Washington wins NBA draft lottery, chance to pick first on June 23

CHICAGO (AP) — The league’s worst team this season is getting the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.

The Washington Wizards won the draft lottery on Sunday and are poised to pick first overall for the first time since choosing John Wall in that spot in 2010. Wall was the Wizards’ on-stage representative for the lottery.

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Washington had a 14% chance of winning No. 1, tied with Brooklyn and Indiana for the best odds. The Wizards had basically a 50-50 chance of getting either a top-four pick or the No. 5 spot.

But three consecutive years of losing — the three worst seasons in the franchise’s 65-year history — finally paid off Sunday for the Wizards, who went 17-65 this season and even allowed Miami’s Bam Adebayo to score 83 points for the league’s second-highest single-game total ever.

The Wizards swung deals to land Trae Young and Anthony Davis last season, and now they have a chance to add an immediate impact player with the No. 1 pick.

Utah will pick No. 2, Memphis will pick No. 3 and Chicago will pick No. 4.

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The Los Angeles Clippers got the fifth pick — via a trade with the Pacers — followed by No. 6 Brooklyn, No. 7 Sacramento, No. 8 Atlanta, No. 9 Dallas, No. 10 Milwaukee, No. 11 Golden State, No. 12 Oklahoma City, No. 13 Miami and No. 14 Charlotte.

The draft begins June 23 in New York. The draft combine in Chicago starts on Monday.

No. 1 pick possibilities

There are four candidates that generally are considered front-runners to be the No. 1 pick, all of them entering the draft after their freshman years of college. They are:

— BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, who led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game in his lone college season.

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— Duke’s Cameron Boozer, the AP player of the year who averaged 22.5 points and 10.1 rebounds.

— Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, who averaged 20.2 points in 24 games for the Jayhawks.

— North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, who averaged 19.8 points and 9.4 rebounds on 58% shooting.

All four of those players, and a few other likely first-round selections, were all among those in the studio for the announcement of the lottery results Sunday at…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/washington-wins-nba-draft-lottery-192932604.html

Author : TIM REYNOLDS

Publish date : 2026-05-10 19:29:00

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