At a speaking engagement last week, Adam Silver, the N.B.A.’s commissioner, gave the audience a glimpse of what teams in his league think about the prodigious talent possessed by the projected No. 1 draft pick Zion Williamson.

“Just assume we didn’t have a lottery,” Silver said. “You’d have a team that won zero games — they’d say, ‘Whatever it takes to get Zion.’”

Silver may have been exaggerating, but what made the line so notable was that it might also be true. For a guaranteed shot to select Duke’s Williamson on June 20, there surely is a team (or teams) out there willing to go 0-82 if such rampant losing could ensure the top pick.

But that’s not how the N.B.A. draft lottery works. The league’s new format — its fifth tweak to the system since the Knicks unforgettably won the maiden lottery in 1985, getting the chance to draft Patrick Ewing — gives the league’s worst team only a 14 percent chance at getting the top pick on Tuesday night.