The WNBA today announced the lottery to determine the top five picks in the 2010 WNBA Draft will be held Thursday, Nov. 5.
Minnesota possesses its own selection - slotted third overall - as well as New York's first-round pick - slotted second overall - courtesy of a multi-team trade on May 5, 2008 between Minnesota, New York and Los Angeles that sent Noelle Quinn to the Sparks, Sidney Spencer to the Liberty and New York's 2010 first-round selection and the rights to Raffaella Masciadri to the Lynx. The combined odds of obtaining the first pick in the draft from each selection add up to give the Lynx the best chance at securing the number one overall pick in the 2010 WNBA Draft, with 428 chances out of 1,000, eight more than Sacramento's 420. The Lynx have won the Draft Lottery on one occasion, back in 2006 when they used the pick to select two-time WNBA All-Star Seimone Augustus.
"Last year's multi-team trade involving Noelle Quinn, which allowed us to acquire New York's 2010 first-round pick, coupled with our own selection puts us in a great position for this year's Draft Lottery," said Lynx Executive Vice President Roger Griffith. "Those two selections give us the greatest odds of obtaining the number one overall pick. We are hopeful that luck will go our way on Thursday. Either way, with two of the top five picks in the 2010 WNBA Draft, coupled with the tremendous amount of talent available in one of the deepest draft classes in WNBA history, we are confident that we will have the opportunity to add two premier players to our roster that will help us continue to build a championship contender for many years to come."
Only two times in WNBA history has a team owned two selections in the top 5 of a specific draft: Detroit, 2003, 3 & 5; Washington, 2002, 3 & 4. In a draft-day trade on April 4, 2007, the Lynx traded Tangela Smith to Phoenix for the number one overall selection, Lindsey Harding. Minnesota then used its own selection, fourth overall, to take Noelle Quinn.
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.
Lynx season tickets for the 2010 season are now on sale. To purchase your season tickets, or to find out more information on how to become a Lynx season ticket holder, call 612-673-8400 or log on to www.lynxbasketball.com.
Following are the chances, out of 1,000, for teams in the WNBA Draft Lottery:
2010 WNBA DRAFT LOTTERY TEAMS
Team / Record / Lottery Chances (out of 1,000)
Sacramento / 12-22 / 420
Minnesota (via New York) / 13-21 / 261
Minnesota / 14-20 / 167
Connecticut / 16-18 / 76
Chicago / 16-18 / 76
POSSIBLE LYNX COMBINATIONS
Picks Pct
1-2 11.13
1-3 15.49
1-4 15.26
1-5 0.92
2-3 19.57
2-4 17.70
2-5 0.77
3-4 15.21
3-5 0.63
4-5 3.32
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Total 100.00
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