NEW YORK _ The race to the bottom _ the very bottom _ isn't about Zion Williamson.
With the pitiful Suns hosting the miserable Knicks on Wednesday night _ and the moribund Cavs in action in Brooklyn _ it's worth remembering that Adam Silver changed the rules so that the three worst teams all have the same chance of landing the No. 1 pick.
Those chances are only 14 percent, just 6.5 percentage points greater than the team with the seventh-worst record. In other words, 'Not Tryin' For Zion' is an inherently flawed premise.
But there is an advantage to finishing at the bottom in the NBA, which is what the Knicks (13-51 before Wednesday night) and Suns (14-51) were fighting for at Talking Stick Resort Arena. The worst team can't fall further than fifth in the draft lottery, while the second-worst has a 20 percent chance of picking sixth.
Why is this important? For starters, scouts view the 2019 class as very top heavy. But also consider history: there have been 37 drafts from 1980 to 2016, and there's a big dropoff at No. 6 in terms of All-Stars picked in that spot (just 19 percent). Every spot from 1-5 produced an All-Star at least 30 percent of the time.
With that in mind, below is a breakdown of the projected top-6 picks in the 2019 NBA draft.
