Zach Lowe

So if you're one of the teams that has three balls and your ball comes up for the 16th pick, that doesn't mean you get the 16th pick.

That means you have two balls left in the kitty.

They draw again for the 16th pick.

And the first team that has like one, that's their last ball.

They get the 16th pick, and you go from there.

So it would be this kind of thrilling, like, oh, my God, we have one ball left.

That ball, stay in there, ball.

We don't want you to come out.

But anyway, we'll see what happens next year.

You are correct that the Clippers are indisputably, I think, the biggest, other than the Wizards, I guess.

The Clippers, to come out with the highest possible pick that they could have gotten, five.

And you can tell me about how big the cliff is after four.

And the double win of not being embarrassed by having Oklahoma City move up with their pick.

I was sitting behind Rassab Desai, who was the Clippers representative in the drawing room, literally right behind him.

His back was right in front of me.

And the sigh of relief, like it was, it was so visible.

Like his shoulders went like, Oh, when the Chicago pick came up and then the lottery is over.

And so he stands up and he turns around and he has this look on his face.

Like, um,

he looked like someone who had been like acquitted at trial facing life in prison, just like he had a new lease on life.