The NBA held five separate tiebreakers, and one of the tiebreak-lotteries directly involved the Orlando Magic. Four franchises—the Toronto Raptors, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Utah Jazz, and the Cleveland Cavaliers—all finished the regular season with identical 51-31 records. The NBA needed to resolve who would be selecting 23rd-26th in the first round of this year’s draft. All four teams received three balls placed in the lottery machine, and the team whose ball at random was selected would be awarded the 23rd pick, and so on.
Of course, the Magic received a 2017 1st round pick from the Raptors last February in the Serge Ibaka deal. However, Toronto also owns the Clippers’ pick in ‘17, and part of the Ibaka deal stipulated that the Magic would receive the less favorable of the two picks. Therefore, the Magic were ineligible to receive the 23rd pick; basically the best-case scenario would have been to receive the 24th, worst case the 26th. Orlando’s pick (via Toronto) fell in the middle. Toronto (via L.A.) will select 23rd, the Jazz 24th, the Magic 25th, and Portland 26th (via Cleveland).
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