The 2026 NBA draft lottery is almost here. Which team will land the No. 1 overall pick? Which of the 14 teams in the lottery will rise — and fall? The world will find out Sunday, May 10, at 3 p.m. ET on ABC and the ESPN app.
The Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets each have a 14% chance to win the lottery because they had the worst regular-season records this season. The lottery doesn’t always reward the worst teams with the top picks, however. Just last year, the Dallas Mavericks won the right to draft Cooper Flagg, despite having a 1.8% chance to pick No. 1 entering the lottery. The year before, the Atlanta Hawks won the lottery with 3% odds; they selected Zaccharie Risacher at No. 1.
Here’s everything we know about the lottery ahead of the 2026 draft, which is June 23 and 24:
More draft coverage:
Mock draft | Top 100 prospects
Current draft order | More
When and where is the 2026 NBA draft lottery?
The 2026 draft lottery is Sunday, May 10, at the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago. Representatives from the 14 teams in the lottery will be on hand for the results.
What time does the lottery begin?
Coverage of the lottery begins at 3 p.m. ET on ABC and the ESPN app. There will be NBA playoff games later in the day, depending on how the first round of the postseason shakes out.
What are the current lottery odds?
The 14 teams that did not make the playoffs are eligible for the lottery, though two teams traded away their lottery picks. Here are the odds to get the No. 1 overall pick based on how each team finished the regular season:
1. Washington Wizards: 14% chance to pick No. 1
2. Indiana Pacers: 14%
3. Brooklyn Nets: 14%
4. Utah Jazz: 11.5%
5. Sacramento Kings: 11.5%
6. Memphis Grizzlies: 8.0%
7. Atlanta Hawks (via New Orleans Pelicans): 6.8%
8. Dallas Mavericks: 6.7%
9. Chicago Bulls: 4.5%
10. Milwaukee Bucks: 3%
11. Golden State Warriors: 2%
12. Oklahoma City Thunder (via LA Clippers): 1.5%
13. Miami Heat: 1%
14. Charlotte Hornets: 0.5%
Based on the lottery results, the Hawks will receive the better of the picks belonging to the Bucks and Pelicans, with Milwaukee getting the lesser of the picks. The Thunder will receive the Clippers’ pick regardless of the lottery results.
The NBA conducted its tiebreaking process on Monday, April 20, which included two ties in the top 14 picks. The most consequential result, determined by random drawing, broke the tie for the fourth-best odds between the Sacramento Kings and the Utah Jazz, with Utah winning and Sacramento landing the fifth-best odds. View the full tiebreaker results here.
How does the lottery work?
The NBA outlines the draft lottery process in multiple phases. Drawings determine the first four picks in the draft. The remainder of the lottery teams will select in position Nos. 5 through 14 in inverse order of their records at the end of the regular season.
Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 are placed in a lottery machine and mixed for 20 seconds. The first ball is then removed. The remaining balls are mixed in the lottery machine for an additional 10 seconds, and then a second ball is removed. The balls are shuffled for another 10 seconds, and then a third ball is removed. There is another 10-second mix, and then the fourth ball is removed.
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 are assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams. The team that has been assigned the drawn combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The same process is repeated for the No. 2 through No. 4 picks.
A representative from the Ernst & Young accounting firm oversees the entire process. No parties outside of the room are informed of the lottery results before the envelopes are opened during the television broadcast.
When did the lottery last change?
In 2017, the NBA’s board of governors voted to pass legislation on draft lottery reform, with the changes instituted for the 2019 draft.
In the lottery odds beginning in 2019, the three teams with the worst records share a 14% chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick, a change from the descending percentages of 25, 19.9, and 15.6 in the previous system. Four teams — increased from three — became part of the lottery draw, which means the No. 1 lottery seed can drop no further than fifth, No. 2 can drop no further than sixth, No. 3 no further than seventh, and No. 4 no further than eighth. The New Orleans Pelicans won the first reformed lottery and selected Duke‘s Zion Williamson with the top pick.
The NBA has had some form of a draft lottery since 1985. From 1966 through 1984, the team that finished with the worst record in each conference participated in a coin flip for the No. 1 pick in the draft. That losing team received the No. 2 pick. The remaining teams picked in inverse order of their regular-season records.
The 2025 lottery was won by the Dallas Mavericks, who had just a 1.8% chance to get the No. 1 pick and jumped 10 spots in the drawing, the biggest move by any team in lottery history, according to ESPN Research. The Mavericks selected Duke‘s Cooper Flagg with the pick.
Could the lottery be reformed again?
Yes. NBA commissioner Adam Silver made it clear in March that fixing tanking is his top priority and that there will be fundamental changes to the league’s draft system to try to prevent it from happening moving forward, according to ESPN’s Time Bontemps. The tanking issue escalated this season because of the loaded 2026 draft class and because, as Silver pointed out, the incentives in place push teams in the lottery to do whatever they can to maximize their chances of getting lucky in the NBA’s draft lottery each spring.
“I do think ultimately this is a decision that needs to be made at the ownership level,” Silver said following a two-day NBA board of governors meeting. “It has business implications, has basketball implications, has integrity implications for the league.
“So, it’s one that we take very seriously, and we are going to fix it. Full stop.”
Sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that the NBA presented three comprehensive anti-tanking concepts to its board of governors, with modifications expected to each before a formal vote in May.
When and where is the 2026 NBA draft?
The 2026 draft is Tuesday, June 23, and Wednesday, June 24, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Round 1 will air on ABC, ESPN and the ESPN app on June 23. Round 2 will air on ESPN and the ESPN app on June 24.
Who are the top prospects in the 2026 NBA draft?
Here are ESPN draft analyst Jeremy Woo’s latest rankings, which were updated after the NCAA tournament:
1. AJ Dybantsa, SF, BYU
2. Darryn Peterson, PG/SG, Kansas
3. Cameron Boozer, PF/C, Duke
4. Caleb Wilson, PF/C, North Carolina
5. Keaton Wagler, PG/SG, Illinois
6. Darius Acuff Jr., PG, Arkansas
7. Kingston Flemings, PG, Houston
8. Nate Ament, SF/PF, Tennessee
9. Mikel Brown Jr., PG, Louisville
10. Brayden Burries, SG, Arizona
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ESPN’s Keith Jenkins contributed to this story.
