2023 NBA Draft Lottery Watch: Magic Eyeing Top-5 Pick
The 2023 NBA Draft Lottery is nearly two months away.
As it stands, the Orlando Magic owns the fifth-worst record in the NBA at 28-40. The team is still in the playoff hunt, just 3.5 games back from the No. 10 seed Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference with 14 games remaining on their schedule.
While earning a trip to the postseason is still possible, chances are not in the Magic's favor. Orlando has not strung together more than two-straight wins since Dec. 18. To make matters worse, Jonathan Isaac was recently ruled out for the remainder of the season, and now, Franz Wagner sustained an ankle injury that is threatening his availability in the immediate future.
Keeping a footing on a bottom-five record would be more beneficial to coach Jamahl Mosley and company, who could add a premier young prospect to among the most talented young nuclei in the NBA.
As for the lottery itself, NBA.com laid out the new format pertaining to odds, saying in part:
"The new system will level the odds at the top of the NBA Draft Lottery so that the teams with the three worst regular-season records will each have a 14 percent chance of winning the lottery. In the pre-2019 structure, the top seed had a 25 percent of winning the lottery, the second seed had a 19.9 percent and the third seed had a 15.6 percent."
In addition, the No. 27 seed will receive 12.5 percent odds and the No. 26 seed will own a 10.5 percent chance at winning the No. 1 pick. Currently, the Magic would bear the latter of the probabilities. The bottom-three seeds are already out of reach for Orlando, and it would take a massive seven-game swing to unseat the Charlotte Hornets for No. 27. No signs point to the Magic purposefully bottoming out to increase their chances by 2.5 percent.
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