The Los Angeles Lakers are on the verge of having their worst season in franchise history and will be entering the NBA draft lottery for the second consecutive year. Last season, the team finished the sixth worst record, but ended up with the seventh pick.
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All season, a number of fans openly wished for the team to lose in an effort to improve their lottery odds. Head coach Byron Scott has called the notion absurd in the past and commented on the system prior to Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. According to NBC Los Angeles’ Shahan Ahmed, Scott believes the lottery process could be improved:
"I think it's something they should take a look at" – Byron Scott says lottery system needs to be "tweaked" #lakers
— Shahan Ahmed (@shahanLA) April 11, 2015
The Lakers have a protected top-five pick. Assuming they finish with the fourth worst record, the team will lose it if at least two teams move ahead of them during the lottery. The odds of that happening stands at 17.2 percent, and the furthest they could drop is to the seventh pick.
Of course, the Lakers could always jump up and fall into the top three. As it stands, the Lakers currently have an 11.9 percent chance of landing the first pick in the draft. When the Cleveland Cavaliers won the lottery last year, they only had a 1.7 shot. Should the Lakers find themselves with one of the top picks, the recently declared Jahil Okafor and Karl-Anthony Towns are seen as likely selections.
Owners voted for reform in October, but couldn’t muster enough votes for it to pass. In the failed proposal, the four worst teams would’ve had identical odds to get the first pick with the other non-playoff teams having declining odds.
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