CHICAGO鈥擜bout an hour before the world got the news, Bobby Webster looked over his right shoulder at a familiar soul, a sour look on his face and a gnawing feeling in his heart that the NBA draft had gotten much more difficult for the Raptors.
In the locked-down room where the lottery unfolded, and well before the shocking results were officially released on a television show, the Raptors general manager knew his team would have the ninth selection in next month鈥檚 draft.
No Cooper Flagg. No top-four selection. Not even the seventh spot they had occupied before the proceedings began.
Ninth.
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Webster didn鈥檛 display abject disappointment 鈥斅爐hat鈥檚 not his nature 鈥 but he sure wasn鈥檛 dancing a jig deep in the bowels of the McCormick Place Convention Center.
鈥淲e鈥檙e confident in that range,鈥 the GM said.
The shocker of the draft was the Dallas Mavericks, in some karmic atonement for trading away Luka Doncic, winning the top selection despite only a 1.8 per cent chance.
San Antonio, maybe in some cosmic payback for losing iconic coach Gregg Popovich to retirement a week ago, turned a 6.3 per cent chance into the reality of having the second pick.
Philadelphia, which would have lost its lottery pick had it slid lower than sixth, moved up to third, while Charlotte had the third-worst record in the league but fell to fourth overall.
Utah and Washington undertook self-imposed and truly gruesome seasons aimed at better lottery luck but were ravaged, falling to fifth and sixth.
Maluach ticks every Raptors box and could be around by the time 海角社区官网picks.
There was a minute of stunned silence, then wry smiles from the various front-office representatives in the back room when Dallas got the first selection. And when it was obvious that none of three of the four worst teams in the league got the No. 1 pick, there were officials privately wondering if tanking is worth it.
No team with the worst record has won the lottery since the current weighted process was put in place. So much for getting rewarded for tanking.
鈥淭his one was a crazy one,鈥 Raptors vice-chair and president Masai Ujiri said.聽鈥淚 guess the lottery is real, then.鈥
What 海角社区官网is left with is a larger group of players to wade through between now and June 25.
While some experts suggest the class is deep and players taken the teens might end up as good as the first half-dozen, picking that player is the challenge.
There are roster needs聽鈥 a backup big man chief among them聽鈥 and mock drafts suggest there might be one or two available at ninth, but Ujiri and Webster have never played to form. It鈥檚 entirely possible that no one yet mentioned will end up the Raptors’ choice.
鈥淚 think we continue this rebuild and grow as a team and, honestly, I’m as optimistic as I was earlier,鈥 Ujiri said. 鈥淵ou hope and pray that you get a No. 1 or No. 2 or you jump.
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鈥淚f there’s one thing I’m confident about, it’s us picking in the draft. I’m very, very confident.鈥
There are other avenues, of course. The Raptors are not averse to discussing trades, and news Monday that Giannis Antetokounmpo might be amenable to a move out of Milwaukee won鈥檛 quiet any chatter. A San Antonio trade with the Bucks centred on the No. 2 pick and Antetokounmpo started almost the second the lottery results were made known. Ujiri was measured about it.
鈥淚n terms of trades, I can’t comment on anything, but I believe that the NBA has become that: movement, movement, movement,鈥 he said. 鈥淵ou just wait for your turn. It will come. Patience, and see if that’s the way.
鈥淏ut I think for this team, we’re just going to keep growing and (we have) young players. We’ll be fine adding another one.鈥
Besides, ninth picks have tended to work out well for Toronto.
鈥淭racy McGrady, DeMar DeRozan, Jakob Poeltl,鈥 Ujiri said, rattling off the other No. 9 selections in franchise history. 鈥淲e’ll be fine. I guarantee you, we’ll be fine.”
The lottery process unfolds with surgical precision, so transparent that it would be difficult for even the most hardened conspiracy theorist to question it.
Balls numbered one through 14 are displayed for everyone in the room to see, then loaded into the hopper.
With a partner in the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP overseeing, the first of four balls is revealed after 20 seconds. A league official (with back turned to the process) signals 10 seconds before each of the second, third and fourth balls are released.
There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to order of selection. Before the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations were assigned to the lottery teams. If the same team comes up more than once (or if the one unassigned combination is drawn) then the result is discarded and another聽 combination is drawn.
Once four draws are done, placards with team logos are sealed in envelopes and handed to an NBA security official.
No one on the stage for the televised draw had any idea of the results.
The Raptors have won the lottery three times in 17 tries.
In 2006, that 27-55 team moved up from fifth-worst to No. 1 and took Andrea Bargnani.
In 1996, the 21-61 Raptors went from third to first but were ineligible for No. 1 under the聽NBA expansion agreement. They drafted second, taking Marcus Camby after the Philadelphia 76ers chose Allen Iverson.
They were ineligible to even take part in the 1995 lottery and assigned the seventh slot in their inaugural season.
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