Everything you need to know about the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery

May 17, 2016; New York, NY, USA; General view during the NBA draft lottery at New York Hilton Midtown. The Philadelphia 76ers received the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
May 17, 2016; New York, NY, USA; General view during the NBA draft lottery at New York Hilton Midtown. The Philadelphia 76ers received the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
1 of 6
Next
May 17, 2016; New York, NY, USA; General view during the NBA draft lottery at New York Hilton Midtown. The Philadelphia 76ers received the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
May 17, 2016; New York, NY, USA; General view during the NBA draft lottery at New York Hilton Midtown. The Philadelphia 76ers received the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /

The NBA Draft Lottery is here. Here is everything you need to know about the event and the Orlando Magic’s chances to win.

The big day for the Orlando Magic is here. The NBA Draft Lottery takes place tonight in New York, setting the future for at least three of the teams that failed to make the Playoffs this year.

While there are certainly the odds to play and in the long run those tend to win out, the Lottery is a random draw. Anything can happen when you run things just one time.

Interim general manager Matt Lloyd has experienced the highs and the lows of the Lottery process. When he was working for the Chicago Bulls in 2008, the team had a 1.7 percent chance of winning the Lottery. Chicago won the Lottery and selected Derrick Rose, setting of the franchise’s best run since Michael Jordan was winning championships.

The Magic have experienced a terrible run of Lottery luck in the last five years. They landed the second pick (Victor Oladipo) with the top odds, the fourth pick (Aaron Gordon) with the third-best odds and the fifth pick (Mario Hezonja) with the fifth-best odds. All the choices the team made seemed rational at the time. The best pick of the three — Aaron Gordon — was probably the biggest reach the team made.

But undoubtedly the team never picked that defining star the rebuild needed.

There is, for that reason, a lot of anticipation for this Draft Lottery specifically. This is a deep draft that promises to deliver to the Magic a quality player even if they do not win it.

Winning it, though, would completely change the franchise’s direction. A season that seemed to be rock bottom would, all of a sudden, have a bright glimmer of hope. Such is the life of relying on the ping pong balls for a team’s fortune.

As coach Frank Vogel waits on stage for the league to reveal the Lottery results, he and the team will have everything out of their control. Fans will certainly feel disappointment should the team not get into the top three — even if that is what the odds say will happen.

Hope is a powerful drug. That is what the Lottery is about.

But this post is about cold, hard facts. This post is about the Lottery process, the odds and the scenarios that may play out tonight in New York.

Here is everything you need to know about the NBA Draft Lottery tonight. And be sure to join us here on Orlando Magic Daily for a live NBA Draft Lottery show on YouTube Live at 8 p.m.!