Washington will emerge with a top-five pick. Brooklyn and Utah may receive a great prize after putting together arguably the least-competitive seasons in their histories. Oklahoma City could win the whole thing without even trying.

The NBA draft lottery is today. It could be boring. It may reward tanking. Nobody knows.

The story will be told by four ping-pong balls, plucked out of a hopper in a secure room, with sequestered onlookers from each of the involved teams and a few members of the media looking on. Those balls will create a four-digit combination that will match one previously assigned to the lottery teams, and with that, somebody wins the No. 1 pick in next month's draft.