clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

How To Watch: The 2016 NBA Draft Lottery

With the Combine out of the way, we move on to the next stage of following Henry Ellenson's path to the NBA.

By Brewtown Andy

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

William Hauser-USA TODAY Sports

If you like ping pong balls and grown men lugging around superstition charms, well, then tonight is the night for you!

The NBA will hold its annual draft lottery tonight, and that will officially set us on the road to the NBA Draft.  The 14 teams that missed the playoffs will have their draft position decided tonight by a selection of ping pong balls in a particular order.  Each of the 14 spots in the lottery have a certain number of spots associated with them, and if you REAAAAAALLY care about that kind of thing, head over to Big East Coast Bias, because they figured everything out for you.  Before we dig deeper into the significance of tonight, let's make sure everyone knows the hows and wheres.

The Details

What: 2016 NBA Draft Lottery
When: Tuesday, May 17, 2016, at 7pm Central
TV: ESPN
Streaming: WatchESPN

For the first time in 13 years, Marquette fans have a reason to be interested in the NBA Draft Lottery.  In 2003, Dwyane Wade ended up going #5 overall to the Miami Heat in the NBA Draft, clearly landing him amongst the top 14 spots that were settled out by the bounce of a ping pong ball or 12.  While that might have ended up being a surprise to Marquette fans, the Golden Eagles haven't had a prospect considered to be worthy of one of those draft positions since then.

Henry Ellenson changes all of that.  He's Marquette's first ever player to leave school in the NBA's one-and-done era, and he's doing so with a reasonable assurance that he'll be a lottery pick.  The question becomes which lottery pick after tonight, of course.

Here's where Ellenson slots on the most recent mock drafts by a variety of sources.  All of these were done before the lottery and based purely on reverse order of regular season record, remember, so if the Bulls and their 0.5% chance of getting the #1 pick comes in, all of these will get thrown out the window pronto.

More From Anonymous Eagle