What NBA's return plan means for Warriors' 2020 draft lottery odds

Share

We don't need to speculate any longer.

The Warriors are guaranteed to end up with a top-five pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

We know this because the NBA Board of Governors on Thursday approved the league's format to resume the 2019-20 season. In the process, the league provided details on the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery.

"The 14 NBA Lottery teams would be the eight teams that do not participate in the restart and the six teams that participate in the restart but do not qualify for the playoffs," the NBA said in a press release. "These teams would be seeded in the lottery and assigned odds based on their records through games of March 11."

The Warriors -- who will not be among the 22 teams playing in Orlando -- hold the worst record at 15-50. And based on the new lottery rules that were implemented last year, Golden State cannot fall below No. 5 overall.

[RUNNIN' PLAYS PODCAST: Listen to the latest episode]

The teams with the three worst records -- the Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers and Minnesota Timberwolves -- each have the best odds (14 percent) of landing the No. 1 overall pick.

After that, the Warriors have a 13.4 percent chance of getting the No. 2 pick, a 12.7 percent chance at No. 3, 12 percent at No. 4 and 47.9 percent at No. 5.

So when will we find out the results? The 2020 NBA Draft Lottery now is scheduled for Aug. 25, with the draft set for Oct. 15.

[RELATED: Report: Warriors have Haliburton over Ball on draft board]

General manager Bob Myers and coach Steve Kerr have had conversations with prospects over Zoom since April. The franchise expects to get clearance eventually to meet with players in person, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

It's unclear at this point if there will be a combine, or if teams will be able to bring players to their facilities for private workouts.

Follow @DrewShiller on Twitter and Instagram

Contact Us