Should the Kings win this year’s lottery, the Hawks won’t receive the pick and it becomes a second-round selection.
They currently have more than a 96% chance to receive the pick, with a 93% chance of making the pick at No. 13.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The lottery, which will broadcast on ESPN on Monday, determines the order of selection for the draft. The teams that fall into the lottery are the 14 teams that did not advance to the playoffs.
The NBA moved to the new lottery format in 2019 to give a team with the worst record a chance at receiving a pick no worse than the fifth overall. Under the pre-2019 system, the team with the worst record would pick no lower than fourth.
This year, those teams include the Hawks, the Nets, the Hornets, the Bulls, the 76ers, the Raptors and the Wizards in the Eastern Conference. In the Western Conference, those teams include the Mavericks, the Pelicans, the Suns, the Trail Blazers, the Kings, the Spurs and the Jazz.
The teams that finished with the three worst records each have a 14% chance at winning the top overall pick. This season, those teams are the Jazz, the Wizards and the Hornets.
This year’s consensus No. 1 overall pick is Duke forward Cooper Flagg.
As the Hawks showed last year, though, anything can happen. Last season, the Hawks moved up from the No. 10 to pick up the franchise’s first No. 1 overall pick of the lottery era and its first since 1975.
After the lottery, the remaining draft order of the first and second rounds will occur based on reverse order of regular-season record.
The Hawks received a first-round pick in this year’s draft (via the Lakers), as well as a protected pick in 2027 along with Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance Jr., EJ Liddell and Cody Zeller in the deal that sent Murray to the Pelicans.
The team does not have a second-round pick this year. That selection belongs to Oklahoma City.
With the Hawks having a strong chance at the Kings’ pick, as well as the one they will receive from the Lakers, they have a chance to bolster the roster with more young talent.
