NBA Draft Lottery 2014: Current Odds and Early Predictions for First 14 Picks

On Tuesday, 14 NBA franchises will wait with bated breath while the pingpong balls bounce around to determine the draft fate of each lottery team.

There's an immense amount of talent at the top of this year's draft class, and each lottery team shouldn't have trouble finding a prospect capable of becoming a solid NBA starter.

Of course, with higher picks comes higher talent—usually.

With the lottery just one day away, here are the odds for each team to acquire the coveted No. 1 overall selection:

	Team	Odds
1	Milwaukee Bucks	25.0%
2	Philadelphia 76ers	19.9%
3	Orlando Magic	15.6%
4	Utah Jazz	11.9%
5	Boston Celtics	8.8%
6	Los Angeles Lakers	6.3%
7	Sacramento Kings	3.6%
8	Detroit Pistons	3.5%
9	Cleveland Cavaliers	1.7%
10	New Orleans Pelicans	1.1%
11	Denver Nuggets	0.8%
12	New York Knicks	0.7%
13	Minnesota Timberwolves	0.6%
14	Phoenix Suns	0.5%

Like every year, there will be plenty of surprises during the lottery process.

Back in 1997, the year Tim Duncan was the consensus No. 1 overall selection, the Boston Celtics had the best chance to secure the top pick.

Well, it didn't quite turn out that way, as former coach M.L. Carr recalls during an interview with Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe:

"

It was brutal. But you were doing the things that were right for the organization, not going out and getting players that would get you further towards being stuck. You weren't going to take a chance on any of that when you had Tim Duncan in the upcoming draft. It's a tough battle when you're at the bottom looking up. The organization did not use those [1997 draft] resources right and it took a longer time to come back.

"

It will be interesting to find out what's in store for us this year.

Since we don't have Nostradamus around to predict the upcoming draft order, let's assume it stays the same and take a look at the potential selections for the first 14 overall picks:

Pick	Team	Selection	Position	College
1	Milwaukee Bucks	Andrew Wiggins	SF	Kansas
2	Philadelphia 76ers	Jabari Parker	SF	Duke
3	Orlando Magic	Dante Exum	PG	Australia
4	Utah Jazz	Joel Embiid	C	Kansas
5	Boston Celtics	Julius Randle	PF	Kentucky
6	Los Angeles Lakers	Marcus Smart	PG	Oklahoma State
7	Sacramento Kings	Noah Vonleh	PF	Indiana
8	Detroit Pistons	Tyler Ennis	PG	Syracuse
9	Cleveland Cavaliers	Dario Saric	SF	Croatia
10	76ers (via New Orleans)	Aaron Gordon	PF	Arizona
11	Magic (via Denver)	Rodney Hood	SF	Duke
12	Nuggets (via New York)	Gary Harris	SG	Michigan State
13	Minnesota Timberwolves	Doug McDermott	SF	Creighton
14	Phoenix Suns	Zach LaVine	PG	UCLA

Dante Exum could easily sneak into the top three of this year's draft. One of the draft's most intriguing prospects, Exum put on a great show at the combine in Chicago.

Alex Kennedy of NBA.com tweeted about Exum's prowess during the interview process:

That's not the only area in which Exum flourished. According to ESPN Stats & Info, his speed is right up there with some of the NBA's best:

Noah Vonleh will be a certified lottery pick this year. He's an extremely promising prospect with a high ceiling. His massive hand size doesn't hurt, either. Just take a look at this comparative tweet from NBA Legion:

Sneaking into the lottery picks is former UCLA guard Zach LaVine. After his performance at the combine, he could even go higher.

Seth Davis of Sports Illustrated tweeted that word was spreading quickly about LaVine's shooting ability:

That was followed up by some impressive workout numbers, as tweeted by ESPN Insider Chad Ford:

There's plenty of talent at the top of this year's draft class, but where these prospects land is completely up in the air at this point.

We'll have a much better idea upon the conclusion of Tuesday's draft lottery.