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The NBA lottery is a fool's holiday. It is Christmas in May — Lloyd Christmas, to be exact, a chip-toothed buffoon with a bowl cut who hears "one in a million" and believes he has a chance.
But to jump a dozen spots and grab the top overall pick, your luck can't just be dumb or dumber, it has to be stupid awesome.
The Utah Jazz's fortune wasn't that Tuesday night.
After the ping-pong balls and stopped bouncing and the envelopes had been opened, the Jazz's reward for a 40-win season and a finish outside the playoffs was the 12th pick in next month's draft.
"We obviously knew what the odds were," said new Jazz president Steve Starks, after representing the team on stage in New York City. "We kind of expected it."
The Jazz entered Tuesday night with a 0.7-percent chance at stealing the first pick and a 93.5-percent likelihood of staying put at 12. The math won out.
The only surprise Tuesday night was that were no surprises. The ping-pong balls went straight chalk from 1-14 for the first time in lottery history.
The Philadelphia 76ers set the bar for futility last season and won the first overall pick as a result. The Lakers, who will pick second next month, lucked out. After a 17-win season, Los Angeles could have endured another loss on Tuesday: if their pick had fallen outside of the top three, it would have been sent to Philadelphia to complete the 2012 trade that brought Steve Nash to L.A. The Boston Celtics, meanwhile, will further benefit from a trade with the Brooklyn Nets after securing the third overall pick.
Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey and the rest of the team's front office have been preparing for the 12th pick for more than a month.
"It's no big surprise," he said. "We're not disappointed in the least."
Now that the formalities are over, the work continues.
The Jazz general manager on Tuesday mapped out the broad, well-worn path between his team will take between now and June 23: assess every possibility, overlook none of them.
"We'll be very active at looking to trade up, trade back, [or] trade out," Lindsey said.
Jazz leaders, meanwhile, believe their track record in recent drafts shows they have the ability to mine deeper pockets of the pool with success. Lindsey drafted center Rudy Gobert with the 27th pick in 2013, shooting guard Rodney Hood with the 23rd pick in 2014 and promising young forward Trey Lyles with the 12th pick in last year's draft.
Lindsey spoke only in generalities Tuesday night, though he was more than optimistic that the Jazz could find another gem at No. 12.
"Not only can I get to 12," he said. "I can get to 42, I can get to 50 and I can get to 60."
After flirting with the playoffs last season as one of the NBA's youngest teams, the Jazz believe they are well positioned to take another step forward next season. That could give them the confidence and flexibility to explore a wide array of options on draft night, Lindsey said.
The Jazz could look to draft a more NBA-ready player with a specific skillset to help the team now (think Michigan State's Denzel Valentine) or go the other way completely by drafting a player with potential that would either play in Europe or with the D-League.
"There are several very intriguing prospects, that we call anticipation picks, that you might have to wait a while for," Lindsey said. "There are several prospects that have great tools but you'll need to be a little bit more patient. Given the position of the team, I could see us taking any position (guard, wings or bigs). I could see us taking an anticipation pick where we have to wait a few years for them to become a little more relevant."
Starks on Tuesday sported a green-and-purple necktie — an homage to the team's old colors and a nod to his alma mater, Weber State — and carried a quarter his wife had given him for luck.
"Neither of those worked in terms of moving up," he said. "Hopefully they work in terms of who we pick."
Meanwhile, Starks hopes the Jazz won't need luck this time next year.
"If all goes according to plan," he said, "we won't be back in the draft lottery for some time."
Twitter: @tribjazz —
Draft Lottery results
1. Philadelphia 76ers
2. Los Angeles Lakers
3. Boston Celtics
4. Phoenix Suns
5. Minnesota Timberwolves
6. New Orleans Pelicans
7. Denver Nuggets
8. Sacramento Kings
9. Toronto Raptors
10. Milwaukee Bucks
11. Orlando Magic
12. Utah Jazz
13. Phoenix Suns
14. Chicago Bulls