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NBA Draft Lottery: Wolves to pick 1st, Lakers 2nd, 76ers 3rd, Knicks 4th

Jesse D. Garrabrant / Getty

The Minnesota Timberwolves will have the No. 1 selection in the 2015 NBA Draft.

With 25-percent odds of landing the top pick after finishing dead last in the regular season, the Wolves become the first team since 2004 to win the lottery after entering with the best odds.

Barring a trade, they'll also have a bit of a roster rarity with three consecutive No. 1 picks in Anthony Bennett, Andrew Wiggins and 2015's top choice.

Related: Early 1st-round 2015 NBA Mock Draft

The Los Angeles Lakers moved up from No. 4 to land the second pick, avoiding the 17.2-percent chance that they would fall out of the top five and be forced to convey an owed pick to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Sixers, meanwhile, will select third for a second consecutive year. They had a 0.28-percent chance to land both the Lakers' pick and the Miami Heat's pick, but they'll have a lone first-round selection.

The New York Knicks were the primary victim of the lottery proceedings, falling to No. 4 despite the second-best odds at the No. 1 pick and a 55.8-percent chance of picking in the top three.

There wasn't much movement in the lottery overall, with the minor Knicks-Lakers swap representing the only parts of the draft order that didn't line up with the reverse standings.

The odds of each team landing in their position, as well as their chances of landing in the top three, were as follows:

Pick Team Chance at Pick Chance at #1 Chance at #2 Chance at #3
1 Minnesota 25.0% 25.0% 21.5% 17.8%
2 L.A. Lakers 11.9% 11.9% 12.6% 13.3%
3 Philadelphia 15.6% 15.6% 15.7% 15.6%
4 New York 31.9% 19.9% 18.8% 17.1%
5 Orlando 26.1% 8.8% 9.7% 10.7%
6 Sacramento 43.9% 6.3% 7.1% 8.1%
7 Denver 59.9% 4.3% 4.9% 5.8%
8 Detroit 72.4% 2.8% 3.3% 3.9%
9 Charlotte 81.3% 1.7% 2.0% 2.4%
10 Miami 87.0% 1.1% 1.3% 1.6%
11 Indiana 90.7% 0.8% 0.9% 1.2%
12 Utah 93.5% 0.7% 0.8% 1.0%
13 Phoenix 96.0% 0.6% 0.7% 0.9%
14 Oklahoma City 98.2% 0.5% 0.6% 0.7%

The Wolves seem likely to favor Karl-Anthony Towns with the top pick, as the two-way center would provide an element of rim protection and a bit of spacing at the pivot, while forming a strong defensive core alongside Wiggins and Ricky Rubio.

That would likely be just fine with the Lakers, who could then take interior scorer Jahlil Okafor or one of the top two guards in the draft, Emmanuel Mudiay and D'Angelo Russell.

Russell seems a better fit for the 76ers than Mudiay if both are available, but they'll likely take the best talent regardless of position. The Knicks, meanwhile, shouldn't be too disappointed in landing whichever of those four prospects remains at No. 4, or a member of the next tier of prospects, should they see fit.

Factoring in picks that have already been traded, the entire draft order for the first two rounds is as follows:

1st Round Team (From) 2nd Round Team (From)
1 Minnesota 31 Minnesota
2 L.A. Lakers 32 Houston (NY)
3 Philadelphia 33 Boston (PHI)
4 New York 34 L.A. Lakers
5 Orlando 35 Philadelphia (ORL)
6 Sacramento 36 Minnesota (SAC)
7 Denver 37 Philadelphia (DEN)
8 Detroit 38 Detroit
9 Charlotte 39 Charlotte
10 Miami 40 Miami
11 Indiana 41 Brooklyn
12 Utah 42 Utah
13 Phoenix 43 Indiana
14 Oklahoma City 44 Phoenix
15 Atlanta (BRK) 45 Boston
16 Boston 46 Milwaukee
17 Milwaukee 47 Philadelphia (NO)
18 Houston (NO) 48 Oklahoma City
19 Washington 49 Washington
20 Toronto 50 Atlanta (TOR)
21 Dallas 51 Orlando (CHI)
22 Chicago 52 Dallas
23 Portland 53 Cleveland (POR)
24 Cleveland 54 Utah (CLE)
25 Memphis 55 San Antonio
26 San Antonio 56 New Orleans (MEM)
27 L.A. Lakers (HOU) 57 Denver (LAC)
28 Boston (LAC) 58 Philadelphia (HOU)
29 Brooklyn (ATL) 59 Atlanta
30 Golden State 60 Philadelphia (GS)

There are roughly 10-12 names thought to be safe bets for inclusion in the lottery portion of the draft on June 25. While a lot of the pre-draft process is still to come with individual team workouts and interviews, the college basketball season and last week's NBA Draft Combine provided enough information that a handful of names have relatively stable draft stocks.

The table below shows the top 15 prospects, as ranked by DraftExpress and ESPN:

Top-15 Ranking DraftExpress ESPN
1 Karl-Anthony Towns Karl-Anthony Towns
2 Jahlil Okafor Jahlil Okafor
3 Emmanuel Mudiay D'Angelo Russell
4 D'Angelo Russell Emmanuel Mudiay
5 Justise Winslow Kristaps Porzingis
6 Willie Cauley-Stein Justise Winslow
7 Mario Hezonja Mario Hezonja
8 Kristaps Porzingis Willie Cauley-Stein
9 Stanley Johnson Myles Turner
10 Frank Kaminsky Stanley Johnson
11 Myles Turner Cameron Payne
12 Kelly Oubre Trey Lyles
13 Sam Dekker Devin Booker
14 Jerian Grant Frank Kaminsky
15 Devin Booker Sam Dekker

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