NBA Lottery 2015: Date, Time, TV Schedule, Live Stream and More

On Tuesday night, the results of the 2015 NBA draft lottery will prove whether all of that losing in the regular season was worth it for some of the teams sitting in the cellar.

It's impossible to say with 100 percent certainty that the likes of the Philadelphia 76ers, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets purposefully lost in order to benefit their potential draft positions. With that said, the notion that tanking exists in the league is widely accepted among NBA fans and writers, no matter how much commissioner Adam Silver says otherwise.

In order to build a contender, teams either have to add a marquee free agent or two or be bad enough that they can amass multiple top-10 picks over the span of a few years.

The lottery serves as a bit of an equalizer since the worst team isn't guaranteed the first pick, and plenty of fans will be waiting with bated breath to see where their team will pick in the first round. You can find the full viewing info for the draft lottery below:

Date	Time (ET)	TV Info	Live Stream
Tues., May 19	8:30 p.m.	ESPN	Watch ESPN

Here's a look at the odds for the 14 lottery teams, courtesy of Tankathon:

Team	Top-Three Pick	No. 1 Pick
Minnesota Timberwolves	64.3%	25.0%
New York Knicks	55.8%	19.9%
Philadelphia 76ers	46.9&	15.6%
Los Angeles Lakers	37.8%	11.9%
Orlando Magic	29.1%	8.8%
Sacramento Kings	21.5%	6.3%
Denver Nuggets	15.0%	4.3%
Detroit Pistons	9.9%	2.8%
Charlotte Hornets	6.1%	1.7%
Miami Heat	4.0%	1.1%
Indiana Pacers	2.9%	0.8%
Utah Jazz	2.5%	0.7%
Phoenix Suns	2.2%	0.6%
Oklahoma City Thunder	1.8%	0.5%

This year's lottery seems particularly interesting given the number of different scenarios dependent on the results with regard to trades. There are a few different deals contingent on how the lottery balls bounce.

And no teams have more to lose than the Lakers and Knicks.

According to RealGM, Los Angeles' first-round pick is top-five protected. Should they draw sixth or lower, the 76ers will instead take the pick. It could be a really long year in L.A. if the Lakers go into the 2015-16 season with a 37-year-old Kobe Bryant and no first-rounder to help provide some much-needed youth to the franchise.

Julius Randle will effectively be a rookie again next year, but he alone won't be enough to spark a turnaround. Los Angeles really needs to stay in the top five.

"It's completely out of our control. But I'm somewhat of a worry-wart," said Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. "I know our percentage is very high that we end up with a top-five pick, but I have to prepare for if we don't get it. We'll be prepared either way."

The Knicks are in a somewhat different position in that they don't have to worry about losing their pick. Instead, they really need to make this year's draft count since their 2016 first-rounder is headed to the Denver Nuggets.

New York is a complete mess on the court, but a player like Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns, Emmanuel Mudiay or D'Angelo Russell would at least in theory provide a building block for the future. The earlier the Knicks are picking in the first round, the more likely they are to land a future All-Star for years to come.

Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders, on the other hand, wondered whether any rookie could actually make a positive impact with the Knicks as they're currently constructed:

At least a promising rookie would give fans in New York a reason to be optimistic about the future.

One of the more interesting teams to watch will be the Oklahoma City Thunder. As long as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook don't leave, the Thunder likely won't be in the lottery again anytime soon.

One of the Thunder's problems in terms of team-building is that their consistent success has left them picking in the second half of the first round, where it's much harder to find any sort of value. Here's their complete draft history since selecting Durant in 2007, courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com:

Round	Pick	Player
2008
1	4	Russell Westbrook, SG, UCLA
1	24	Serge Ibaka, PF, Congo
2	32	Walter Sharpe, PF, UAB
2	46	Trent Plaisted, PF/C, BYU
2	50	DeVon Hardin, C, California
2	56	Sasha Kaun, C, Kansas
2009
1	3	James Harden, SG, Arizona State
1	25	Rodrigue Beaubois, PG, Guadeloupe
2010
1	18	Eric Bledsoe, PG/SG, Kentucky
1	21	Craig Brackins, PF/C, Iowa State
1	26	Quincy Pondexter, SF, Washington
2	51	Magnum Rolle, PF, Louisiana Tech
2011
1	24	Reggie Jackson, PG, Boston College
2012
1	28	Perry Jones, PF, Baylor
2013
1	12	Steven Adams, C, Pittsburgh
1	29	Archie Goodwin, SG, Kentucky
2	32	Alex Abrines, SG, Spain
2014
1	21	Mitch McGary, C, Michigan
1	29	Josh Huestis, SF, Stanford

Under general manager Sam Presti, Oklahoma City generally has an eye for talent, albeit some of that talent has excelled elsewhere.

Imagine if the Thunder get a top-10 pick to add with Durant, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. It may seem crazy, but the Cleveland Cavaliers had a 1.7 percent chance of winning the lottery last year. In addition, the chances that they'd win four lotteries since 2003 was roughly 0.012 percent.

Crazier things have happened ahead of the NBA draft.