What: 2023 NBA Draft Lottery

When: 8:00pm EDT

Where: Chicago, IL

How to watch: ESPN

The night is upon us. The night where bouncing ping pong balls will determine the fate of NBA franchises. The Hornets aren’t in the best spot, but it could be worse. Here are the Hornets odds to pick in each slot:

1st: 12.5%
2nd: 12.2%
3rd: 11.9%
4th: 11.5%
5th: 7.2%
6th: 25.7%
7th: 16.8%
8th: 2.2%

The 6th pick is technically the most likely, but I like to view it as the Hornets have a roughly 50/50 shot of picking top 4, which is a little more hopeful. Obviously the top pick comes with the big prize of Victor Wembanyama, but guys like Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller would be nice consolation prizes in the top three or four.

Here’s how it works–representatives from each team and from the league office will go into a back room with a ping pong ball machine. It contains 14 balls numbered 1-14, and four are drawn at each drawing. That means there are 1001 possible combinations, which are assigned to teams based on their final place in the standings (the best odds get 140 combinations (14% odds for #1), the Hornets get 125 combinations (12.5% odds for #1), and so on. That’s done for the first four picks, and the rest are in reverse order of the final standings.

The whole process is almost excessively tamper proof. There is a set time the machine must run before a ball is drawn, and the person who runs that timer isn’t even allowed to look at the ping pong ball machine. The reps in the ping pong ball room are not allowed to bring cell phones and are locked in a the room until after the TV broadcast with the envelope drawing is aired. There’s a video in the link above that shows last year’s drawing.

Sound off in the comments about how you’re manifesting number 1 pick energy for the Hornets today.