Steve L said:
Obviously you havent seen world cup or FA cup draws.
I've seen WC and FA Cup draws before, and it is pretty compelling. Unfortunately, we're dealing with a different animal here.
With the soccer draws, they have one ball per country and they're picked into matchups or groups. With the lottery, you've got 48 balls (I think) for 30 teams to pick an order of selection. They do the number one pick first, eliminating the most compelling aspect right at the start. And more than a few of the other picks won't be one right after the other, as duplicate balls will be picked or they have to remove duplicate balls if necessary after a pick (not really sure which way they're going to do it in this lottery).
You want TV to have a good flow and keep the audience's attention for as long as possible; showing the balls as they are picked does neither of those things. Announcing the results in reverse order after the drawing does, for the most part. It's the best they can do, at least.
Just for the hell of it, I thought about adding on a rant about the conspiracy theories that the draft will be fixed because it won't be on TV. I'll just say that unless Bettman is a closet magician and the several dozen others present suddenly go blind and dumb, we don't really have to worry about it being rigged. I could go on and on with how truly moronic it is to believe that the draft could be fixed, but in the interest of good taste just I'll stop here.
I get more long-winded than usual when I get my rant on; have a feeling that too many people would get tired of it after too long though.