As a Hawks fan, I feel that we got robbed again in the lottery. Despite having the 5th best shot at the 1st pick and odds of 10.5%, we still ended up with the 8th overall pick for this draft.

Somehow, the Pelicans of all teams got the 1st pick, with just a 6% chance of doing so. The Pelicans did not even play all that bad this year and for them to get the 1st pick could quickly change their outlook. And after Anthony Davis was rumored to have asked for a trade, this may have all of a sudden changed his mind.

But what about the rest of the teams that had much worse struggles? How do they dig themselves out of their rabbit hole? Are they just left to rot away and lengthen their rebuild?

In the NFL and MLB, the order of draft picks is based on a reverse record order. This simply means that the team with the worst record picks first, the next-worst team picks second, and so on, with the best team picking last. The main purpose of the lottery in the NBA was to prevent teams from tanking. But now, the lottery has almost gotten out of hand. Teams that should be getting better picks (like the Hawks) are getting worse picks than they should.

Sure, I may be a little salty, but I think I am justified in my anger.

There were a lot of other teams that in my opinion suffered. Even the Cavs and Suns got robbed. The Cavs and Suns were tied for the best odds in the lottery, and still ended up with the 5th and 6th pick, respectively. So when I mean that Hawks fans are not the only teams upset with the lottery, you better believe it. I'm sure a lot of desperate fans of teams that failed to make the playoffs strongly dislike the draft.

Sure, it may be a lot easier to tank in the NBA compared to other leagues simply because an NBA team is usually much smaller than and MLB or NFL team. But if a team wants to purposely lose games, a team should have the right to do so. It's their loss in revenue from the fans that do not want to go see a losing team. And losing may be against the spirit of a game, but it is only in consideration of the future.

And considering there have not been any wild issues with MLB or NFL drafts, I really think the NBA should just stick to using a team's record to determine a draft pick. There aren't many other ways to fairly distribute picks to teams that are suffering and need good talent to get back to their winning ways.

Just my two cents.