WNBA Draft Lottery today, Sacramento Monarchs have shot at No. 1 pick

November 5, 10:48 AMSacramento Sports ExaminerPatrick Ibarra

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The lottery to determine the top five picks in the 2010 WNBA Draft will be held on Nov. 5.  

The Sacramento Monarchs, who posted a record of 12-22 this past season and missed the playoffs for the first time in seven years, have the best opportunity to secure one of the top three picks in the draft.  

The Minnesota Lynx have the next best odds of winning the lottery.  The team has the second-highest odds because it holds New York’s combinations due to the trade involving Sidney Spencer, Noelle Quinn and Rafaella Masciadri on May 5, 2009.  New York finished the 2009 season with a 13-21 record.

In addition, the Lynx own the third-highest odds after ending the season with a record of 14-20.  Because Minnesota’s own lottery combinations are treated separately from the combinations received from New York, they could win two of the top three selections.

The Connecticut Sun and Chicago Sky each posted a record of 16-18 this past season and round out the lottery-eligible teams.  

WNBA officials and a representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young will conduct the Draft Lottery in New York City.  The lottery will establish the first five picks of the draft.  The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third round is determined by inverse order of the teams’ respective regular-season records.

Fourteen balls numbered 1-14 will be placed in a lottery machine and mixed.  Four balls will then be drawn to the top to determine a four-digit combination.  The team that has been assigned that four-ball combination will receive the No. 1 pick.  The four balls will then be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated to determine the second and third picks.

There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection.  One thousand of those combinations will be assigned to the five non-playoff teams based on their order of finish in the 2009 regular season.  The remaining combination will be unassigned.  If the one unassigned combination is drawn, the balls will be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated until an assigned combination is drawn.

Following are the number of chances for teams in the WNBA Draft Lottery:

2010 WNBA Draft Lottery teams

           Team                   Record         Chances (out of 1,000)
1.      Sacramento        12-22                           420
2.      Minnesota (from New York)13-21        261
3.      Minnesota           14-20                           167
4.      Connecticut        16-18                            76
5.      Chicago              16-18                            76        

Following is the remaining order for the first round as determined by overall records from 2009:

         Team                     Record        
6.  San Antonio                15-19
7. Washington                16-18
8. Tulsa                            18-16       
9. Los Angeles                18-16       
10. Atlanta                        18-16       
11.  Seattle                        20-14       
12. Indiana                        22-12                  
13. Los Angeles (from Phoenix)        23-11