On Tuesday night, for the 12th time in their history out of 22 NBA lotteries, the Wolves moved down from their pre-drawing slot.
They have never moved up; the best they've done is stay in their same slot, which they did in their 10 other trips to the lottery — most notably in 2015, when they stayed at No. 1 and picked Karl-Anthony Towns.
Within this terrible history, there is some interesting math. Some of it shows that the Wolves haven't necessarily been all that unlucky when it comes to individual outcomes — particularly with the No. 1 overall pick.
But plenty of math is ugly and paints the sort of bleak lottery picture fans have come to know and hate.
• OK, so the Wolves lost out on the Zion Williamson sweepstakes. But they only had a 3% chance of getting the No. 1 pick, so it's not that surprising.
Based on their percent chances and number of Ping-Pong ball combinations in those 22 all-time lotteries, the Wolves should have earned the No. 1 pick about 2.25 times in their history.
It's impossible, of course, for a decimal in something like that. So let's say they should have had it twice. They've only gotten it once. That's not good, but it's not egregious. If they win it again soon, they'll be pretty much on pace with normal (ha, you might say).
• Yeah, but the Wolves have NEVER moved up in 22 tries in the lottery. That seems impossible.