The 2025 NBA Draft conversation will only grow as not only the college basketball season ends but the NBA regular season. All that is left for some franchises to discuss is the hope of draft prospects and ways to bolster its rosters.
Tonight’s NBA Play-In Tournament will wrap up the pre-lottery NBA Draft order, only to suffle it all up again in May.
The biggest change that can happen tonight will be found out after the Hawks-Heat contest to determine the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference NBA Playoffs for a trip to take on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
If the Miami Heat wins this elimination game to punch its ticket to the NBA Playoffs, the Oklahoma City Thunder are handed the No. 15 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft via Miami.
If the Heat fall in Atlanta, Miami will keep its lottery pick but will be forced to issue a 2026 unprotected first round selection to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
For Atlanta, they are set to get a lottery pick from the Sacramento Kings after they fell to the Mavericks on Wednesday. But the Hawks pick is owed to San Antonio Spurs via the Dejounte Murray trade. That pick has no protections. it currently sits as the No. 15 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft but with a loss would give the Spurs a second NBA Lottery Pick.
With how loaded the 2025 NBA Draft class is, these small details will loom large in June as teams seek cost controlled talent with the new CBA.
