Tonight, at Disney/ABC’s Times Square Studios in New York City, the 76ers will discover their draft-night fate. They'll know the draft slot for their pick and New Orleans', and whether the Pelicans retain their selection or owe it to the Sixers as compensation for a trade last summer.

The Sixers find themselves pinning their hopes on the ping-pong balls of the NBA’s Draft lottery for the 13^th time in its 30 years of existence. Here’s a look at the mathematical odds for the Sixers’ pick in relation to particular slots in the draft:

(AP)

No. 1 … 19.9 percent

No. 2 … 18.8

No. 3 … 17.1

No. 4 … 31.9

No. 5 … 12.3

In addition to their lottery selection, the Sixers hold the rights to New Orleans’ first-round pick – assuming the Pelicans don’t win the lottery and land anywhere in the top 3. Here’s a breakdown of the Pelicans’ statistical odds in the lottery:

No. 1 … 1.1 percent

No. 2 … 1.3

No. 3 … 1.6

No. 10 … 87.0

No. 11 … 8.9

No. 12 … 0.2

No. 13 … 0.1

Other notes on the NBA Draft lottery:

• The Sixers hold potentially two lottery selections: theirs and New Orleans’. The Pelicans’ pick is top-five protected, so if they “win the lottery” and land in one of the top-three picks, they would retain it. The Sixers would be owed a top-five protected, first-round selection for the 2015 draft as future compensation.
• The Sixers’ draft-lottery representative will be Julius Erving. Last year, it was majority owner Joshua Harris.
• As the Sixers’ good luck charm, Dr. J will bring with him shards of glass from a backboard broken by Darryl Dawkins during a Dec. 5, 1979 game against San Antonio. Cherry Hill native Jake Spencer, the holder of the glass bits, had his entry selected during a team contest in conjunction with 97.5 FM The Fanatic.
• Only four times has the team with the league’s second-worst record won the lottery. The last occurrence was in 2009, with the Los Angeles Clippers. The Sixers finished with the league’s next-to-last mark, at 19-63.
• Only once have the Sixers won the lottery. That was in 1996, when they moved from No. 2 to No. 1 and selected Allen Iverson.

(AP)

The 76ers will introduce Nerlens Noel in a 1 p.m. press conference Tuesday, nearly a month after they traded for the Kentucky freshman.

Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie and Noel will be at PCOM for the early-afternoon presser, making official – at least from the Sixers' end – the transaction made June 27 on draft night. The Sixers sent Jrue Holiday and the rights to their 2013 second-round draft choice to the New Orleans Pelicans for Noel and a top-five-protected 2014 first-round draft selection.

The Pelicans introduced Holiday, a 22-year-old All-Star point guard, in a press conference July 12.

A number of factors contributed to the trade hold-up. Hinkie and the Sixers brass had been in Florida for the team's involvement in the Orlando Pro Summer League, all the while Holiday – who was married recently – was on his honeymoon and therefore couldn't sign trade papers. Last week, Hinkie was in Las Vegas for a summer league out that way, thus pushing any possible announcement to this week.

Noel, a 19-year-old, 6-10 center, has not played competitively since tearing the ACL in his left knee Feb. 12. He's not expected to be healthy enough to debut for the Sixers until December at the earliest.

Widely anticipated to be taken first overall in the 2013 NBA draft, Noel slid to No. 6 due to health concerns related to his knee surgery. The Pelicans selected him sixth overall. Noel averaged 10.5 points and 9.5 rebounds in 24 games in his only season at Kentucky, earning SEC Freshman and Defensive Player of the Year distinctions.

Noel is expected to be a key contributor to the Sixers' rebuilding process that's being steered by Hinkie. The team has only one veteran (Thaddeus Young) under contract beyond the upcoming season. The Sixers would have to make a qualifying offer of $8.7 million in order to make counteroffers to Evan Turner in the offseason, while Jason Richardson -- who's recovering from new surgery -- has a player option for the 2014-15 campaign. Every other veteran on the roster has an expiring contract.

(Christopher A. Vito)

Temple guard Khalif Wyatt rated his workout Saturday with the 76ers as “good,” and said he’s hopeful to hear his name called June 27 at the NBA draft.

Wyatt, a Norristown product, participated in the predraft workout at PCOM alongside Miami’s Shane Larkin, Ohio State’s DeShaun Thomas and Glen Rice Jr., who spent last season in the NBA Development League.

“I think I did good,” said Wyatt, a 6-4, 210-pound guard. “I made shots. I competed well. Played pretty good defense, and I gave a good effort. … We did a little bit of everything – some ballhandling, shot a lot of shots, we competed 1-on-1. It was only four guys, so we did a lot of 1-on-1 stuff.”

Wyatt said he shaved about 14 pounds in the six weeks he spent in Las Vegas, where he trained at Impact Basketball’s facility with other prospective draft picks. Most teams that Wyatt has worked out for, he said, have taken notice of his slimmed-down physique. He’s workout out for Phoenix, Portland, Brooklyn, Washington, Detroit and the Sixers, with upcoming workouts with Dallas (June 18), Sacramento (June 21) and the Los Angeles Lakers (June 24) scheduled before draft day.

“Teams have been impressed with my body change the last time they saw me, against Indiana,” Wyatt said of the Owls’ final NCAA Tournament game. “Teams are looking at me as a second-round prospect. Hopefully I get my name called.”

For more on Wyatt, pick up Sunday’s Daily Times.

On a related note: Saint Joseph’s C.J. Aiken, who declared for the draft after his junior season with the Hawks, will work out for the Sixers June 24.

(Associated Press)

NEW YORK – Ask Josh Harris where he thought the 76ers would be slotted in the NBA's draft, and he would've told you 11th. Doesn't mean he held out a sliver of hope they might've been picked higher, though.

“Expected value,” said Harris, the Sixers' owner. “I figured when I came here, we had a small probability of being super happy and a small probability of being sad, and I had neither. We were right where I expected to be.”

The odds were long that the Sixers would move into the top three selections of the NBA draft. And that's exactly how the draft lottery at ABC Disney Studios played out, with the Sixers – the league's 11th-worst team – getting slotted the No. 11 choice for the June 27 draft.

The Sixers had only a 2.9-percent chance to slide into one of the first three choices, and a  90.7-percent chance they would remain at No. 11. Of course, it remained possible they also could fall into picks Nos. 12 through 14, so all things considered … not bad.

“This is pure luck,” Harris said of the lottery.

Washington didn't win the lottery, so to speak, but the Wizards were the night's big winner. The league's eighth-worst team climbed to No. 3, while Orlando – which finished with the worst record in the NBA – was leapfrogged by Cleveland for the top pick. The Magic ended up with No. 2.

For more on the Sixers and the NBA draft lottery, including the team's impending free agency decision on Andrew Bynum, pick up Wednesday's Delco Times.

NEW YORK -- A few notes from the Millennium Broadway Hotel on Times Square, the site of the 2013 NBA draft lottery:

PING-PONG BALLS. The Sixers have eight ping-pong balls out of 1,000, which means the 11th-worst team in the NBA this season has a slim chance of moving up. Here are the odds:

• 0.80% chance for No. 1
• 0.95% chance for No. 2
• 1.15% chance for No. 3
• 90.74% chance for No. 11
• 6.28% chance for No. 12
• 0.08% chance for No. 13
• 0.0001% chance for No. 14

RECENT HISTORY. The Sixers have participated in 13 of the league's NBA draft lotteries, which is in its 29th year. In the previous 12, they've stayed at their projected pick five times, moved up six times and dropped only once. Their last go-around here, they went from No. 6 to No. 2 in 2011, when they took Evan Turner.

FACES IN THE CROWD. NBA commissioner David Stern will speak to reporters at around 6:45 p.m. Sixers owner Josh Harris will represent the team when the draft lottery commences, at around 8:30 p.m. It'll be televised live on ESPN.

BYNUM UPDATE.  Harris said the Sixers plan on keeping Andrew Bynum, a free agent this summer, in their offseason plans ... but admits he has not spoken to Bynum or his agent, David Lee. “Our basketball people are in touch with (Bynum) all the time,” Harris said.

COACH SEARCH UPDATE. Yes, Harris would like a coach in place as soon as possible, but he said the Sixers are proceeding cautiously in an attempt to find "the right coach." Added Harris: “It's an important decision,” he said. “If you get the right coach really fast, that's better. But at the end of the day, you want the right coach. We're not putting a time deadline on it. Doesn't work to your advantage because the reality is we have a lot of talented coaches on the staff right now. Some of them have been head coaches, so we're trying to get the right coach, not to get a coach quickly.”

(Associated Press)

NEW YORK – If you ask Evan Turner, this year's NBA Draft class isn't a good one. If you ask him whether the 76ers got a fortunate ping-pong ball bounce in 2010, when they drafted him second overall, he'd agree.

“They got lucky,” Turner said Tuesday, before the Sixers played Brooklyn at Barclays Center. “But it depends who you ask.”

The third-year forward out of Ohio State, Turner got taken at No. 2 in 2010 thanks to some “lucky” bounces of the ping-pong balls at the NBA Draft lottery. The Sixers rose from ninth to second overall and took Turner at that spot.

Turner is one of two Sixers, along with Spencer Hawes, who is on pace to play in all 82 games. He's averaging 13.7 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 35.5 minutes per game.

Knowing what can come of a favorable draft spot, you'd think Turner would support the notion that the Sixers should tank. Not so.

“I don't think you really play rookies in general,” he said.

Not like Turner, who played 23 minutes per game as a rookie, would know anything about that.

“If we lose, we lose, but that's not anybody's style to do that,” Turner said. “You want a good pick, but they say this draft isn't that strong. If you don't get the first pick, you're really out of the situation. I think the whole thing is finishing off strong. Tanking disrespects the game.”