Minnesota Timberwolves: 2019 NBA Draft Lottery odds

With the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery taking place on Tuesday night in Chicago, here’s a look at the Minnesota Timberwolves’ odds in the annual draft lottery.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are back in a familiar territory once again as we head into the NBA offseason.

A year after the Wolves reached the postseason for the first time in over a decade, they are back in the mix in the 2019 NBA Draft Lottery, which will take place at 8:30 p.m. (ET) on Tuesday night in Chicago.

The NBA Draft Lottery is an annual event where the league’s bottom 14 teams will randomly be placed into an official draft order. Each team will have certain weighed odds for where they land in the order, depending on the team’s record during the regular season.

Here is the official 2019 lottery teams and odds, with Minnesota currently holding a three percent chance to get the No. 1 overall pick in the draft:

• New York Knicks: 14%
• Cleveland Cavaliers: 14%
• Phoenix Suns: 14%
• Chicago Bulls: 12.5%
• Atlanta Hawks: 10.5%
• Washington Wizards: 9.0%
• New Orleans Pelicans: 7.5%
• Memphis Grizzlies: 6.0%
• Dallas Mavericks: 4.5%
• Minnesota Timberwolves: 3%
• Los Angeles Lakers: 2.0%
• Charlotte Hornets: 1.5%
• Miami Heat: 1.0%
• Sacramento Kings (to Philadelphia 76ers): 0.5%

As you can see, the Timberwolves don’t have a great chance to be selected for the top overall pick in the draft, which will take place on June 20 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Minnesota will head into the draft lottery ranked 10th among the 14 teams in the lottery pool after finishing with a record of 36-46 during the 2018-19 NBA regular season. Along with them having a three percent chance of getting the No. 1 pick, the Timberwolves also hold a 13.9 percent chance of landing a spot in the top four spots in the draft.

Here are the percentage chances of each pick Minnesota could potentially receive in the draft lottery:

• No. 1: 3%
• No. 2: 3.3%
• No. 3: 3.6%
• No. 4: 4.0%
• No. 10: 65.9%
• No. 11: 19.0%
• No. 12: 1.2%
• No. 13: 0.0%
• No. 14: 0.0%

Minnesota, which will also pick 43rd overall in June’s draft, doesn’t have a great track record of moving up in the draft. The Timberwolves have never moved up from their projected spot in the draft lottery, although they did get the No. 1 overall pick in 2015 NBA Draft and eventually selected star big man Karl-Anthony Towns.

A year ago, the Timberwolves had a successful draft even without being in the lottery process, selecting wing Josh Okogie out of Georgia Tech with the 20th overall pick and later going with forward Keita Bates-Diop out of Ohio State with the 48th selection. Both players ended up having solid seasons with Minnesota.

The three teams with the best overall chance of landing the top pick in the lottery at 14 percent are the New York Knicks (who went a league-worst 17-65 during the regular season), the Cleveland Cavaliers (who held a record of 19-63) and the Phoenix Suns (who also tallied a 19-63 record).

With a lot of buzz surrounding this year’s draft class, mainly around the idea of landing touted prospect Zion Williamson, it’s not likely that we see the Timberwolves move all the way up from the No. 10 spot to the top selection, or even within the top four picks in the draft.

Crazier things have happened, of course, but it’s more likely Minnesota heads into next month’s 2019 NBA Draft with the No. 10 overall pick following the results of the draft lottery Tuesday night.