A swift primer on all the details of the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery, and how they pertain to the Atlanta Hawks.
The Atlanta Hawks ended the 2018-19 season with a record of 29-53, which was an improvement of five wins from its previous season. That means in the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery that the Hawks will have the 5th-best odds to land the #1 overall pick.
Of course, as followers of the NBA Draft know, the lottery’s odds have been severely flattened from last season, when the Phoenix Suns won the lottery and selected Deandre Ayton first overall in 2018.
According to an article on NBA.com, “the new system will level the odds at the top of the NBA Draft Lottery so that the teams with the three worst regular-season records will each have a 14 percent chance of winning the lottery. In the pre-2019 structure, the top seed had a 25 percent of winning the lottery, the second seed had a 19.9 percent and the third seed had a 15.6 percent.”
The article goes on to showcase the odds for each draft slot at moving up to the #1 overall pick:
- Team 1 > 14.0%
- Team 2 > 14.0%
- Team 3 >14.0%
- Team 4 > 12.5%
- Team 5 > 10.5%
- Team 6 > 9.0%
- Team 7 > 7.5%
- Team 8 > 6.0%
- Team 9 > 4.5%
- Team 10 > 3.0%
- Team 11 > 2.0%
- Team 12 > 1.5%
- Team 13 > 1.0%
- Team 14 > 0.5%
As you can see, there is plenty of room for fluidity in this board – as our most recent full mock draft showcased when the Los Angeles Lakers leapt up the board to #1 overall.
Of course, the Atlanta Hawks hold the #5 spot and the #9 spot, which the team acquired in the Luka Doncic/Trae Young trade of last offseason. The Hawks must hope that the Mavs pick stays where it is or moves down – as it is protected 1-5 by the Mavs this season.
For the Atlanta Hawks own 2019 NBA draft pick per Tankathon, here are the odds of the Hawks pick landing at each draft slot:
- #1 – 10.5%
- #2 – 10.5%
- #3 – 10.5%
- #4 – 10.5%
- #5 – 2.2%
- #6 – 19.6%
- #7 – 26.7%
- #8 – 8.8%
- #9 – 0.6%
Of course, the main goal for the Hawks in the draft is to slide all the way up to #1 overall in order to draft the generational Zion Williamson, and there are many reasons why him joining the Hawks would be the ultimate boon.
The 2019 NBA Draft Lottery is scheduled for a week from today in Chicago, and it will be televised on ESPN at 8:30 p.m. EST.