‘Holy s***’: Trade gamble blows up, shock win for Giddey’s Bulls in ‘wild’ NBA Draft lottery

The Washington Wizards won the NBA draft lottery, earning the right to add the No.1 overall pick in the 2026 class while there was a clear loser from Monday morning’s ping-pong drawing.

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The Wizards had a 14 per cent chance of getting the No.1 pick after losing 26 of their last 27 games to close out the regular season to increase their odds but Washington knew better than anyone that guaranteed little.

In fact, the Wizards entered Monday having lost the most net draft slots (11) through the lottery system.

With the NBA’s new anti-tanking stance set to shake up the draft lottery system from next season, this was the final chance for a team like the Wizards to take advantage of bottoming out and they did just that.

Now, Washington will have its pick of a loaded 2026 class and the top prospect will join an intriguing team that is headlined by Anthony Davis and Trae Young.

The Utah Jazz, meanwhile, were fined $500,000 in February for tanking behaviour that made headlines across the league but they too were rewarded with the second pick in the draft.

Picking third will be the Memphis Grizzlies, who could still trade Ja Morant after moving Jaren Jackson Jr. before the deadline.

One of the big winners from Monday’s lottery was the Chicago Bulls, who had a 20.3 per cent chance of landing a top-four pick.

The Bulls came under scrutiny for waiting too long to move on from valuable players like Coby White and Ayo Donsunmu before the deadline, and while they committed to a rebuild of sorts they still finished the season stuck in the middle and with less-than-ideal lottery odds.

But the Bulls lucked into the fourth pick, which puts them in a position to draft an immediate difference-maker to put alongside Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey.

Elsewhere, it was disaster for the Indiana Pacers after their pick dropped to fifth, meaning it would be sent to the Los Angeles Clippers as part of the Ivica Zubac trade.

The Pacers entered the lottery with a 52 per cent chance that their pick would land inside the top-four. If it dropped outside of that range, however, it would convey to the Clippers.

In other words, it was a coin flip and there was a lot at stake. While Indiana still has a strong core built around a healthy Tyrese Haliburton, adding a top prospect in this year’s class would have immediately vaulted the Pacers towards becoming an Eastern Conference powerhouse.

Instead, the Clippers have been given much-needed hope ahead of what could be a turbulent offseason for the franchise.

They are still waiting on the NBA’s investigation into the team’s partnership with Aspiration while they also don’t regain full control of their draft picks until 2030, which severely limited their ability to reshape what is an already ageing roster.

The James Harden for Darius Garland trade before the deadline helped, but this top-five pick is a huge coup for the Clippers.

The other losers from Monday’s lottery include the Nets, Kings and Hawks. All three teams had high odds of landing a top-four pick, although Atlanta is still a winner nonetheless given they only moved back 10 spots in last year’s draft to get the Pelicans’ pick.

While this year’s draft class is one of the deepest and most talented in recent memory, landing a top pick was particularly valuable given the clear consensus surrounding the top four prospects.

BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson and Duke forward Cameron Boozer have long been locked in at the top of the board, while North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson continues to gain steam.

Monday morning’s lottery is expected to be the final one before the NBA’s potential changes to the format come into effect before next year’s draft.

While the Wizards, Nets and Pacers all had the best odds (14 per cent) of getting the No.1 pick this time around, that will change under the NBA’s new anti-taking proposal.

ESPN reported late last year that the ‘3-2-1 lottery’ would expand the lottery to 16 teams, flatten odds and include a relegation zone where the bottom three teams would be penalised with fewer lottery balls for the No. 1 pick.

Under the proposed changes, 16 teams will participate in the lottery and get either three balls, two balls or one ball:

• The bottom three teams in the standings will get two balls

• The other teams that don’t make the Play-In will get three balls

• The four teams in the 9-10 Play-In games will get two balls

• The losers of the 7-8 game in each conference will get one ball

NBA DRAFT LOTTERY RESULTS

1. Washington Wizards