{"id":662948,"date":"2026-05-11T02:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662948\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T02:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T02:05:14","slug":"nba-news-2026-chicago-bulls-move-up-to-no-4-in-draft-lottery-indiana-pacers-hand-no-5-pick-to-los-angeles-clippers-josh-giddey-a-big-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/662948\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA News 2026: Chicago Bulls move up to no.4 in draft lottery; Indiana Pacers hand no.5 pick to Los Angeles Clippers; Josh Giddey a big winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian star Josh Giddey<\/a> and the Chicago Bulls were one of the unexpected winners of the NBA’s<\/a> draft lottery on Monday morning. <\/p>\n

Expected to pick ninth in what has been dubbed one of the best drafts of all time, the Bulls jumped up to four, despite just a 20 per cent chance of doing so.<\/p>\n

It will allow them to draft one of the four projected superstars in this year’s crop, including AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Totally lost’ Broncos must issue SOS to retiring star<\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE: Maroons race heats up as Ponga plan squashed<\/a><\/p>\n

For Giddey personally, who inked a $150m deal with the Bulls in 2025<\/a>, any of the four would complement him perfectly.<\/p>\n

One of Boozer or Wilson are expected to be the player available for them at four. Both are scoring power forwards who will mesh nicely with the Aussie.<\/p>\n

Washington was the overall winner of the draft, converting their 14 per cent chance at the No.1 pick, likely landing them Dybantsa.<\/p>\n

It will allow them to pair him with the veteran all-stars they traded for last season in Anthony Davis and Trae Young, presuming both stick around in DC.<\/p>\n

Indiana meanwhile was the clear loser of the draft. They traded their pick to the Los Angeles Clippers during the season for centre Ivica Zubac, along with a 2029 first round pick and handy guard Benedict Mathurin.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Chicago Bulls get the No.4 pick, and their star Aussie player Josh Giddey will be happy.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

The pick was protected one to four, meaning if it had fallen within the first four selections, they would have kept it. They had a 52 per cent chance of that happening.<\/p>\n

And they wound up with pick five, handing it over to the Clippers. The Pacers found themselves in a rare chance to take a top draft pick this year, after star Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles in last season’s NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

They effectively gambled that they would roll a 52 per cent chance at a top four pick, bring in Zubac and have Haliburton good to go for 2026. It did not go to plan.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Brooklyn and Sacramento both had tanked away their seasons in hopes of a top four pick, but ended up sixth and seventh respectively.<\/p>\n

Aussie Dyson Daniels and his Atlanta Hawks will take the eighth pick to the draft. A trade with New Orleans last year netting them a great tool to build out their team as they hope to contend next season.<\/p>\n

The NBA is changing the draft lottery rules next season to discourage tanking, flattening the odds for the worst teams.<\/p>\n

Washington, Utah and Memphis all got want they wanted from tanking seasons this time around, ending up with the top three picks, while the Bulls jumped up and ruined Indiana, Brooklyn and Sacramento’s day.<\/p>\n

Outside of Chicago, the lottery went in favour of the tanking teams this year, after Dallas shockingly jumped up to the No.1 pick last season with just a two per cent chance of doing so. <\/p>\n

NBA draft lottery results: <\/p>\n

1. Washington Wizards<\/p>\n

2. Utah Jazz<\/p>\n

3. Memphis Grizzlies<\/p>\n

4. Chicago Bulls<\/p>\n

5. LA Clippers<\/p>\n

6. Brooklyn Nets<\/p>\n

7. Sacramento Kings<\/p>\n

8. Atlanta Hawks<\/p>\n

9. Dallas Mavericks<\/p>\n

10. Milwaukee Bucks<\/p>\n

11. Golden State Warriors<\/p>\n

12. Oklahoma City Thunder<\/p>\n

13. Miami Heat<\/p>\n

14. Charlotte Hornets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian star Josh Giddey and the Chicago Bulls were one of the unexpected winners of the NBA’s draft…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-662948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}