The year of tanking has finally come to an end. Which teams finished with the best odds to land the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery? Here’s everything you need to know.
Odds to land the No. 1 pick
The 14 teams that don’t make the playoffs have a chance to land the No. 1 pick. The teams that finished with the three-worst records — Washington, Indiana and Brooklyn — each have the highest odds (14%) at winning the No. 1 pick.
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Here are the odds for every team currently in the draft lottery, based on team records at the end of the regular season. Teams that finished the season with identical records had their draft order determined by a random drawing.
Record: 17-65
Odds for No. 1 pick: 14%
Record: 19-63
Odds for No. 1 pick: 14%
Due to the Ivica Zubac trade with the Clippers, if the Pacers’ pick lands between the 5-9 spots on lotto night, it will go to L.A.
Record: 20-62
Odds for No. 1 pick: 14%
Record: 22-60
Odds for No. 1 pick: 11.5%
Record: 22-60
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Odds for No. 1 pick: 11.5%
Record: 25-57
Odds for No. 1 pick: 9%
Record: 26-56
Odds for No. 1 pick: 6.8%
The Pelicans owe their unprotected first-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks.
Record: 26-56
Odds for No. 1 pick: 6.7%
Record: 31-51
Odds for No. 1 pick: 4.5%
Record: 32-50
Odds for No. 1 pick: 3%
Record: 37-45
Odds for No. 1 pick: 2%
Record: 42-40
Odds for No. 1 pick: 1.5%
The Clippers owe their 2026 first-round pick to the Thunder as part of the 2019 Paul George trade.
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Record: 43-39
Odds for No. 1 pick: 1%
Record: 44-38
Odds for No. 1 pick: 0.5%
2026 NBA Draft Lottery date
Date: Sunday, May 10
Location: Chicago, Illinois
How the NBA Draft Lottery works
The draft lottery determines the order of the first 14 picks. It takes place in a private room with NBA officials, representatives of participating teams, select media and the accounting firm Ernst & Young, which oversees the drawings, in attendance.
For the drawings, 14 ping-pong balls (numbered 1 through 14) are dropped in a lottery machine. Before the lottery, 1,000 of a possible 1,001 combinations are assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams. A league representative randomly selects four balls, revealing a four-number combination.
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From the NBA:
The drawing process occurs in the following manner: All 14 balls are placed in the lottery machine and they are mixed for 20 seconds, and then the first ball is removed. The remaining balls are mixed in the lottery machine for another 10 seconds, and then the second ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the third ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the fourth ball is drawn. The team that has been assigned that combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The same process is repeated with the same ping-pong balls and lottery machine for the second through fourth picks.
If the same team comes up more than once, the result is discarded and another four-ball combination is selected. Also, if the one unassigned combination is drawn, the result is discarded and the balls are drawn again.
After the first four picks are determined, the remaining picks are based on regular-season records, in reverse order.
Rest of NBA Draft order
FIRST ROUND NOS. 15-30
15. Portland (to Chicago)
16. Phoenix (to Memphis)
17. Philadelphia (to Oklahoma City)
18. Orlando (to Charlotte)
19. Toronto
20. Atlanta (to San Antonio)
22. Houston (to Philadelphia)
23. Cleveland (to Atlanta)
24. New York
26. Denver
27. Boston
28. Detroit (to Minnesota)
29. San Antonio (to Cleveland)
30. Oklahoma City (to Dallas)
Best players availableAJ Dybantsa
Dybantsa could become one of the NBA’s most unstoppable shot-creators. At 6-foot-9, he has a special blend of athletic tools with the way he bends, shifts, and explodes with the ball in his hands. Dybantsa led the nation with 25.5 points per game while breaking Danny Ainge’s 48-year-old BYU freshman scoring record with a 43-point eruption. He gets to the rim at will, cooks in the midrange, draws fouls at a high rate, and displays point-forward potential. What will determine his upside is whether he can become a knockdown 3-point shooter, as well as a more impactful defender to take full advantage of his physical tools. But the native of Brockton, Massachusetts, has a tremendously high floor with his scoring skill alone. — Kevin O’Connor
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Caleb Wilson
Wilson is the most gifted athlete in the draft class. He’s 6-foot-10 with springs for legs. When he’s flying above the rim, finishing through contact, and chasing down every shot in his area code, he looks like a future franchise cornerstone. But the conversation changes when you watch his jumper because he hasn’t shown any consistency as a shooter at any level. Still, even without the jumper, he has star upside. — Kevin O’Connor
Darius Acuff Jr.
Acuff is not the biggest guard or the most explosive athlete, but he reads defenses like someone who’s been in the league for a decade. He emerged as a freshman as a skilled, low-turnover playmaker. And that’s not even what he’s best at. Acuff is a wiry scorer who can get a bucket from anywhere on the floor with a quick trigger, slippery handle, and a feel for manipulating defenses. He has a knack for clutch moments too. The question that follows every undersized guard into the draft is whether the brilliance survives contact with bigger, longer, faster defenders. — Kevin O’Connor
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He’s a do-it-all offensive talent who can post up, run pick-and-rolls, set screens, spot up and crash the boards. He doesn’t need to rely on bully ball to make an impact as a scorer or passer. Defensively, some of the questions about Boozer popped up in Duke’s Elite Eight loss to UConn: He wasn’t big enough to defend Tarris Reed, and he got smoked by Alex Karaban on a key 3-pointer on the perimeter. But he plays hard and has improved at every weakness in his game so far. — Kevin O’Connor
Darryn Peterson
He can pull up from anywhere and get to his spots. Plus he’s 6-6 and plays with a fluidity that just screams superstar. Not to mention he’s a defensive playmaker with the tools to guard multiple positions and the approach to impact the game even if he’s not scoring. Between the cramping saga, the missed time, the lack of apparent athletic pop, and the stretches where he played heavy minutes but struggled to produce offensively, there’s a lot to be concerned about. But the pre-draft period could answer any questions.
— Kevin O’Connor