NBA Draft Lottery winners and losers: Pacers' bet fails, more Kings bad luck, Wiz, Grizz and Clips hit big

One of the most consequential NBA Draft Lotteries ever went down Sunday, and these are the biggest winners and losers

Sam Quinn

May 10, 2026

5:43 pm ET

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12 min read

Imagn Images

Perhaps the most anticipated NBA Draft Lottery in history is in the books. The Washington Wizards won the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, and they'll be followed by the Utah Jazz at No. 2, the Memphis Grizzlies at No. 3 and the Chicago Bulls at No. 4.

The 2026 lottery was enormously consequential for a number of reasons. The draft class itself is considered one of the deepest in NBA history. Four players are considered star-level talents: BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson. While the draft is loaded with more guard prospects, those four players were the ones widely considered to be at stake on Sunday, and now, even if we don't know the order in which they'll be selected, we have an idea of the four teams likely to get them.

NBA Mock Draft: Fits for all 30 picks with 2026 lottery set; Dybantsa No. 1 to Wizards, Peterson No. 2 to Jazz

Adam Finkelstein

But perhaps more importantly, this was the last draft class for the foreseeable future expected to be heavily impacted by tanking. Lottery reform is expected to pass later this month, and the proposed system would punish the three worst teams in the NBA while flattening the odds for the other non-playoff teams. This was the last chance these teams were going to have to impact their own draft position. Moving forward, it's going to be more random than ever.

So now that the dust has settled, let's dig into Sunday's results. Who are the big winners and losers of the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery?

Winner: Washington Wizards

The Wizards will pick No. 1 for the first time since selecting John Wall in 2010

The Wizards just became the first team in NBA history to lose 64 or more games in three consecutive seasons. They've been outscored by more than 11 points per game in that span. To call the last three years in Washington bleak would be an understatement. The lottery gods hadn't exactly smiled on them in that window. They landed the No. 2 overall pick in the weak 2024 draft. That got them Alex Sarr, a fine player, but hardly a franchise-changer. They needed that luck more a year ago. Instead, they fell the maximum four spots possible, picking No. 6 from the No. 2 lottery position.

Well, finally, the lottery worked out, giving them access to a selection that could potentially get this rebuilding team a franchise player. The timing couldn't be better. Being one of the worst teams in the league will no longer benefit them, and they just acquired Anthony Davis and Trae Young. That means one of two things are about to happen: either the Wizards will return to the postseason, or they'll fall short and potentially double-dip on the lottery by benefitting from the weighted lottery of the past few years and the flatter one that's coming now. The one thing the Wizards needed was a true, long-term franchise player. They just got one, and the system is set up to help them continue building around him.

It feels somewhat fitting, with lottery reform coming, that we'd land on this, specific result. Since the odds changed in 2019, the worst team had never won the No. 1 overall pick. Now, in the final year of this format, that changes. The draft is meant to strengthen the worst teams, and that's what the lottery did on Sunday.

Loser: Brooklyn Nets

Brooklyn's bet from two summers ago has turned into a bust

The Nets made an enormous bet against themselves in the 2024 offseason when they traded a handful of future picks acquired in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trades to Houston in exchange for control over their 2025 and 2026 draft picks back. In 2025, at least, they gained almost nothing out of that exchange. They won more than expected and Phoenix lost more than expected, so the Suns pick they gave Houston in that deal landed just two slots behind Brooklyn, at No. 8 and No. 10, respectively. As Egor Demin was a somewhat surprising selection, it's entirely possible that Brooklyn could have gotten him without making that trade. That put a ton of pressure on their 2026 pick to make up for that bad outcome. They paid a small fortune for two spins in the lottery that would be based on a record they could control, and the first one was a bust.

Well, now the second pick has disappointed as well. In total, the Nets gave up three first-round picks and one first-round swap to the Houston Rockets for two lottery picks that combined to fall down five total slots.

It's not a total loss. This is a deep enough draft to find a foundational player outside of the top four. But let's be honest: when you trade as much as the Nets traded for control over your picks back, you probably don't envis