A drama-filled Sunday afternoon in Chicago at the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery saw the Atlanta Hawks win the right to pick No. 1 in a stunner. It marks the first time in franchise history the Hawks have won the lottery, as they converted just a 3% chance to win the No. 1 pick in the lottery and moved up nine spots after the drawings.
Washington earned the No. 2 pick and two teams from Texas – the Houston Rockets at No. 3 and the San Antonio Spurs at No. 4 – secured the next two spots. Detroit, meanwhile, which had an NBA-best 14% chance of winning the lottery after posting the worst regular season record in the NBA, fell to No. 5. The fall is the worst possible outcome for the Pistons in the lottery and the second consecutive year it had the best odds to win the lottery and fell to No. 5.
Charlotte also dropped from its prelottery position from No. 3 to No. 6 and Portland fell from No. 4 to No. 7.
Here are the official 2024 NBA Draft Lottery results:
| 1 | Atlanta |
| 2 | Washington |
| 3 | Houston (via Brooklyn) |
| 4 | San Antonio |
| 5 | Detroit |
| 6 | Charlotte |
| 7 | Portland |
| 8 | San Antonio (via Toronto) |
| 9 | Memphis |
| 10 | Utah |
| 11 | Chicago |
| 12 | Oklahoma City (via Houston) |
| 13 | Sacramento |
| 14 | Portland (via Golden State) |
For the second consecutive year, the Pistons posted the worst regular-season record among all NBA teams and entered the lottery tied for the best odds to win the No. 1 pick. And for a second consecutive year, the Pistons bucked the odds and fell to its worst possible outcome, landing with the No. 5 overall pick.
Detroit summed it up well:
The Pistons won 17 games two seasons ago and 14 games this season and only have two No. 5 picks to show for it. That's tough to swallow.
Detroit has a nice young core of players that could grow and develop around Cade Cunningham – the 2021 No. 1 pick – but if you're a Pistons fan you might be reeling with all the misfortune. This isn't a draft at the top that will necessarily change the trajectory of any one franchise, but there's (obviously!) a big difference between picking first and picking fifth. Having to swallow that pill twice in a span of two years has to sting.
Only four teams entered Sunday with worse odds to win the NBA Draft Lottery than the eventual lottery-winning Hawks of Atlanta. They had just a 3 % chance to win the No. 1 pick before doing exactly that. It makes the Hawks the second-biggest riser in total spots jumped from pre-lottery to post-lottery, per CBS Sports Research, as they moved up nine spots. The only team to rise more was the Orlando Magic more than two decades ago when it leapt 10 spots up to No. 1 in 1993.
Biggest risers in lottery based on prelottery odds
1993: Magic: +10
2024: Hawks: +9
2014: Cavaliers: +8
2008: Bulls: +8
This will be the Hawks' first overall pick in the modern era and first since 1975, when at the time it selected David Thompson, who later signed with the ABA and never played for the Hawks.
One year after winning the No. 1 pick and the ultimate prize of 7-foot-4 French supernova Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs post-lottery looked primed to reload in 2024 around their star big man. The Spurs not only got the No. 8 pick (conveyed by Toronto as part of the Jakob Poetl trade) but also moved up to No. 4 with their own pick despite entering the lottery with a 42.1% chance of getting a top-four pick.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on the ABC broadcast that San Antonio may look to add at the point guard position – either via in the draft this year or next year or in free agency this summer – and the huge wins in the lottery seem to make that all the more possible. There's a good chance Nikola Topic, Reed Sheppard or Rob Dillingham could be available at one or both of those positions when they land on the clock, which could further bolster the franchise's chances of rebooting – and quickly – around Wemby.
For the first time in the history of its franchise, the Atlanta Hawks are winners of the NBA Draft Lottery. Hawks had just a 3.0% chance of winning the lottery and moved up nine spots to No. 1. Chaos.
Here's a look at the order:
1. Hawks
2. Wizards
3. Rockets
4. Spurs
5. Pistons
6. Hornets
7. Trail Blazers
8. Spurs
9. Grizzlies
10. Jazz
11. Bulls
12. Thunder
13. Kings
14. Trail Blazers
Pick Nos. 5-14 in the 2024 NBA Draft are officially set. They are as follows. 1-4 will be revealed shortly.
5. Pistons
6. Hornets
7. Trail Blazers
8. Spurs
9. Grizzlies
10. Jazz
11. Bulls
12. Thunder
13. Kings
14. Trail Blazers
The Detroit Pistons will pick No. 5 in this year's NBA Draft. Stunner. They had an NBA-best 14% chance of winning the No. 1 pick. Second consecutive year they had the best odds to win the lottery and wound up with the worst possible outcome. Wow wow wow.
The Charlotte Hornets will pick No. 6 in this year's NBA Draft.
The Portland Trail Blazers will pick No. 7 in the 2024 NBA Draft.
The San Antonio Spurs will pick No. 8 in this year's NBA Draft.
The Memphis Grizzlies will pick No. 9 in this year's NBA Draft.
The Utah Jazz will pick No. 10 in this year's NBA Draft.
The Chicago Bulls will pick No. 11 in this year's NBA Draft.
The OKC Thunder will pick No. 12 in this year's NBA Draft.
The Sacramento Kings will pick No. 13 in this year's NBA Draft.
The official order for the top 14 picks in the 2024 NBA Draft as determined by Sunday's lottery.
1. Atlanta
2. Washington
3. Houston
4. San Antonio
5. Detroit
6. Charlotte
7. Portland
8. San Antonio
9. Memphis
10. Utah
11. Chicago
12. Oklahoma City
13. Sacramento
14. Portland
The Portland Trail Blazers will pick No. 14 in this year's NBA Draft.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports on ABC that the San Antonio Spurs -- who drafted 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama last year at No. 1 -- may be looking to add playmaking at the point guard position in this draft. He mentions Nikola Topic and the two Kentucky guards -- Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham -- as possible targets for the Spurs.
The official order of the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery is likely known by now among a handful of folks from a private room in Chicago. The results will be unveiled shortly on ABC. Buckle up. We'll blog the results below as they come in.
Curious which teams have had the most lottery luck since the process was enacted in 1985? Here's a full list of winners dating back to the beginning of the lottery and their respective chances at the time of said win via the NBA.
You can see which team selected who below as well.
The order of the top 14 picks in each of the two draft rounds will be determined today, but here's the truth: only the first four picks will actually be settled via the lottery system. Here's how it works, via the NBA:
Drawings will be conducted to determine the first four picks in the NBA Draft. The remainder of the "lottery teams" will select in positions five through 14 in inverse order of their 2023-24 regular-season records.
Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. Before the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations will be assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams. The lottery machine is manufactured by the Smart Play Company, a leading manufacturer of state lottery machines throughout the United States. Smart Play also weighs, measures and certifies the ping-pong balls before the drawing.
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. The length of time the balls are mixed is monitored by a timekeeper who faces away from the machine and signals the machine operator after the appropriate amount of time has elapsed.
The 39th annual NBA Draft Lottery will be held this afternoon in Chicago. The order of the top 14 picks will be determined via the lottery system, with Detroit and Washington -- each at 14% -- owning the best odds of winning the lottery and thus the rights to pick No. 1 overall in this summer's draft.
Here's the rest of how the odds look like for every lottery team.
| TEAM | RECORD | WINNING % | TOP-FOUR PICK (%) | TOP OVERALL PICK (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Detroit Pistons | 14-68 | .171 | 52.1% | 14.0% |
Washington Wizards | 15-67 | .268 | 52.1% | 14.0% |
21-61 | .256 | 50.3% | 13.3% | |
Portland Trail Blazers | 21-61 | .256 | 50.0% | 13.2% |
22-60 | .268 | 42.1% | 10.5% | |
Toronto Raptors-x | 25-57 | .305 | 37.2% | 9.0% |
27-55 | .329 | 32.0% | 7.5% | |
Utah Jazz-x | 31-51 | .378 | 26.3% | 6.0% |
Houston Rockets (via Brooklyn) | 32-50 | .390 | 20.3% | 4.5% |
36-46 | .439 | 13.9% | 3.0% | |
Chicago Bulls | 39-43 | .476 | 9.4% | 2.0% |
Houston Rockets-x | 41-41 | .500 | 7.1% | 1.5% |
46-36 | .561 | 3.8% | 0.8% | |
Golden State Warriors-x | 46-36 | .561 | 3.4% | 0.7% |
x - Pick may be conveyed to another team
We'll have all the info here as it happens, but if you want to see the teams revealed as it happens, here's how to do that:
Here's everything you need to know about the lottery, including a breakdown of each team's chances at landing the No. 1 pick.
