NBA commissioner Adam Silver speaks during the 2022 NBA Draft at Barclays Center on June 23 in New York City.

DALLAS — The fate of the Mavericks’ roster-rebuilding assets this offseason will be decided in a secluded Chicago convention center room May 16.

Bring on the NBA draft lottery.

With the Mavericks and their fans analyzing ping-pong ball odds — rather than playoff matchups — for the first spring since Luka Doncic’s rookie year, it’s time to refresh on how the NBA determines its first-round draft order.

The Mavericks (38-44) finished with the 10th-worst record in the NBA this season, purposefully positioning themselves over the final two games to finish with a 65.9% chance to keep the No. 10 pick, and slimmer odds to land in the top four picks.

With the lottery results they want: Dallas will have one first-round pick to select or use in a trade on draft night.

In bad-luck scenarios: Dallas will send any pick at No. 11 or below to the New York Knicks as final payment for the January 2019 trade to acquire Kristaps Porzingis.

On the evening of May 16, NBA officials, representatives from each of the 14 teams that failed to make the playoffs, representatives from accounting firm Ernst & Young and select media members will turn over their phones and laptops and enter an isolated room at McCormick Place for the drawing.

Inside, an official will place 14 ping-pong balls, numbered 1 through 14, into a lottery machine and conduct four drawings of four balls apiece. One thousand possible combinations of any four of those 14 balls will be distributed among the lottery teams — with the three worst teams (Detroit, San Antonio and Houston) receiving the most options.

The Mavericks will have a 3% chance of those 1,000 four-ball number combinations to move up to No. 1, a 3.3% chance at No. 2, a 3.6% chance at No. 3 and a 4% chance at No. 4.

For the No. 1 pick, the lottery machine will mix the 14 ping-pong balls for 20 seconds before the first is removed.

The remaining 13 mix in the machine for another 10 seconds before the second is removed.

Rinse and repeat for balls No. 3 and 4.

The team assigned that four-numbered-ball combination will pick first in the June 22 draft — and undoubtedly select generational French phenom Victor Wembanyama.

An official will return those four balls to the lottery machine, and the same process will then unfold for the second-, third- and fourth-overall picks.

After the top four draft picks, picks Nos. 5 to 14 in the lottery will follow the reverse order of regular-season record.

If the Mavericks do not make an unprecedented jump into the top four, they will keep their No. 10 overall pick as long as the four teams below them — No. 11 Chicago, No. 12 Oklahoma City, No. 13 Toronto or No. 14 New Orleans — also do not move up into the top four.

Those four franchises below Dallas in lottery odds have a combined 20.2% chance of landing a top-four pick. In that case, the Mavericks will miss the top-10 protection on their first-round pick and must send it to the New York Knicks this summer to finish repaying the Porzingis trade.

The Mavericks have finished lower than projected odds in seven of their 16 lottery appearances in franchise history and never moved up.