Sleepy Freud of Warriors blog Golden State of Mind came up with this handy spectral pie chart for each team’s probability to land a certain pick in tonight’s lottery. The above reflects that the Wizards have the best “odds” to slip one spot and get the sixth pick, a 34.4% chance. “Great.”

But hey, at least the worst-case scenario all the pessimists keep gunning for (slipping to 8th) is that tiny gray sliver of 0.4%.

The Wizards have a 21.4% chance of landing one of the top two coveted picks (presumably John Wall or Evan Turner) — 10.3% to get No. 1; 11.1% to get No. 2.

There’s a 23.8% chance the Wiz will stand pat at five, a 12% chance of picking third and an 8.3% chance of slipping to seventh.

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Is this wizard killing the supposed curse on the Bullets/Wizards franchise?

If the team lands the number one pick tonight, should they keep the Wizards name?
I want the truth. I can handle it.

{via flickr/Rigphoto, sfist}

Oh yea, I also don’t believe in curses, but I am kinda/sorta superstitious.

For the hell of it, wizard photo search from flickr:

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This is the last time Irene Pollin made a public appearance representing the Wizards franchise. In this instance, the team out-scored Indiana 24-17 in the fourth quarter and won the game. Of course, that didn’t bode well for draft lottery positioning. If you’re a Wizards fan, you might want to grab some of that scotch or vodka in the background.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Whether you’ll be toasting or roasting during the late 8 pm (EST) hour Tuesday night,  the results of the NBA Draft Lottery are up to a fate that will never be comprehended nor anticipated by the human mind.

On the DC Sports Bog, Dan Steinberg has a great, yet painful chronicle of all the times the Wizards/Bullets franchise has come away from lottery night disappointed and all the marketing gimmicks (mostly of the Susan O’Malley, absurdly goofy variety) that were made to favorably sway lottery luck. Even Flip Saunders bringing his lucky coin last May 19th was along these lines to an extent.

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The Wizards have a 10.3% chance of getting this guy with the top pick.

{flickr/Tennessee Journalist}

The NBA Draft Lottery

First, the Wizards lost this afternoon’s random drawing against the Golden State Warriors to break the tie for fourth place in the NBA Draft Lottery (first reported by Matt Steinmetz of CSN Bay Area on Twitter).

What it means is that the worst the Wizards can pick, if they are jumped by three teams like last year, is 8th in the draft. Obviously the best the Wizards can do is 1st, or they can win 2nd or 3rd.

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Good riddance NBA draft lottery. We don’t care about you. Yea, it’s been a bad week … and we’re going to wallow in our sorrows for a bit. But I’m here to say you are dead to me. The Wizards are going to make the post-season despite you. You’re in heaven with grandma now … So in your honor, these songs will be played at your local barbershop.

Raekwon | Heaven & Hell

Master P | Heaven For A Gangsta

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The 2009 NBA Draft is on June 25th, an important day in so many ways. For one, it’s my birthday….the onset of my last year in my 20s…..but it’s also the day that the Wizards will be selecting Blake Griffin with the #1 overall draft pick (hopefully).

And while Griffin might not be a franchise changer like Tim Duncan, Yao Ming, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Shaq O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, he certainly isn’t a Kwame Brown or Michael Olowokandi.

Griffin won’t magically propel the Wizards to the cream of the crop, but he can certainly be a key cog on a potential contender while keeping the ‘Zards poised for the future.

June 25th is a pretty big date…potentially (Dikembe Mutombo will also turn 43 in beyond-human years on 6/25)….but May 19th is much more important. That’s when the order of the NBA is decided via a lottery.

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Just over three minutes left in a close game, Wizards up by one point against an almost equally bad team, the thought crossed my mind….do I hope they lose?

I knew the Clippers and Kings, two of the other top three worst teams in the league, were playing each other last night. It would be “nice” to have better chances in the draft.

But just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, it left. All along, I’ve been against “tanking” or even hoping for more losses just for the possibility of maybe having a better shot at the top pick/Blake Griffin. It just doesn’t seem like good basketball karma, not like it matters with the Curse O’ Les Boulez anyway. But still, we’re talking principles…..principalities.

So eff the lottery it was, I was pulling for my Wizards to win, because that’s what fans do. And a win is what I thought we were getting when Juan Dixon squirmed for a layup with 47 seconds left, putting the Wiz up 96-90.

But nothing ever comes easy. Two straight Raptor threes later, the few of us on the Bullets Forever game thread were screaming for the ghosts of Anthony Parker, Michael Ruffin and Mo Peterson to be exercised.

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I know it’s a bit early to start thinking about the NBA Draft….well, not really.

I couldn’t help myself as I watched the calm/cool/collective, yet, tough and banging exploits of Blake Griffin this past Sunday against UNC.

The Wizards want him on that line, they need him on that line.

All the fodder amongst “us” Wizards fans is that we are due for some good luck in the draft.

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The Wizards lost to the Bulls last night while giving the kiddies floor burn much to the delight of Wizards malcontents who would find negativity in just about anything (and no, despite popular belief, I am not one of those people).