The Sixer Sense
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Sixers NBA Draft: Having Fun With Lottery Simulators

By Drew Corrigan

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The 2015 NBA Draft Lottery is only about a month and a few weeks away. It’s happening May 19 and I couldn’t be more excited. For a few reasons, 1) I graduate college on May 20 and 2) IT’S THE FREAKING DRAFT LOTTERY.

With the season coming down to a screeching halt, it’s really the time to schedule our focus on the NBA Draft and those picks. Those little picks that will determine the future of our 76ers. With that in mind, I’ve decided to have some fun. The site Tankathon.com, besides being an amazing site, has a lottery simulator that I play on quite frequently. For that reason, it’s time to bring this to action and see how lucky (or unlucky) the Sixers could be on NBA Draft Lotto night.

Let’s get it.

This is how the standings look before I hit the “sim lottery” trigger. In this case, a team will need to jump from behind the Lakers for the Sixers to have a chance to keep the Lakers top-five protected pick and their own. Okay, here goes nothing.

Attempt No. 1

Oh, this is good! Well, sorta. No one wants the Lakers to have the first pick, no one on this Earth does, not even Kobe Bryant (I’ve asked him). BUT, the Sixers do the third pick, which will probably end up with D’Angelo Russell or Emmanuel Mudiay in a Sixers uniform. And the Knickerbockers fell to fourth which is always a great thing.

Attempt No. 2

EVEN BETTER. The No. 2 pick! Plus, we jumped the T-Wolves and Knicks. However, if Karl Towns goes first overall to the Magic, this would put the Sixers in a curious situation. Do you draft Jahlil Okafor with Noel and Embiid or does the Hinkster opt for one of the point guards? I’d rather the Sixers get the first or third pick if Towns goes first overall. My heart couldn’t take the anticipation.

Attempt No. 3

Woah, the Pacers jumped from the ninth slot in the lottery to first. Indiana had a 1.7 percent chance to jump to No 1, which shows you how crazy lottery night can be. This is like the jump the Cavaliers did last year to land Andrew Wiggins. Again, the Sixers landed the No. 3 pick, which is still a good thing. So far, the Sixers haven’t fallen farther than No. 3 in the first three attempts. But, I probably cursed myself for the next roll.

Attempt No. 4

THE FIRST OVERALL PICK. I thought this would be the roll that took the Sixers out of the first four slots, but alas it turned out to be the best roll yet. Unfortunately, the Lakers dropped down a slot, but we need them to drop down two slots to get that pick. This is Karl Towns in a Sixers uniform. This is god’s work.

Attempt No. 5

Yuck. I dislike scenarios where the Sixers fall behind the Knicks, Wolves and Lakers. But, it’s still a top four pick, so who am I to complain?

Overall Results

Some things that happened in my five spins of the lottery:

  • The Sixers landed the No. 1 pick one time
  • The Sixers never fell out of the top four
  • LA Lakers jumped to No. 1 twice
  • The Sixers landed pick three the most (2/5 times)
  • The Lakers pick never conveyed to the Sixers

Interesting. Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this, because it’s something that can happen on a weekly basis due to the nature of the lottery being a … lottery. Also, I realized I did all of this without using the NBA Mock Draft portion of Tankathon.com, because I’m not smart. Next time, I’ll do it with actual picks, but for now, let your mind wander.