#Knicks, Nets will find out their NBA Draft Lottery fates on August 25

The Knicks will have to wait until Aug. 25 to find out where they will pick in the lottery. And they won’t get to pick their new players until Oct. 15.

With the NBA voting to restart the season with a 22-team format on July 31 in Disney World, sources confirm the lottery will be set for Aug. 25 – after the eight-game-per-team regular season plays out.

The NBA Draft, originally scheduled for June 25, has been pushed back to Oct. 15 – around a few days after the potential last game of the NBA Finals, ESPN reported.

That gives the Knicks more than four months to prepare as they seek a scoring point guard as a top priority. They currently have the sixth-best lottery odds with a nine-percent chance of winning the No. 1 pick. There’s a good chance of a downsized Draft Combine being held after the lottery.

However, the NBA still is finalizing the way the rest of the lottery and draft order will be filled in, according to a source.

That effects the Nets, too. In the new format, the Nets could conceivably fall out of the playoffs in a play-in and regain their first-round pick that was lottery-protected in the Allan Crabbe deal.

That could conceivably give them two first-round picks as they also have the Sixers’ pick, which right now stands at No. 20 based on March 11 standings.

It’s still unclear if the eight-game regular season will count in rearranging the draft order.The Knicks have a second first-round pick courtesy of the Clippers. They would select 27th if the standings were frozen as of March 11.

Traditionally, teams who do not make the playoffs wind up in the lottery. The Nets are the seventh seed but could drop to No. 8 after the eight-game regular season and be forced to play No. 9 Washington in a play-in. That’s still a longshot scenario as the Nets would probably have to go 2-6 to fall to No. 8 and have the Wizards within four games of them – as the new rules require.