With April complete and May well underway, the NBA Draft Lottery is fast-approaching. The annual event, which will determine the order of the top 14 picks in the 2024 NBA Draft, is set to take place on Sunday, May 12 with televised coverage beginning at 8:30 PM ET on ESPN.
The event's outcome, which occurs separately before the scheduled ESPN broadcast, will have major implications for the Washington Wizards' outlook heading into the 2024-25 regular season.
How does the NBA Draft Lottery actually work?
In order to fully randomize each selection, ping pong balls numbered one through 14 are placed in a lottery machine. The machine is spun for 20 seconds before the first of an eventual four-ball combination is ejected from the machine. After the first ball, each subsequential ball is selected after an additional 10 seconds of spinning the machine.
Each lottery team is assigned a list of four-ball combinations that, if drawn, wins their team the pick. After finishing last season with the second-worst record in the NBA, the Wizards are tied with the Detroit Pistons for a 14 percent chance of obtaining the first overall pick, the best odds in the league.
Washington also received protections against finishing any lower than sixth overall in the lottery due to their 15-67 record, the worst in franchise history. For Detroit, those protections keep the Pistons from receiving a pick any lower than fifth overall.
The Wizards' odds of receiving each pick between spots one through six go as follows:
1st pick | 2nd pick | 3rd pick | 4th pick | 5th pick | 6th pick |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
14.0% | 13.4% | 12.7% | 12.0% | 27.8% | 20.0% |
How well have the Wizards done in the NBA Draft Lottery in the past?
Washington's spot in this year's NBA Draft Lottery is the best positioning the team has had in over a decade. The last time the Wizards were among the top two in lottery odds dates back to 2012, a lottery in which the team received the third-overall pick. Former president of basketball operations Ernie Grunfeld used the pick in 2012's NBA Draft to select Bradley Beal from the University of Florida.
Beal earned three All-Star nods in his 11-year tenure with the Wizards, averaging 22.1 points per game over nearly 700 games. It is safe to say Washington came away from their last shot at lottery odds this convincing as a major success.
However, the team's last true lottery win, earning the first overall pick, came in 2010 when the Wizards scarfed up the top selection with just the fifth-best pre-lottery positioning. Washington selected the University of Kentucky's point guard John Wall with the pick, who transformed the franchise and promptly became one of the District's most beloved basketball players.
As the NBA Draft Lottery rapidly approaches, Wizards fans remain hopeful that their team will see similar success under president Michael Winger and general manager Will Dawkins in this year's draft.