be a Tiger" - leghumpingjihadkiller

by Snakebitten on May 13, 2009 9:45 AM MDT reply actions  

duh

If the Suns drafted Hansborough with the 1st pick, all hell would break lose in Phoenix

by Funky Flapsack on May 13, 2009 11:00 AM MDT up reply actions  

no way.

if we somehow landed the first overall pick, i’d cut a bitch if we drafted hansbrough over griffin.

just sayin’.

by Trevor Paxton on May 14, 2009 12:47 AM MDT up reply actions  

Not even a question...

Blake Griffin is the ONLY option no matter who gets the number 1 pick and Rubio should be the first PG off of the board.

Something to look for in the draft is where Pendergraff goes in the second round – I watched him play A LOT this past year and he could be a second round steal – basically Joakim Noah with a better 8 – 10 ft game for a fraction of the cost

by watdogg10 on May 13, 2009 2:44 PM MDT up reply actions  

yo snake...

if we were to win the #1 pick, it’s a no brainer, we pick Eric Devendorf! DUH!

by Aluminum Foyle on May 14, 2009 6:22 PM MDT up reply actions  

i can't even joke about it

that guy fuckin blows so god damn hard… entirely useless. i love that he declared. hopefully his bloated ego will get him a non-paid summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring-summer-fall-winter-spring vacation

by stingy d on May 14, 2009 11:08 PM MDT up reply actions  

in other words...

you hope he lives off of welfare?

by Aluminum Foyle on May 15, 2009 8:29 AM MDT up reply actions  

Don't think so

It’s not possible to retrieve that information from the numbers in the NBA news release.

With the 14th pick of the 2009 NBA draft, the Pheonix Suns select... 3 million dollars!

by gadogry on May 14, 2009 5:14 AM MDT reply actions  

here's that info

2008-09 ALL-NBA FIRST TEAM

Position Player, Team (1st Team Votes) Points
Forward LeBron James, Cleveland (122) 610
Forward Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas (35) 383
Center Dwight Howard, Orlando (116) 598
Guard Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers (119) 604
Guard Dwyane Wade, Miami (103) 572

2008-09 ALL-NBA SECOND TEAM

Position Player, Team (1st Team Votes) Points
Forward Tim Duncan, San Antonio (39) 378
Forward Paul Pierce, Boston (27) 330
Center Yao Ming, Houston (8) 354
Guard Brandon Roy, Portland 189
Guard Chris Paul, New Orleans (32) 424

2008-09 ALL-NBA THIRD TEAM

Position Player, Team (1st Team Votes) Points
Forward Carmelo Anthony, Denver (2) 116
Forward Pau Gasol, L.A. Lakers (2) 165
Center Shaquille O’Neal, Phoenix 68
Guard Chauncey Billups, Denver 131 Guard Tony Parker, San Antonio (1) 158

Other players receiving votes, with point totals (first team votes in parentheses): Deron Williams, Utah, 105; Kevin Garnett, Boston, 72; Chris Bosh, Toronto, 56; Joe Johnson, Atlanta, 36, Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City, 34; Danny Granger, Indiana, 25; David West, New Orleans, 12; Mo Williams, Cleveland, 10; Al Jefferson, Minnesota, 8; Steve Nash, Phoenix, 7; Antawn Jamison, Washington, 7; Ray Allen, Boston, 6; Nene, Denver, 6; Devin Harris, New Jersey, 5; LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland, 4; David Lee, New York, 4; Rajon Rondo, Boston, 2; Vince Carter, New Jersey, 1; Paul Millsap, Utah, 1; O.J. Mayo, Memphis, 1; Mehmet Okur, Utah, 1; Jermaine O’Neal, Miami, 1; Hedo Turkoglu, Orlando, 1; Derrick Rose, Chicago, 1; Caron Butler, Washington, 1; Carlos Boozer, Utah, 1; Andre Miller, Philadelphia, 1; Andre Iguodala, Philadelphia, 1.

by Seth Pollack on May 14, 2009 8:23 AM MDT up reply actions  

I thought matrix7 was looking for things like

how many 2nd place votes Chris Paul got. Which you couldn’t tell from these numbers.

But you can tell some interesting things from it… like, at least 2 people put both Dwight Howard and Yao Ming on their first team.

With the 14th pick of the 2009 NBA draft, the Pheonix Suns select... 3 million dollars!

by gadogry on May 14, 2009 8:31 AM MDT up reply actions  

Great post — excellent reference point — thank you.

by NBR on May 16, 2009 10:50 AM MDT reply actions  

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