The Thunder won’t win the lottery tonight (right?)

NBAE/Getty

So, could the Thunder maybe pull off the near statistically impossible and land a top three pick!?!?!

No, no they can’t.

Since the lottery went to 14 teams after Charlotte’s expansion, it’s never happened. The team with the 14th slot has always finished in the 14th slot. But with it being a 98.18 percent chance to get 14, 11 lotteries have happened, meaning the odds are only improving. So maybe!

(It took me 11 tries on ESPN.com’s lottery generator for the Thunder to get the No. 1 pick. Is that a sign!?!?!)

Again, it’s not happening. Any drama and interest involving the Thunder will be settled about two minutes into tonight’s show. That first card is going to have the Thunder’s logo on it and it’ll be about determining who will be available and the best fit at 14 for them to draft.

But……………

What if?

I wrote about it here for ESPN.com, but think about the potential domino effect of the Thunder winning the lottery. If they had the No. 1 pick, you have to take either Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns, right? I guess you maybe could move back to three and take D’Angelo Russell, but it still would feel odd passing on a potential franchise big man.

So if that happened, what does that mean for Enes Kanter’s future with the team? Or Steven Adams’? A lottery pick is really not something the Thunder really need to begin with, but hand Sam Presti an opportunity, and he’s certainly one to try to make the most of it. And a lottery pick in Presti’s pocket is like $50 in Warren Buffet’s — it’ll probably be invested wisely into something.

The excitement will be over shortly for Thunder fans tonight. But if by something act of God, and that 14th envelope has someone else’s name in it, it will turn and otherwise vanilla Thunder summer into quite an interesting one.