When is the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery?
The 14 teams already eliminated from the NBA playoffs are in offseason mode, scouting prospects and free agents for next season. That includes the Portland Trail Blazers, who recently found out their official odds to land the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
The draft and its shiny new format are scheduled for June 26 and 27 at Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, but there's a crucial step in the process that comes first: When will teams know for certain what picks they'll be making?
When is the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery?
2024 NBA Draft Lottery: Date, odds, format
The lottery will take place on May 12 in Chicago. After all ties were broken, the odds at getting No. 1 pick for the top 14 teams look like this:
- Detroit Pistons: 14 percent
- Washington Wizards: 14 percent
- Charlotte Hornets: 13.3 percent
- Portland Trail Blazers: 13.2 percent
- San Antonio Spurs: 10.5 percent
- Toronto Raptors: 9 percent
- Memphis Grizzlies: 7.5 percent
- Utah Jazz: 6 percent
- Houston Rockets (via Brooklyn Nets): 4.5 percent
- Atlanta Hawks: 3 percent
- Chicago Bulls: 2 percent
- Houston Rockets: 1.5 percent
- Sacramento Kings: 0.8 percent
- Golden State Warriors: 0.7 percent (pick goes to Trail Blazers unless it lands in the top four)
The lottery format changed in 2019 to attempt to prevent teams from blatantly tanking; until that point, the team with the NBA's worst record was guaranteed the best odds at landing the No. 1 overall selection. Now, the three teams with the worst record (in this case two because of the tie between Portland and Charlotte) have equal 14 percent odds at grabbing the top selection.
The top four picks are determined by random drawings based on each team's odds. The rest of the top 14 teams will select in positions five through 14 in inverse order of their 2023-24 regular-season records.
"Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. 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 will be assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams."
- NBA lottery rules
One ball is picked at a time until a four-number combination is made. The team that has been assigned that combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The same process is repeated with the same ping-pong balls and lottery machine for the second through fourth picks.
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