The basketball gods chose to bail out Nico Harrison.
The organization that inexplicably gave away Luka Doncic in a trade deadline deal entered Monday night with a 1.8% chance of winning the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery — and they got it. The Dallas Mavericks have the No. 1 pick, an ending to the lottery that will provide years of fuel for the conspiracy theorists around the league.
It’s the second time the Mavericks have ever had the No. 1 pick (Mark Aguirre, 1981), and they can now use it to draft Cooper Flagg as the new star and face of the franchise. With Flagg, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving, the Mavericks are positioned to make some noise in the West (once Irving recovers from the torn ACL that will sideline him most, if not all, of next season).
The Spurs and 76ers jumped way up, while the Jazz and Wizards were unlucky and slid back.
Here is how the NBA Draft Lottery shook out:
1. Dallas Mavericks
2. San Antonio Spurs
3. Philadelphia 76ers
4. Charlotte Hornets
5. Utah Jazz
6. Washington Wizards
7. New Orleans Pelicans
8. Brooklyn Nets
9. Toronto Raptors
10. Houston Rockets (via Phoenix)
11. Portland Trail Blazers
12. Chicago Bulls
13. Atlanta Hawks (via Sacramento)
14. San Antonio (via Atlanta)
Some other notes from how the NBA Draft lottery broke down.
• With San Antonio landing the No. 2 pick, expect to hear a ton of Giannis Antetokounmpo to the Spurs rumors. San Antonio can now offer this year’s No. 2 pick (which will almost certainly be Dylan Harper), the reigning Rookie of the Year in Stephon Castle, plus more picks and players. That’s the foundation of a quick rebuild for the Bucks, and imagine the Spurs defense with Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama.
• The Philadelphia 76ers tanked their way into the lottery and needed to stay in the top six to keep their pick (or it went to OKC). Not only do the 76ers keep their pick but they jumped up to No. 3, meaning they can add Ace Bailey or VJ Edgecomb to a young core of Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain, a bridge to the future no matter what happens with Joel Embiid and Paul George’s health.
• Rolando Blackman turned out to be good luck.
• This tweet cracked me up.
AD gonna make Flagg play the 5?
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) May 12, 2025
• Cooper Flagg was in the building.
• The Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards had the two worst records in the league but the lottery gods did not favor them and they slid down the board as far as they could go, with Utah fifth and Washington sixth. This is the third year in a row the team with the worst record in the league slid down to fifth (the previous two years it was Detroit).
• Chicago lost the tiebreaker to Dallas, which decided which numbers they get in the ping-pong ball lottery, then the Mavericks jumped up to No. 1. That’s a rough one for the Bulls.
• Here is what the rest of the first round looks like
15. Oklahoma City Thunder (via Miami)
16. Orlando Magic
17. Minnesota Timberwolves (via Detroit)
18. Washington Wizards (via Memphis)
19. Brooklyn Nets (via Milwaukee)
20. Miami Heat (via Golden State)
21. Utah Jazz (via Minnesota)
22. Atlanta Hawks (via Los Angeles Lakers)
23. Indiana Pacers
24. Oklahoma City Thunder (via Los Angeles Clippers)
25. Orlando Magic (via Denver)
26. Brooklyn Nets (via New York)
27. Brooklyn Nets (via Houston)
28. Boston Celtics
29. Phoenix Suns (via Cleveland)
30. Los Angeles Clippers (via Oklahoma City)
• The NBA Draft occurs on June 25-26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
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