Winners, Losers from NBA Draft Lottery: Shameless tanking for the win. And Toni Kukoc.

It feels ironic that the Washington Wizards became the first team with the worst record to get the No. 1 pick since the NBA switched to these new lottery odds — just in time for the league to change everything next year to “fix” tanking. Again.

The way the ping-pong balls bounced this year left some big winners and some painful losers. Let’s break down who won and who lost in the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery.

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Winner: Shameless tanking

The Washington Wizards traded for Trae Young and Anthony Davis and barely played them to maintain their lottery odds (to be fair, AD was injured). The Utah Jazz were the face of tanking in the league, got a massive fine, traded for Jaren Jackson Jr. and mostly sat him to keep their draft position. The Memphis Grizzlies were just a couple of games out of the play-in when they traded Jackson to the Jazz and started tanking in earnest, going 5-28 the rest of the way.

All three of those teams were rewarded and have the top three picks in this draft. If you wonder why the league thinks it needs a new lottery system to fix tanking, this is the prime example.

Chicago jumped up to the top four because Toni Kukoc brought the swagger.

Six years ago, when Arturas Karnisovas took over as the lead executive in Chicago, the Bulls jumped up from seventh in the lottery odds to get the No. 4 pick, which they used to select Patrick Williams. That pick (and subsequent contract) was an anchor on Karnisovas’ entire tenure.

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This year, Bryson Graham has taken over as the lead executive in Chicago, and the Bulls jumped from ninth in the lottery odds to get the No. 4 pick. Most likely, they will use that on North Carolina’s Caleb Willson, unless Memphis falls in love with him, in which case Cameron Boozer of Duke likely falls to the Bulls. Either way, Graham needs this pick to work out.

Winner: Washington Wizards

Washington was active in “pre-agency” at the trade deadline last February, getting good deals on two former All-Stars other teams were looking to dump move on from: Trae Young and Anthony Davis. This is a team that already had some promising young players like big man Alex Sarr and…

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Publish date : 2026-05-11 05:15:00

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