NBA
The 4 Most Likely NBA Draft Lottery Scenarios
How much could the ping pong balls decide tonight for teams with a chance at the top overall pick?

If the Sixers Win

By the numbers, a Philadelphia win results in the default order of the first four picks: the Sixers at one, Lakers at two, Celtics (via the Nets) at three and, finally, the Suns at four.

In this situation, the Sixers have their pick of the top two options of Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram. At 6'10", 240 pounds, Simmons is an extremely versatile small/power forward combo who projects more as a power forward in today's NBA. He has a lot of playmaking skill and rebounds the ball at an elite level, but he's struggled to develop a consistent jumper, so Ingram is the right selection for the Sixers.

After all, the Sixers finished 29th in points per game, 30th in Offensive Rating, and 29th in field goal percentage this season. They are in desperate need of shooters and scorers in order to better their offensive production. With 17.3 points per game on a True Shooting Percentage of 55.2%, Ingram showed, in his lone season at Duke, why he's a perfect fit in the City of Brotherly Love.

At pick number two, Simmons would then be the obvious pick for a Lakers franchise in search of a player (or players) to rebuild and market the historic franchise around.

As for the Celtics and Suns, they could go a number of ways. Most mock drafts like Boston to go with international prospect Dragan Bender, but don't discount their taking a player more capable of making an immediate impact to the Celtics' cause.

Phoenix is likely to go with the best available player not named Kris Dunn here. We all saw how that three-point-guard experiment worked out with Isaiah Thomas, Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic a couple seasons back. Only Bledsoe, now accompanied by combo-guard Brandon Knight, is left standing in the Valley of the Sun.

With that being said -- unless the top three squads pass up on Bender -- Phoenix would be smart to go with Jaylen Brown, the athletic wing out of the University of California. P.J. Tucker isn't getting any more athletic or offensively-minded, and projected as a 6'7" small forward, Brown would be the best raw talent left on the board.

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