Potentially headed for another swing in the NBA Draft Lottery, the New Orleans Pelicans have some interesting choices if their pick stands as-is.
Due to the murky picture surrounding the remainder of the regular season, the New Orleans Pelicans currently seem likely to head for their second straight trip to the NBA Draft Lottery.
There’s a lot of questions still left to be answered about the suspended 2019-2020 NBA season and it doesn’t seem like those will clear up in the near future, but if there are no more regular-season games, it’s hard to imagine we’ll see the Pelicans before next season.
In the event that the regular season is over, the New Orleans Pelicans own the thirteenth-best odds in the NBA Draft Lottery, which gives them a 5.7% chance at another top-four pick and just a 1.2% chance to win the top pick.
Last year, the New Orleans Pelicans hit a home run by winning the draft lottery, which gave them the opportunity to select Zion Williamson with the first overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
While the draft lottery isn’t some sort of fixed system, it would seem statistically improbable for the Pelicans to make a leap into the top-four for the second straight season, especially considering worse odds this year.
Fortunately, the prospects in this year’s draft class are significantly less top-heavy than in the previous few seasons, as sure things are somewhat vacant from this year’s draft board.
The mixed bag of prospects gives a team like the Pelicans a chance to get one of the best players in the draft without having to move around on the board. Conversely, a team could clamor over a prospect in the Pelicans’ spot and make an aggressive trade for their pick.
Still, a handful of really interesting prospects should still be on the board should the Pelicans wind up picking at their current position a thirteen.