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Behind the scenes in the Strangest NBA draft lottery ever

The lottery has come to be a celebration for the damned. It's usually held at a fancy hotel, with pre-show mingling over cocktails and appetizers for VIPs. After a team contingent showed up, let us saya little rowdier than usual after a personal trip to New York. Representatives from every lottery group sit at tables adorned with team logos in the secret drawing room where the actual lottery occurs about an hour prior to the TV show. A dozen media"observers" watch. It is a production. There were nine people in the room -- including me. There were more pingpong balls (14) than individuals. The TV show, headlined by Mark Tatum, the NBA's deputy commissioner, was filmed in the cafeteria down the hall.

I was the sole press member in the drawing area. If it turns out to be among of the NBA finally awakened, I'll go down in infamy as having failed to discover the conspiracy.

• The NBA kicked around assembling some video wall in which representatives from every team could see (via Zoom) the drawing, but determined it was both unnecessary and cumbersome. A few team executives agitated for an in-house place inside the room, sources told ESPN. No dice.



• Every attendee stopped at a security desk at the front entrance to hand over several waivers and medical declarations. Then we jumped into a testing room for the coronavirus nasal swab. My results came back -- negative -- in 23 minutes. This was seemingly an antigen evaluation -- marginally less accurate than the more common PCR molecular test, prone to some false negative consequences, but obviously much quicker. All of us wore masks for the remainder of our time in the drawing room.

• The blessed nine handed over our telephones and sequestered from the drawing area at about 7:30. The drawing takes about five minutes. An NBA employee

Vacuums four numbered pingpong balls, one-by-one at precise 10-second intervals, from an old-school lottery system. (Yes, there is a timekeeper who stands with his back into the device and retains a stopwatch.)

There are 1,001 potential four-digit combinations. Each lottery group is assigned a specific number of those.

And allow me to tell you: After a grown man in a suit holds up a pingpong ball and recites aloud the number you can already see on that pingpong ball, the lottery feels just like its old goofy self -- amid a pandemic.

• After the drawing, we made small talk in the atrium as we waited for the ESPN broadcast. Suddenly, Tatum burst through double doors into the atrium on his way into the cafeteria collection. This would never occur in a regular lottery: Tatum did not understand the results, and now he had been chatting with a half of us who did. For about five minutes, we had been at risk of spoiling it for him! As the conversation flowed, I came really close to making a generic"Woe would be the Knicks" joke before understanding even that could tip him into the Knicks falling (again).

• Speaking of the Knicks: Tatum remembered Patrick Ewing, New York's rep about the dais last year, standing right behind him at an

Angle where he could identify the contents of this No. 3 envelope prior to Tatum. As Tatum torn open the envelope, he discovered Ewing groan -- understanding the Knicks had barely missed out on Ja Morant and Zion Williamson. Tatum can hear that groan in his head.

• Two days prior to the lottery, I requested Gersson Rosas,'' Minnesota's president of basketball operations, if he had any lottery superstitions. He did not. "We're due for something good to happen to us," Rosas said,"after everything we have been through." The lottery gods (a subset of the basketball gods) agreed.

What a moment for Minnesota. As rosters stand today (subject to the standard offseason makeovers), the Wolves would probably be projected as one of the three or two worst teams at the Western Conference. Their team is (essentially ) available. There is no consensus No. 1 pick. When the Wolves feel pressure to pursue a playoff place, are they open to sniffing around what they may get packaging that select and trading down?

MORE: Who should -- and will -- the Timberwolves draft at No. 1?

• Also, Timberwolves: I've acquired the envelope and Wolves team placard out of Thursday's show. An NBA staffer gave them to me! Here's proof:

(It might be among many copies. I'm choosing to believe it's the only Tatum held up.)

If you would like it, I'm sure we can agree on some kind of transaction! I really think you shouldn't claim it, though. It gets depressing when teams collect too many memorabilia from lottery wins.

• Devonte' Graham, the Hornets' representative on the virtual dais, had not thought about his outfit, his TV background, or the possibility of bringing any blessed trinket by 5 p.m. -- three-ish hours before the show. "I am trying to let it come for me," he told ESPN. "I don't want to plan too hard and have it stinks."

• Graham is still smarting about being left off the list of finalists for the NBA's Most Improved Player award. "I was definitely upset," he said. "And surprised."

• We know the Warriors, with all realistic aspirations of contending for the title next year, will sniff around what they may get packaging the No. 2 pick for a quality veteran or 2 (plus other stuff).

The NBA hasn't seen a dilemma like this in quite a long time. Perhaps you don't think that it's a problem -- which the Warriors need to do everything in their power to keep their title window open. That is probably so. A name window is valuable. In case Draymond Green's drop this season was real -- rather than the item of malaise -- Golden State can't act as if the Stephen Curry/Klay Thompson/Green trio alone places them ahead of the Los Angeles teams (or maybe even on par with them). Thompson hasn't appeared in a game in 14 months.

However, if Green revs up, that trio -- plus a few fascinating young gamers, including the No. 2 pick -- is still pretty damned great. As a rule, rookies don't help you win, but No. 2 selections could be exceptions.

Nailing that select could give Golden State a bridge beyond the Curry/Thompson/Green era. Drafting a celebrity at No. 2 would unlock that route. As Kevin Pelton noted Thursday, they may also have difficulty locating a veteran who's both available for what Golden State can offer and worth what they can provide -- and really moves the needle onto their name odds for next season.

Naturally, the Warriors can exchange this pick and draft a bridge celebrity with Minnesota's 2021 pick -- or using a stroke-of-genius commerce down the line, as the Spurs did in swapping George Hill to get Kawhi Leonard.

However, what if Minnesota's pick somehow ends up toward the bottom of next year's lottery -- or worse? The draft is unpredictable. That doesn't mean it is completely arbitrary. Your chances of finding a franchise celebrity are still higher at the top. That might be true this year, but it's still generally correct.

When the Warriors believe that they can find the man they want elsewhere in the lottery, they can thread the needle into some type of Jayson Tatum/Markelle Fultz-style bargain where they trade down and pick up some fringe experienced help. But a few other team has to appreciate somebody else to pay to move up.

• Golden State brass initially asked Joe Lacob, the team's governor, when he wished to helm the virtual dais for the group's first lottery appearance since their mythical 2012 tank job to get Harrison Barnes.

They believe Lacob unusually lucky, for various reasons. He informed themsemi-facetiously, something to the effect of:"I do not do lotteries. I really do championships." When ESPN's Ramona Shelburne asked Lacob relating to this cheeky line, he chuckled. "That is gont be such as the'light years' thing," Lacob explained. "I'd say that. But when you're in last place, you should not have much to say."

Stephen Curry was the following and clear Option. He had just one request, Golden State higher-ups said: Request Klay first. Thompson apparently passed. Larry was one of more than 100 pets that the Miami Heat and Trainers helped relocate to the Bay Area when Hurricane Irma hit South Florida in 2017.

• There is doubt one of staff executives this draft will occur as scheduled on Oct. 16 -- in part because there's more skepticism across every sector of the league that free service will begin as scheduled two weeks later. (See more in this report from ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.) Obviously, all about this situation is fluid.

There is doubt that the league and National Basketball Players Association can agree to some company salary cap for the 2020-21 year by date. Free service cannot commence with no number. The cap is determined by the league general earnings projection -- that is based on earnings from the previous season. The union and league need to feign that for the present season. That's complicated.

Projecting forward, next year will bring a huge revenue downturn. No party desires the cap to fall in sync with this. It's bad for teams and players. It's been widely reported, including at ESPN, that the most convenient alternative is carrying over this season's cap figure -- $109 million -- into 2020-21, and placing a much larger proportion of every player's salary to escrow so that gamers do not end up with more than their guaranteed share of real revenue.

That seems simple, but it's not. It requires thorny discussion between the league and union, and one of the players. (A one-time salary reduction, via escrow, can penalize some players over others.) It might wind up requiring a wholesale rewriting of major parts of the CBA, although nobody wants that, either.

Point is, there are a lot of people around the NBA ecosystem that do not expect free agency to begin until sometime in November, or maybe even early December. (Again: Everything is fluid; no one understands anything.)

The final cap amount usually comes in just before free agency -- and after the draft -- but the team supplies teams a solid quote before the draft. This year, there are just 48 hours between these events. Can you have a draft with no accurate cap estimate?

The draft is just one of the league's three busiest trade periods. How do you exchange veteran gamers -- on contracts of different amounts and lengths -- without even knowing what the cap is? Do you really wish to draft without understanding beginner scale salaries with 90% certainty?

A few executives have spitballed about tweaking this one draft that teams can trade only selections -- and not present players. The appeal would be getting rookies in the doorway, such as they are allowed in almost any door, as soon as you can. But the draft and free agency are connected; teams navigate the draft with an eye on what comes next.

The league may prefer to keep the current draft date to capitalize on momentum coming from this bubble. They could complete some frantic negotiation that would at least lead to a preliminary cap quote. Teams have drafted under great uncertainty prior to -- including with lockouts looming. Non-bubble executives were upset about missing out on the microwaved chemistry procedure the Phoenix Suns appear to have loved in Orlando, although one wonders how upset they would be if Phoenix went a quiet 4-4. One GM described a bubble team jumping the non-bubblers as"our worst nightmare" in the lead-up to the lottery.

• If you want to learn why the Cavs dropped three spots Thursday along with the Pelicans neglected to move up, you will get the solution at the house of Jeff Cohen -- former vice chair of the Cleveland Cavaliers and confidante of Cavs' governor Dan Gilbert. Cohen represented the Cavaliers in the drawing room in every one of their three lottery wins from 2011 through 2014 -- the greatest stretch of lottery luck in NBA history. He wore the exact same black tie together with silver-gray striping to every lottery. I started talking about him as a warlock.

Then LeBron came back, the Cavs abandoned the lottery, and Cohen vanished. Cohen sent the tie. Griffin requested Alvin Gentry, New Orleans' drawing area rep last year, to put on it. New Orleans leapt to No. 1.

Griffin had the tie framed, and attached a plaque commemorating its expressive achievements. The framework is now in Cohen's home, Griffin explained. Buford vividly remembers watching that lottery out of his office in San Antonio. "I think I leaped a foot off my seat when we won," he explained.

He recalled Sam Schuler, the Spurs' rep in the drawing area that night, relaying to Buford and Gregg Popovich the Spurs had actually won twice -- the pingpong ball system had spit out yet another four-ball mix belonging to San Antonio after the winning draw. (The league discards such repeats and moves on.)

"Sam told us that the remainder of the room was sterile," Buford remembered, laughing. "And they were very pissed."

• The mixtures are organized so the worst groups have all combos comprising 1, 2, and 3. It's officially exciting if the first two or three numbers are large. For 20 stomach-churning seconds, what's in play. Eight teams still had a shot. Then came a 2, and the suspense dwindled. For 10 seconds, everyone but Sacramento, New Orleans, and Memphis was living. The final amount -- 5 -- earmarked the pick into the Hornets. Charlotte fans needed this. Over the previous two lotteries in Chicago, Gertz had developed a single lottery day convention: eating one slice of chocolate cake out of RL Restaurant in Chicago.

This was not possible from the tee. She has explored baking again during the pandemic, and recently baked cheesecake for the first time in 30-plus years of union to Ressler, she explained. "I knew he loved me," Gertz said,"however, the cheesecake certainly took me up a few notches."

There are not very many lottery matters funnier than seeing somebody on the dais if their team does not end up with an option. It was funnier this year, when Tatum announced the Boston Celtics from the No. 14 spot -- just for the camera to cut (with essentially no excuse ) to some stone-faced Elliot Perry, who was representing the Memphis Grizzlies. (The Grizzlies owed their choice to Boston with top-six protection.) That probably represented a best-case situation for Memphis, but the visual still attracted chuckles in the atrium.

• Here's hoping the lottery is restored to its regular glory following year.

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