ORLANDO, Fla. — Tonight, the Orlando Magic will move one step closer in their push to build a playoff team.
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The NBA Draft Lottery is tonight in Chicago.
This year’s NBA Draft marks the 30-year anniversary since the last time the Orlando Magic had back-to-back number-one overall picks.
They drafted Shaq in 1992 and Chris Webber in 1993 but traded Webber for Penny Hardaway later that night.
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The draft format has changed quite a bit since then. The rules were changed in 2019 to give the teams with the three worse records each a 14% chance of receiving a lottery pick, as opposed to the worst team automatically receiving the top pick.
It worked for Orlando last year, drafting Paolo Banchero.
The Magic will have two first-round picks unless the Chicago Bulls land in the top four. In that case, Chicago gets their once-traded pick back.
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As far as Orlando’s first-round pick, the Magic have a 9% chance of winning the first pick, and a 37% chance of landing in the top four.
So, the Magic pick will either land between picks 1 through 4 or 6 through 10, with the Bulls pick to be decided.
The lottery starts tonight at 8 p.m.
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