Washington Wizards win NBA lottery, but results should help Raptors

Article content

The 42nd edition of the NBA’s draft lottery brought some luck to long-suffering Washington Wizards fans.

Article content

Washington, the NBA’s worst team this season at 17-65, won Sunday’s lottery after falling four spots last year when they’d finished with the second-worst record. After trading for and then not playing former stars Anthony Davis and Trae Young, the Wizards now have an intriguing future for once.

Article content

Article content

They’ll have to decide from a loaded crop of prospects led by BYU’s scoring wing AJ Dybantsa, Kansas dynamo guard Darryn Peterson, Duke big man Cameron Boozer, or jaw-dropping North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson.

Washington, Indiana and Brooklyn each had the best odds of either winning the lottery (14% apiece) or picking in the Top 4 (52.1% each), but only the Wizards had happy results. Indiana had a disastrous draw, falling to fifth. The Pacers needed to stick in the Top 4 to retain the selection, but now send it to the Los Angeles Clippers. The Pacers, who took eventual champion Oklahoma City to seven games last year before tanking this year without star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, traded for solid, but not spectacular centre Ivica Zubac in February thinking the odds were good they’d retain the pick and instead send a 2031 first to the Clippers. Instead, Los Angeles hit a home run and finally gets a high selection after trading so many away to the Thunder in the long ago Paul George deal.

It was such a kick in the pants for the franchise that Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard publicly apologized to fans for the gamble on Twitter, saying: “I’m really sorry to all our fans. Own taking this risk. Surprised it came up 5th after this year,” Pritchard wrote. I thought we were due some luck. But please remember – this team deserved a starting center to compete with the best teams next year. We have always been resilient.”

Article content

Article content

Brooklyn, with more wins than only Washington and Indiana, dropped all the way to sixth for the second straight year (after falling two spots the previous year).

LOTTERY WINNERS

The entire Top 5 (Washington, Utah, Memphis, Chicago and the Clippers) have to be thrilled. Washington can either pair promising big man Alex Sarr with the multi-skilled but less athletic Boozer or add a big-time scorer. Utah would love to land Dybantsa, who played at nearby BYU in Provo, Utah, but the Wizards could throw a wrench in those plans if they opt for a prospect who looks a little like a young Tracy McGrady on the court.

Memphis can find a replacement for Ja Morant having leapt from six to three, while sad-sack Chicago, which just fired its front office and saw head coach Billy Donovan leave, desperately needed something good to happen and had the biggest ascent, from nine to four.

The Clippers were a bit in flux and who knows what the future holds for Kawhi Leonard, but now Darius Garland, only 26, acquired for James Harden, will get a running mate. The Clips were actually double winners because their own pick stayed at 12 (more on that later).

Article content

We’ll add the Raptors as winners because Indiana, a threat next year in the middle of the Eastern Conference assuming Haliburton comes back healthy, don’t also add a stud prospect to an already solid roster. Plus division rival Brooklyn missed out on a top prospect, rival Atlanta didn’t receive a Top 4 pick from New Orleans (the Pelicans stayed at eight) and four of the first seven picks will go to teams in the West, already the clearly superior conference.

A team from the Western Conference won the draft lottery in six of the last 11 years before Sunday. More importantly, the two best players in the world, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic play in the West, as do Victor Wembanyama and  Luka Doncic, who aren’t far behind them. Superstars Anthony Edwards, Leonard, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Cooper Flagg, Stephen Curry, amongst others, also play in the loaded West.

Toronto will pick 19th after stealing Collin Murray-Boyles at nine last year. They got Ja’Kobe Walter at 19 in 2024.

Article content

Avert your eyes for this what if though, Raptors fans: The pick the Clippers just got from Indiana, fourth overall, was the same one Toronto got from the Pacers for Pascal Siakam in January of 2024. The Raptors dealt the pick to the Pelicans for Brandon Ingram, but New Orleans made a bad deal and sent it back to the Pacers during the 2025 Finals, just before Haliburton tore his Achilles.

Obviously in hindsight Toronto and Indiana would rather have the fourth pick in 2026 than either Ingram or Zubac, but nobody could have predicted what happened to Haliburton and Indiana’s subsequent collapse.

LOSERS

We’ve been over Indiana and Brooklyn, but add Oklahoma City, Atlanta, Dallas (fell one spot) and Sacramento (dropped from five to seven) to the list of heartbroken franchises after the lottery.

Atlanta had 6.8% odds of moving to first and 29.3% of picking in the Top 4 from the pick they got from New Orleans for Derik Queen at last year’s draft, but will have to settle for eighth (along with 23rd pick in 2025, Asa Newell) as the return. Just about everyone mocked Pelicans boss Joe Dumars for the move because it was insanely risky, but Queen, taken 13th in 2025, looks promising and the nightmare scenario was avoided.

Article content

Another nightmare for all but Oklahoma City, would have been the defending champions moving into the Top 4 via the Clippers from the 2019 trade that sent George to Los Angeles (along with Leonard, who made that a provision of signing there and leaving Toronto). But the Thunder finally close out that deal with the 12th pick this summer (final tally: Gilgeous-Alexander, the pick that became all-star Jalen Williams, big man Thomas Sorber who missed his rookie year but has talent, this 12th pick and some less consequential stuff. Not bad!).

FULL ORDER

1. Washington (Worst record and stayed put)

2. Utah (Rose two spots)

3. Memphis (Rose three spots)

4. Chicago (Rose five spots)

5. Los Angeles Clippers (via Indiana. Dropped two spots)

6. Brooklyn (Dropped two spots)

7. Sacramento (Dropped two spots)

8. Atlanta (via New Orleans. Dropped one spot)

9. Dallas (Dropped one spot)

10. Milwaukee

11. Golden State

12. Oklahoma City (via Los Angeles Clippers)

13. Miami

14. Charlotte

Article content