The Orlando Magic support a proposal to reform the NBA Draft Lottery in which the teams with the four worst overall records would have nearly identical chances to win the top overall pick, according to an industry source with knowledge of the Magic’s thinking.
Under the current lottery rules, the team with the worst record has a 25.0 percent chance of winning the top overall pick. The team with the second-worst record has a 19.9 percent chance of winning, and the team with the third-worst record has a 15.6 percent chance of winning.
A pingpong ball drawing currently determines the top-three picks of the draft, and the remainder of the draft order is determined by record, going from worst to best.
According to the website Grantland, the lottery-reform proposal calls for the four worst teams to have an equal 12 percent chance of winning the top pick, and the top six teams in the draft order would be determined by a pingpong ball drawing.
If enacted, the proposal almost certainly would go into effect for the 2015 NBA Draft Lottery.
During the last two seasons, the Magic pared down their roster in an attempt to bottom out and challenge for the best lottery odds. In 2012-13, Orlando finished with the league’s worst record and won the second overall pick. In 2013-14, Orlando compiled the league’s third-worst record and wound up picking fourth overall.
The Magic might not have supported the proposal during those two seasons.
But the franchise supports the proposal now.
The Magic’s support could indicate that the team is done bottoming out.
The push for lottery reform is widely perceived as a way to punish teams that are out-and-out tanking. At the moment, no team is more associated with the tanking strategy than the Philadelphia 76ers, who are the favorite in the season ahead to finish with the league’s worst record.
If the Sixers wind up being as awful as they’re expected to be, having new lottery odds in place in time for the 2015 lottery would benefit the rest of the league, including the Magic.
Injury update
Magic coach Jacque Vaughn said guard Willie Green is questionable to play when the team faces the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night. Green is recovering from a hyperextended left knee and sat out Orlando’s first two preseason games.
Guard Victor Oladipo, who is recovering from a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee, is highly unlikely to play, Vaughn said.
Power forward Channing Frye, who has an MCL sprain in his left knee, will not play.
MONDAY’S GAME: Magic at Hornets, 7 p.m.
WHERE: Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte.
BROADCAST: TV — None. RADIO — 580 AM (WDBO). SPANISH BROADCAST — None.
THE BUZZ: This will be the Magic’s third preseason exhibition. On offense, Vaughn said he wants “no lulls in pace at all throughout the course of the game.” On defense, Vaughn wants the team to be more aggressive and have more deflections and dictate where the ball is going.
jbrobbins@tribune.com. Read his blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and follow him on Twitter at @JoshuaBRobbins.