The NBA draft lottery, an event that places the league’s 14 non-playoff teams into a lottery based on their regular-season record, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday.
After a brief preshow on ESPN, NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum will stroll across the stage and gradually reveal envelopes containing the logos of the teams that will pick from No. 14 to No. 5, then reveal the top four teams after a commercial break.
The Washington Wizards finished with the league’s worst record, which locked them into
a top-five pick. They hold a 14% chance of landing the No. 1 pick — the best odds a team can have in the modern lottery system — and a combined 52.1% chance of landing a top-four selection.
The issue: Luck hasn’t been on the Wizards’ side.
The Wizards have moved up just three times in the 25 NBA draft lotteries they’ve participated in since the event began in 1985. Here’s how unlucky they’ve been:
Moved down: 11 times
Stayed put: 11 times
Moved up: 3 times
The Wizards moved up two spots in 2001 before selecting Kwame Brown with the No. 1 pick. Ten years later, they moved up four spots to select John Wall with the top pick. And in 2013, they jumped five spots before selecting Otto Porter Jr. at No. 3.
But since selecting Porter Jr., Washington has moved down or stayed put in seven consecutive draft lotteries, most recently falling four spots to No. 6 in the 2026 NBA Draft after finishing with the league’s second-worst record.
Washington’s shaky lottery history hasn’t eased fans’ concerns surrounding Sunday’s event. And neither has the fate of the league’s worst team under the new lottery system, which began in 2019 and has yet to award the top pick to the team with the worst record.
- 2019 New York Knicks: 3rd
- 2020 Golden State Warriors: 2nd
- 2021 Houston Rockets: 2nd
- 2022 Houston Rockets: 3rd
- 2023 Detroit Pistons: 5th
- 2024 Detroit Pistons: 5th
- 2025 Utah Jazz: 5th
- 2026 Washington Wizards: ?
The last three teams to finish with the worst record have dropped to No. 5 — their worst possible result. It’s a reason Wizards General Manager Will Dawkins seemed resigned to his team’s fate during his end-of-season press conference.
“The priority on May 10 is just to get lucky … We’re already fortunate enough to add a top-five player in this draft. I feel very confident our staff will be able to pick the best player if we have five. I’m very comfortable at five.”
Washington successfully tanked to ensure they keep their top-eight protected pick and also secure a top-five selection in the 2026 draft. But that’s all they could do.
Now, it’s in the hands of a few lottery balls.
