The Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets and the other teams involved in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery will hope to hear their name called when the official order of the top of this summer’s draft is revealed at 7 p.m. ET on Monday.
Results of the lottery will be conducted privately in Chicago and coordinated by the firm Ernst & Young, then shared publicly shortly thereafter on ESPN, where the drawing will be unveiled in reverse order from No. 14 down to No. 1 to set the selection order for the 2025 NBA Draft on June 25-26.
Duke superstar Cooper Flagg, the projected No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, is one of the best prospects of the modern era. The Jazz, Wizards and Hornets have a 14% chance of earning the No. 1 overall pick and landing Flagg after posting the three-worst records during the 2024-25 NBA regular season. Lottery odds decrease marginally thereafter. The New Orleans Pelicans have a 12.5% chance to receive the No. 1 pick, followed by the Philadelphia 76ers, who have a 10.5% chance of earning the top selection.
Lottery odds drop 1.5% for the next three teams — Brooklyn, Toronto and San Antonio — before falling to 3.8% for the Phoenix Suns, who will send their pick to the Houston Rockets. Houston has the ninth-best odds of winning the draft lottery.
The Atlanta Hawks owe their first-round pick (14th-best odds) to the Spurs, but could still pick in the lottery. Atlanta owns the rights to Sacramento’s first-round pick (top-12 protected). If the pick doesn’t jump into the top four during the lottery, the pick will be conveyed to the Hawks.
There are more scenarios in place of picks conveying to other teams, which include Philadelphia’s pick going to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside the top-six.
Monday marks the seventh year of the NBA’s new lottery system, so if all of this sounds foreign, we’ve got a detailed explainer for what to know and when to know it below.
When is the NBA Draft Lottery?
The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery will take place Monday at 7 p.m. ET before Game 4 of the Eastern Conference playoff showdown between the Knicks and Celtics. It will air on ESPN and be streaming on fubo (try for free).
The list of team representatives who will be present at the draft lottery is expected to be released by the NBA in the coming days.
How does the lottery work?
The previous draft lottery system prior to 2019 awarded a 25% chance that the team with the worst record would win the No. 1 overall pick. The second and third-worst teams by record were given 19.9% and 15.6% chance of winning the No. 1 pick. The new format approved in 2017 and enacted in 2019 reduced the odds the teams with the three worst records would win the lottery and flattened the odds across the board.
The three teams with the worst record are awarded a 14% chance then odds decrease thereafter by 1.5% points down to 0.5%.
What’s the selection process for the lottery?
A draft lottery conducted through drawings will be held to determine the first four picks in the NBA Draft. The remaining 10 lottery teams will select in positions five through 14 in inverse order of their 2024-25 regular season records.
The lottery process is conducted privately with representatives from the NBA, participating teams and the accounting firm Ernst & Young in attendance.
A total of fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. There is a total of 1,001 possible combinations when the four balls are drawn. All 14 balls are placed into the lottery machine and mixed for 20 seconds before the first ball is removed. The remaining balls are mixed in the lottery machine for another 10 seconds and another ball is drawn. The team with the assigned combination receives the No. 1 pick.
That process is then repeated until the order for picks Nos. 2, 3 and 4 are set.
Here’s more on that from the NBA:
The drawing process occurs in the following manner: All 14 balls are placed in the lottery machine and they are mixed for 20 seconds, and then the first ball is removed. The remaining balls are mixed in the lottery machine for another 10 seconds, and then the second ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the third ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the fourth ball is drawn. 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.
If the same team comes up more than once, the result is discarded and another four-ball combination is selected. Also, if the one unassigned combination is drawn, the result is discarded and the balls are drawn again. The length of time the balls are mixed is monitored by a timekeeper who faces away from the machine and signals the machine operator after the appropriate amount of time has elapsed.
What are the odds for the draft lottery?
The Jazz finished with the NBA’s worst record in 2024-25, thus earning the 14% chance to win the lottery. Washington had the second-worst record and has a 14% chance as well. The full odds board for each team to win the No. 1 pick and the chances each pick lands in the top four is below.
| TEAM | RECORD | WINNING % | TOP-FOUR PICK (%) | TOP OVERALL PICK (%) |
| Utah | 17-65 | 0.207 | 52.1% | 14.0% |
| Washington | 18-64 | 0.22 | 52.1% | 14.0% |
| Charlotte | 19-63 | 0.232 | 52.1% | 14.0% |
| New Orleans | 21-61 | 0.256 | 48.1% | 12.5% |
| Philadelphia-x | 24-58 | 0.293 | 42.1% | 10.5% |
| Brooklyn | 26-56 | 0.317 | 37.2% | 9.0% |
| Toronto | 30-52 | 0.366 | 31.9% | 7.5% |
| San Antonio | 34-48 | 0.415 | 26.3% | 6.0% |
| Phoenix-x | 36-46 | 0.439 | 17.3% | 3.8% |
| Portland | 36-46 | 0.439 | 16.9% | 3.7% |
| Dallas | 39-43 | 0.476 | 8.5% | 1.8% |
| Chicago | 39-43 | 0.476 | 8.0% | 1.7% |
| Sacramento-x | 40-42 | 0.488 | 3.8% | 0.8% |
| Atlanta-x | 40-42 | 0.488 | 3.4% | 0.7% |
x – Pick may be conveyed to another team
- Philadelphia’s pick will be conveyed to Oklahoma City if not among the top 6 picks
- Phoenix’s pick will be conveyed to Houston
- Sacramento’s pick will be conveyed to Atlanta if not among the top 12 picks
- Atlanta’s pick will be conveyed to San Antonio
Which players will be picked in the lottery?
These will chance before the NBA Draft, but here are the current top NBA Draft prospects on Kyle Boone’s NBA Draft Big Board with full board available here.
| RK | PLAYER | SCHOOL | YEAR | POS | POS RK | HT | WT |
| 1 | Cooper Flagg | Duke | Fr | SF | 1 | 6-9 | 205 |
| 2 | Dylan Harper | Rutgers | Fr | PG | 1 | 6-6 | 215 |
| 3 | Ace Bailey | Rutgers | Fr | SF | 2 | 6-10 | 200 |
| 4 | VJ Edgecombe | Baylor | Fr | SG | 1 | 6-5 | 180 |
| 5 | Tre Johnson | Texas | Fr | SG | 2 | 6-6 | 190 |
| 6 | Kon Knueppel | Duke | Fr | SF | 3 | 6-7 | 217 |
| 7 | Jeremiah Fears | Oklahoma | Fr | PG | 2 | 6-4 | 182 |
| 8 | Jase Richardson | Michigan State | Fr | SG | 3 | 6-3 | 185 |
| 9 | Kasparas Jakucionis | Illinois | Fr | PG | 3 | 6-6 | 205 |
| 10 | Khaman Maluach | Duke | Fr | C | 1 | 7-2 | 250 |
| 11 | Derik Queen | Maryland | Fr | C | 2 | 6-10 | 246 |
| 12 | Liam McNeeley | UConn | Fr | SF | 4 | 6-7 | 210 |
| 13 | Collin Murray-Boyles | S. Carolina | Soph | PF | 1 | 6-8 | 245 |
| 14 | Egor Demin | BYU | Fr | PG | 4 | 6-9 | 190 |
