By John Denton
May 17, 2016
NEW YORK – In years past, the NBA Draft Lottery played a monumental role in the rapid rise and direction of the Orlando Magic, awarding them with the three No. 1 picks used to stock the roster with superstars Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway and Dwight Howard.
However, recent lotto luck has been virtually nonexistent for the Magic as they have been unsuccessful in defying the odds once again and spring-boarding back to the top of the NBA Draft.
On Tuesday night, Orlando’s lack of luck in the usually fickle NBA Draft Lottery continued for a fourth straight year.
Armed with minimal odds in an unpredictable event where strangely ping pong balls replace basketballs, the Magic failed to move up and will pick 11th in the June 23rd NBA Draft.
``We only had eight balls in the mix, so we knew that the chances were slim. It was interesting that everything held true to form,’’ said Magic GM Rob Hennigan, who represented the franchise on the podium for the televised portion of the draft lottery. ``You come in with no expectations, and you’re hoping for a little luck, but you expect not to get any. Now, we know where we stand. There really wasn’t a surprise throughout the whole lottery. It’s good to know that we have the 11th pick and now we’ve got to figure out what to do with it.’’
The lottery held entirely to form with none of the 14 teams rising above the slot in which that they came in according to the odds.
Philadelphia, which entered with a NBA-most 25 percent shot at winning the Draft Lottery, captured the No. 1 pick. The Los Angeles Lakers snagged the No. 2 selection, while Boston (via a trade with the Brooklyn Nets) won the No. 3 pick. The Lakers’ top-three positioning allowed them to avoid transferring to the pick to the Sixers per the conditions of a past trade, while the Celtics still have never selected first overall in the draft.
The remaining 11 teams in the lottery were slotted in inverse order based on their regular-season records. The rest are: No. 4 Suns; No. 5 Timberwolves; No. 6 Pelicans; No. 7 Nuggets (via the New York Knicks); No. 8 Kings; No. 9 Raptors (via Denver Nuggets); No. 10 Bucks; No. 11 Magic; No. 12 Jazz; No. 13 Suns (via Washington Wizards); No. 14 Bulls.
Orlando went 35-47 this past season – a 10-win improvement, but that success hurt the Magic’s odds in Tuesday night’s lottery. The Magic entered the night with the 11th best odds, coming in with just a 0.8 percent shot at the No. 1 pick. Similarly, they had just a 0.95 percent chance at No. 2 and a 1.15 percent probability at the No. 3 selection.
That left the Magic with a 90.74 percent chance at ending up with the No. 11 pick. They could have fallen as low at No. 14, but they avoided such a fate.
Hall of Famer Reggie Miller is the best player ever drafted at No. 11. Orlando selected No. 11 in 2005 and ’06, taking Spanish center Fran Vazquez and J.J. Redick. Vazquez never played for the Magic, while Redick was a key piece of the 2009 and ’10 teams that reached the NBA Finals and the Eastern Conference Finals.
Golden State standout Klay Thompson (2011), Robert Horry (1992), Allan Houston (1993), Mickael Pietrus (2003) and Michael Carter-Williams (2013) are some of the more successful No. 11 picks. Chicago’s Doug McDermott and Indiana’s Myles Turner were the No. 11 picks of the past two years.
Because Orlando is already loaded with promising young players and it is looking to add players with experience it could look to deal the No. 11 pick before the draft.
This was Hennigan’s fourth straight year at the lottery, a place he’d rather avoid in the future.
``You’re not very excited to be here, right?’’ Hennigan said of the lottery being composed mostly of teams that missed the playoffs. ``But when the process starts you kind of wonder what if and what have you. But, typically, you just want to know how the balls fall and then you can get to work.
``We’re excited about the pick that we have,’’ Hennigan added. ``We’ll take the next six weeks up to the draft and continue to do our research and figure out what to do with it.’’
Orlando was represented at the NBA Draft Lottery by Senior Vice President Pat Williams and Hennigan. Williams was on the podium for the televised version in 1992, ’93 and 2004, but Hennigan was seated there on Tuesday. Williams represented the Magic in the room where the actual lottery was held hours before it was later revealed to the public on television.
This is the Magic’s fourth consecutive year in the NBA Draft Lottery instead of the playoffs. The past three years they have used picks No. 2, 4 and 5 to select Victor Oladipo (2013), Aaron Gordon (2014) and Mario Hezonja (2015) – the foundation of a promising young team going forward.
LSU forward Ben Simmons, a graduate of Monteverde Academy in suburban Orlando, is expected to be the top pick of the June 23rd NBA Draft. Duke’s Brandon Ingram is also in contention to be the first pick and will almost certainly be a top-three selection.
Orlando came in hoping to get some clarity on a draft pick still owed to them by the Los Angeles Lakers, but that selection is still up in the air because of what took place on Tuesday night. With the Lakers landing in the No. 2 pick, the Magic will have to wait until next May to determine the pick that it will receive from the Lakers as compensation for the 2012 trade of Howard to Los Angeles. If the Lakers pick outside of the top four next June, the Magic will get L.A.’s first-round pick in 2019. If the Lakers are in the top four of next June’s draft, Orlando will get the Lakers’ second-round selections in 2017 and ’18.
The Magic are in the process of looking for a new head coach after Scott Skiles abruptly resigned late last week following just one season on the bench in Orlando. The Magic have had three coaches in the past four years, and have preliminarily started interviewing candidates for the head coaching position.
Orlando is one of four NBA teams currently without a head coach, joining Memphis, New York and Houston. Since the beginning of this past regular season, 11 teams have fired or have been forced to replace their head coaches.
``We’ve started the process,’’ Hennigan admitted. ``We try not to share a ton of details on that stuff, but we’re making progress and we’re starting to work through it. But we’re making progress and we’re optimistic.’’
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