NBA draft lottery winners and losers: Who got rewarded for the rebuild?
It’s fitting that the NBA draft lottery coincides with spring.
It’s the chance for some of the most disadvantaged teams in the league to have their fortunes revived through the draft. And this year is particularly noteworthy for a few reasons.
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For one, this is projected to be a generational draft class loaded with elite talent like AJ Dybantsa from BYU and Darryn Peterson of Kansas, though it’s also a very deep group.
For another, this year was also noteworthy because of the overt tanking that took place in the final months of the regular season, when the league’s worst teams not-so-subtly self-sabotaged their on-court performance with the hopes of securing one of these top picks. The lottery Sunday, May 10 determined whether all that tanking was worth it.
Here are the winners and losers from the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery:
WINNERS
Chicago Bulls
No team saw a bigger jump in the lottery than the Bulls, who entered with the ninth-best odds to sneak into the top four. The Bulls did just that, leaping up to No. 4.
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Chicago does have some nice pieces, but has lacked a star player who can create his own shot. The draft should fix that. Also, after Billy Donovan stepped down as coach, this leap up the board suddenly makes the vacant Chicago job a lot more appealing.
John Wall delivers for the Washington Wizards
Wall, the last player Washington selected No. 1 overall, had represented the Wizards in the 2011 lottery, a year when Washington fell to No. 6 and drafted Jan Veselý. This time, Wall came through.
The Wizards, who had the worst record in the NBA at 17-65, secured the No. 1 selection and suddenly are in an enviable position. They brought on some veterans in Trae Young and Anthony Davis, have some young pieces in Alexandre Sarr, Kyshawn George and Tre Johnson and will now get the chance to take their pick of Dybantsa or Peterson.
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The Utah Jazz are about to turn the corner
Let’s give Danny Ainge some credit (after he got a dose of good luck). The Jazz fully embraced the tank, pulling their starters in the fourth quarters of games, and now they’ll hold the No. 2 overall pick.
Utah already had some solid, young pieces, especially after it made the trade to acquire Jaren Jackson Jr. Pairing him with Lauri Markkanen, Ace Bailey, center Walker Kessler (who will be returning from a shoulder injury) and the No. 2 overall pick instantly gives the Jazz a fascinating and dynamic roster — and one that could be sneaky competitive as soon as next season.
Memphis Grizzlies may find their Ja Morant replacement
Jumping up three spots – from No. 6 to No. 3 – could put the Grizzlies in an excellent spot to feel comfortable moving on from Ja Morant, whom the team reportedly made available in trade talks before the February deadline.
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If Darryn Peterson falls to No. 3, he could be an excellent fit. Peterson has plenty of size at 6-foot-5, can handle the ball and has a natural scoring ability. Perhaps the thing Memphis would like most about Peterson is that he protected the ball, committing just 1.6 turnovers per game.
The Los Angeles Clippers rebuild on the fly
Los Angeles, even after it turned its season around, probably wasn’t going to compete this season in the West. So the Clippers shrewdly — and with a bit of luck — essentially turned Ivica Zubac into the 2026 No. 5 selection (more on that below), a 2029 unprotected first and Bennedict Mathuin, who showed immense promise as a scorer off the bench.
The Clippers also added Darius Garland in the James Harden trade. All of which means, now with the No. 5 pick in their possession, Los Angeles — which entered the season as the oldest team in NBA history — can complete a mini-rebuild on the fly.
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New Orleans Pelicans catch a break
It’s not that they won the lottery or even moved up, the Pelicans are winners here because their selection moved down.
To start, New Orleans doesn’t even hold its own first-round pick in the 2026 draft; during last year’s draft, the Pelicans traded that selection to the Hawks — and made it unprotected — to move up 10 spots to No. 13 and select Derik Queen. Yet, the Pelicans struggled this season and ended up with the seventh-best odds to win the lottery (6.8%) and a 29.3% chance of securing a Top 4 pick.
In the end, the pick the Pelicans will trade to Atlanta is the No. 8 selection, which is still a very good pick, but nowhere near as painful had it been a Top 4 selection, or even No. 1.
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LOSERS
Indiana Pacers and the trade for Ivica Zubac
The entered the draft with a 14% chance to claim the No. 1 overall selection and a 52.1% chance to land a top-four pick, tied for highest among all teams. Yet, the Pacers landed in the worst possible place.
They sent their first-round selection to the Los Angeles Clippers in the trade that landed center Ivica Zubac. That pick, however, was protected for picks No. 1-4 and 10-30. That means that if the pick fell anywhere between that 5-9 range, it would go to Los Angeles.
Indiana nearly made it, but with its selection landing at No. 5, it was the last hurdle the Pacers had to clear to secure a top-four pick. So instead of pairing an elite talent with a healthy Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Zubac, Indiana’s gap year ends up as a significant letdown.
It also puts a ton of pressure on Zubac to deliver and make the deal worth it. In essence, the Pacers traded away Bennedict Mathurin and a couple of first-round draft picks – one of which became the No. 5 selection in a deep draft – for Zubac.
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Brooklyn Nets
A fall of three spots might not initially appear to be so terrible, but in this draft it likely means the difference between a great player and a generational one.
The Nets had the third-worst record in the NBA (20-62) and are a very young team, one that made first first-round selections last season. Assuming most pre-draft projections hold true, the third pick could’ve netted Brooklyn someone like Caleb Wilson, the North Carolina star who is climbing up draft boards because of his blend of size, skill and athleticism. The Nets should still secure a very good player at No. 6, but the lottery wasn’t kind to a team that has won just 46 games over the last two seasons.
Put another way: the Nets have lost 118 games in the last two seasons and their highest draft picks were the No. 8 selection last year (Egor Dёmin) and the No. 6 pick this year.
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The Milwaukee Bucks’ prospects of convincing Giannis Antetokounmpo to stay
The drawn-out melodrama about Giannis Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee is only going to intensify. All signs are pointing to an eventual divorce here, though there was perhaps the hope that a high draft pick would entice Antetokounmpo to re-commit to the team.
Instead, the Bucks will select No. 10. And while that isn’t a bad pick at all, it’s likely not enough to convince Antetokounmpo to stay. So expect the Bucks to field offers this offseason, especially now that we know what kind of draft assets prospective suitors will hold.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA draft lottery winners and losers: Did tanking work this time?
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