The restart of the NBA in Orlando and the Knicks’ position in the draft lottery

The NBA season will resume at Disney World in Florida on July 31st. The Knicks will not be present.

What does this mean for their position in the NBA Draft lottery?

The NBA announced that the 14 lottery teams would be the eight teams not participating in the reboot, like the Knicks, and the six teams participating but not qualifying for the playoffs at the end of the regular season. In turn, their seeding and odds will be based on records through the March 11 games.

For the 16 playoff teams, they would have drawn up in reverse order of their combined records in regular season games and seeding games.

The Knicks (21-45) currently have the sixth worst record in the league, so they will remain in that position for the lottery. So if the Wizards went to 0-8 in their normal season games at Disney World, they wouldn’t end up lower in the final rankings of Charlotte, Chicago or New York.

In traditional format, the Knicks would have an 8.6 percent chance of landing the sixth choice and a nine percent chance of landing on the first choice. They would have a 37.2 percent chance of landing one of the top four choices.

ESPN has reported that the lottery will take place on August 25th and the Draft will take place on October 15th.

The Knicks have their first round pick and have the Clippers’ first round pick following the Marcus Morris trade.

It is not clear where that choice will end because it is not known how the ranking of the 22 teams playing Disney World will change. The Clippers currently have the fourth best record in the league.

The Knicks, and probably most other teams, had LaMelo Ball as the top point guard at the end of last month. The club also explored Cole Anthony extensively. LaVar Ball has publicly stated that he would have liked it if his son had been drafted by the Knicks. Aside from LaVar Ball, others in the circle of LaMelo Ball would like to see the guard land with the Knicks.