NBA 2K League Season 3 Draft Lottery: What Will Happen?

The third NBA 2K League Draft Lottery will be held on Friday, October 4th at the National Basketball Association (NBA) office in New York City.  The NBA 2K League Draft Lottery will determine the order of selection for the 13 lottery teams in the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft.  The two expansion teams, Hornets Venom GT and Gen.G’s recently announced NBA 2K League team, are ineligible to win the NBA 2K League Draft Lottery but will hold the fifth and sixth picks in each round of the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft.

Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine.  There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection.  Prior to the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations will be assigned to the 13 participating lottery teams.  If drawn, the combination 11-12-13-14 is disregarded to preserve an even 1,000 combinations.  By inverse order of their regular-season records, Pistons GT, Lakers Gaming and Knicks Gaming share the same chance of receiving the No. 1 overall draft pick and will be assigned the same number of combinations (150 each).  Grizz Gaming, the best team in the lottery at 9-7, will have 10 combinations out of 1,000.

The drawing process occurs in the following manner: All 14 balls are placed in the lottery machine and are mixed for 20 seconds; then the first ball is removed.  The remaining balls are mixed in the lottery machine for another 10 seconds, and then the second ball is drawn.  There is a 10-second mix, and then the third ball is drawn.  There is a 10-second mix, and then the fourth ball is drawn.  The team that has been assigned any combination of the first four numbers drawn will receive the number one pick.  The same process is repeated with the same ping-pong balls and lottery machine for the second pick and then again for the third pick.

If the same team comes up more than once, the result is discarded and another four-ball combination is selected.  Also, if the one unassigned combination is drawn, the result is discarded and the balls are drawn again.  The length of time the balls are mixed is monitored by a timekeeper who faces away from the machine and signals the machine operator after the appropriate amount of time has elapsed.

The order of selection for the teams that were in the draft lottery but do not win one of the top three picks will be determined by inverse order of their regular-season record.  Thus, Pistons GT can pick no lower than fourth, Lakers Gaming can pick no lower than seventh and Knicks Gaming can pick no lower than eighth.

The order of the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft will run as follows: 1) top-four lottery teams, 2) two expansion teams, 3) remaining nine lottery teams, and 4) eight playoff teams.  While the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft will be a “fixed” draft, the two expansion teams will reverse order each round.

The teams that qualified to participate in the 2019 NBA 2K League Playoffs will select in inverse order of their playoff finishes.  For instances where teams were eliminated in the same playoff round, draft order will be determined by the inverse order of the teams’ seeding in the playoffs.

The 2020 NBA 2K League Draft order is subject to change based on trades and additional player retainment.

More details on the 2020 NBA 2K League Draft will be announced at a later date.

2020 NBA 2K League Draft Order (FIRST ROUND)

NBA 2K LEAGUE DRAFT LOTTERY CHANCES (Out of 1,000)

The following are the 13 teams in the NBA 2K League Draft Lottery.  These teams did not qualify for the 2019 NBA 2K League Playoffs.  Each team will be assigned a certain number of combinations out of 1,000.  The third column below lists the number of combinations each team will have in the NBA 2K League Draft Lottery.  The fourth column below lists the percentage chances that each team will have of getting the first overall pick in the NBA 2K League Draft.

2020 NBA 2K League Draft Lottery Probabilities

NBA 2K LEAGUE EXPANSION DRAFT LOTTERY: WHAT WILL HAPPEN?