2019-2020 NBA Season Thread

[sefant77]

We were tied with Pelicans and Grizzlies. NBA did a 3-way-coinflip to determine the order between these three teams. We "lost" and ended up up with the lottery balls for the #10 spot. Pelicans and Grizzlies got the balls for #8 and #9. Pelicans and grizzlies got one of their balls (aka combination) drawn at #1 and #2.

So basically we had a 66% chance to end up with Zion or Morant....blargh

[EricaLubarsky]

Originally Posted by sefant77

We were tied with Pelicans and Grizzlies. NBA did a 3-way-coinflip to determine the order between these three teams. We "lost" and ended up up with the lottery balls for the #10 spot. Pelicans and Grizzlies got the balls for #8 and #9. Pelicans and grizzlies got one of their balls (aka combination) drawn at #1 and #2.

So basically we had a 66% chance to end up with Zion or Morant....blargh

That's not really how it works. For the first round, all combinations are put into a pot and then divided by the number of tied teams and distributed as equally as possible. In the first round, a coinflip can only ever affect the results by 0.01% (1 combination out of 1,000). In the case of the 2019 draft, the coin flip had no effect on the first round whatsoever because the combinations divided evenly.

7th - 75 combinations
8th - 60 combinations
9th - 45 combinations
-----------------
180 combinations total so each team got 60 combinations for the first round.

New Orleans - 60 combinations (hit the jackpot and drafted #1)
Dallas - 60 combinations (no such luck and drafted 10th so it went to the Hawks)
Memphis - 60 combinations (hit the jackpot and drafted #2)

We all had equal odds. Memphis and New Orleans just got really lucky. You can argue that it would have been good to tank harder for better odds and I'd agree, but the coin flip had actually zero effect on the results of the 2019 draft. Two of the three teams we had the same odds as just got super lucky.