The Charlotte Hornets have the third-best odds of capturing the top pick in next month’s NBA Draft Lottery after winning a random tie-breaker drawing on Monday, the league announced.
The drawings settled some selection order issues for the NBA Draft, set for June 26-27 in New York, while setting the odds for each club in next month’s NBA Draft Lottery for capturing the top pick.
The May 12 draft lottery will include the 14 NBA clubs who failed the reach the playoffs, with the Detroit Pistons (14-68) and Washington Wizards (15-67) each having the best chance of landing the first selection at 14% odds.
Charlotte and Portland shared the third-worst record in the NBA at 21-61 but the Hornets’ drawing victory gives them a 13.3% chance of taking the top pick with Portland on 13.2%.
San Antonio, which took French star Victor Wembanyama with last year’s top pick in the NBA Draft, went 22-60 for a 10.5% chance at this year’s top pick, followed in declining odds by Toronto, Memphis, Utah, Brooklyn (going to Houston), Atlanta, Chicago and Houston.
Sacramento won a tie-breaker drawing over Golden State for the best odds among the clubs with the least chance, the Kings having a 0.8% hope of winning the lottery to Golden State’s 0.7% chance. Both went 46-36.
Among playoff clubs whose draft order is now set, the Philadelphia 76ers won a four-team tie-breaker among 47-35 finishers for the 16th spot, with the Los Angeles Lakers, Orlando and Indiana following in order.
Milwaukee won a tie-breaker for the 21st pick among 49-33 clubs with Phoenix second and New Orleans third.
Dallas won a tie-break drawing over New York for the 24th spot after both went 50-32.
Defending NBA champion Denver won the 28th selection in a tie-breaker drawing with Oklahoma City after each team went 57-25.
