The Brooklyn Nets have officially drawn their cards. With they and the Indiana Pacers ending their regular seasons this evening, they’ve locked in their position for the 2026 NBA Draft lottery. Out-tanked this year by only the Pacers and the Washington Wizards, the Nets will have the third best odds to land a higher pick when the ping pong balls are drawn just under a month from now. Here’s how it all breaks down:
As shown above, Brooklyn will have a 14% chance to land the top pick in this year’s draft, which is the highest the lottery allows. Their pick can also drop as far back as seventh overall. They finished with a 20-62 record to get here. That’s tied for their fourth-most ever in a season.
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Recent teams to have won the lottery from the three slot include the San Antonio Spurs in 2023 (Victor Wembenyama) and the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2020 (Anthony Edwards.) We’ll take those odds! Last year, the Charlotte Hornets finished third as well. They fell back to fourth … but wound up with the expected rookie of the year in Kon Knueppel.
The Nets will also have two seconds: their own pick at No. 33 and the Clippers pick at No. 43. That second pick is a by-product of the Mikal Bridges trade with the Knicks in June 2024. In addition to the five firsts and a first round swap, the Knicks gave back the Nets own second rounder last year. Brooklyn decided not to use the pick and instead traded it to the Suns, getting two future seconds in return, one of them the Clippers pick in 2026.
Tankathon ranks the three picks as the league’s third best, behind only the Grizzlies and Bulls.
Tanking is never fun, and a divisive topic, but what’s mutually agreed is that this was as good a year as ever to do it. The 2026 NBA Draft class is loaded with talent. Pundits have long touted Darryn Peterson of Kansas, A.J. Dybantsa of BYU, and Cameron Boozer of Duke as its top three prospects and noted their potential to be franchise-changing talents.
It’s also the last year where “tanking” will be an option when it comes to team-building, at least in the way we know it to be today. Roughly two months ago, Shams Charania reported that Adam Silver informed the league’s 30 general managers that they plan to make anti-tanking rule changes for the 2026-27 season. A variety of amendments to the lottery system have reportedly gained traction amongst the owners and Silver, which mainly involve expanding the lottery and flattening the odds even further.
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There’s more obvious reasons why landing a top pick this summer will be paramount. Point blank, the Nets have been a bad team for three straight years. Even as they continue to sell out the Barclays Center and engrain themselves in the Brooklyn community, we can’t pretend like sustained losing isn’t harmful to their brand.
The last time Brooklyn rebuilt, it also took a three year gap from 2015 to 2018 before they returned to the playoffs. That time, they did it without control over their picks. Now, they do. We’ll cross our fingers and hope that’s enough to break through the glass. The lottery takes place on May 10th in Chicago.