NBA Draft Lottery winners and losers: Pacers' bet fails, more Kings bad luck, Wiz, Grizz and Clips hit big

But perhaps more importantly, this was the last draft class for the foreseeable future expected to be heavily impacted by tanking. Lottery reform is expected to pass later this month, and the proposed system would punish the three worst teams in the NBA while flattening the odds for the other non-playoff teams. This was the last chance these teams were going to have to impact their own draft position. Moving forward, it's going to be more random than ever.

So now that the dust has settled, let's dig into Sunday's results. Who are the big winners and losers of the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery?

Winner: Washington Wizards

The Wizards will pick No. 1 for the first time since selecting John Wall in 2010

The Wizards just became the first team in NBA history to lose 64 or more games in three consecutive seasons. They've been outscored by more than 11 points per game in that span. To call the last three years in Washington bleak would be an understatement. The lottery gods hadn't exactly smiled on them in that window. They landed the No. 2 overall pick in the weak 2024 draft. That got them Alex Sarr, a fine player, but hardly a franchise-changer. They needed that luck more a year ago. Instead, they fell the maximum four spots possible, picking No. 6 from the No. 2 lottery position.

Well, finally, the lottery worked out, giving them access to a selection that could potentially get this rebuilding team a franchise player. The timing couldn't be better.  Being one of the worst teams in the league will no longer benefit them, and they just acquired Anthony Davis and Trae Young. That means one of two things are about to happen: either the Wizards will return to the postseason, or they'll fall short and potentially double-dip on the lottery by benefitting from the weighted lottery of the past few years and the flatter one that's coming now. The one thing the Wizards needed was a true, long-term franchise player. They just got one, and the system is set up to help them continue building around him.

It feels somewhat fitting, with lottery reform coming, that we'd land on this, specific result. Since the odds changed in 2019, the worst team had never won the No. 1 overall pick. Now, in the final year of this format, that changes. The draft is meant to strengthen the worst teams, and that's what the lottery did on Sunday.

Loser: Brooklyn Nets

Brooklyn's bet from two summers ago has turned into a bust

The Nets made an enormous bet against themselves in the 2024 offseason when they traded a handful of future picks acquired in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving trades to Houston in exchange for control over their 2025 and 2026 draft picks back. In 2025, at least, they gained almost nothing out of that exchange. They won more than expected and Phoenix lost more than expected, so the Suns pick they gave Houston in that deal landed just two slots behind Brooklyn, at No. 8 and No. 10, respectively. As Egor Demin was a somewhat surprising selection, it's entirely possible that Brooklyn could have gotten him without making that trade. That put a ton of pressure on their 2026 pick to make up for that bad outcome. They paid a small fortune for two spins in the lottery that would be based on a record they could control, and the first one was a bust.

Well, now the second pick has disappointed as well. In total, the Nets gave up three first-round picks and one first-round swap to the Houston Rockets for two lottery picks that combined to fall down five total slots.

It's not a total loss. This is a deep enough draft to find a foundational player outside of the top four. But let's be honest: when you trade as much as the Nets traded for control over your picks back, you probably don't envision missing out on the top four in both drafts. With lottery reform coming, pick volume is going to become more valuable than ever. The Nets needed a young star to justify the volume they traded, and with Houston still in control of their 2027 pick, Brooklyn can't even try to make up for this with a good lottery outcome next year. The future has never been murkier for the Nets. Their big 2024 swing now looks like a colossal miss.

Winner: Utah Jazz

Suddenly, the Jazz have a roster that should be ready to compete for the long haul

The Jazz became one of the faces of tanking this season. They were fined $500,000 for conduct detrimental to the league. They were hit for punishing the player participation policy in the past. Yet, comparatively anyway, they both needed to tank less than other teams at the bottom of the standings and benefitted less from the tanking they'd already done.

They blew up a fairly strong Donovan Mitchell-Rudy Gobert team to set up this rebuild when they still had several years of contract control on both. They overperformed in the first two years of their rebuild, ultimately winding up with players in Taylor Hendricks and Cody Williams who haven't yet lived up to their draft position (and Hendricks is now in Memphis), then fell four slots to No. 5 with the NBA's worst record last season. After trading for Jaren Jackson Jr., the Jazz were already well-positioned to compete next season, no matter where their top-eight protected pick landed.

Well, that pick didn't just land in the protected range. It came in all the way at No. 2. Now the Jazz have an embarrassment of riches. Between Jackson, Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler, Keyonte George and Ace Bailey, it's not even clear if Utah has a starting role available to offer. That's a very good problem to have. Utah had already built the foundation of a playoff team, but nowhere in that core existed an obvious, All-NBA-level player. That limited this group's theoretical upside, but a high lottery pick can certainly correct that. Utah's rookie will be joining a team ready to make the playoffs right away. If he grows quickly enough, perhaps even the championship picture will be realistic before long.

Loser: Sacramento Kings

The consistently unlucky Kings fell all the way to No. 7 in the draft order

The Sacramento Kings have spent a lot of time in the NBA Draft lottery lately. That's what happens when you miss the playoffs 19 times in 20 years. Yet the ping pong balls haven't exactly been kind to them during that streak of futility. Their pick moved up only twice in that span. They squandered the first one by taking Marvin Bagley over Luka Dončić. They got unlucky in the second, picking No. 4 in a draft that had All-Stars go No. 1 and No. 2.

Even without lottery luck, the draft has really been Sacramento's only source of hope across these two miserable decades. Fans could tolerate years of mismanagement because they knew that with the right pick, everything could turn around. Yet no team stands to lose more from the NBA's upcoming lottery reform for the Kings. Suddenly, being one of the league's worst teams every year will be actively detrimental in the lottery process, and since history suggests we shouldn't assume the Kings are about to learn how to build a roster wisely, they're in real danger of getting stuck at the bottom of a new system that offers them no lifelines.

That's what made today's outcome so vital. It was their last real chance to secure a franchise changer by virtue of how badly they played. Maybe they'll still get one outside of the top four. Maybe they'll get lucky in the flattened lotteries to come. But that's all it would be at this point: luck. They had two decades' worth of chances to actually benefit from all of their losing. Now that's all gone, and they're stuck paying for miracles that the odds no longer remotely favor. Well, either that or correct everything that's been wrong with their organization for the past two decades, but considering the track record, I'm not holding my breath.

Winner: Los Angeles Clippers

The Clippers' future looks a lot better now than it did eight months ago

There are currently only two active players in the NBA who were drafted by the Clippers in the lottery (and not traded on draft night). One of them is Eric Gordon, who was the ninth-oldest player in the NBA this season. The other is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Clippers have been so competent and so aggressive for the better part of two decades now that they simply haven't had access to high draft picks. It hasn't helped that they've traded so many of their picks away for older players, but with several more years of draft control still owed from prior trades, they weren't going to be in a position to make a lottery pick of their own any time soon. Yet introducing some upside into the equation here was an absolute necessity. Kawhi Leonard defied Father Time this season, but the next era of Clipper basketball is coming.

And it will now include a high lottery pick. The Clippers didn't need to trade Ivica Zubac. He's only 29 and could have played alongside Darius Garland for years to come. They only did so for the chance to pick in a portion of the draft they just otherwise weren't going to have access to any time soon. It was roughly a 50-50 shot based on the 1-4 and 10-30 protections the Pacers put on the pick, but that risk paid off for the Clippers, who can now add a foundational young piece to their new core of Garland and Bennedict Mathurin. How they use that pick will be one of the stories of the draft. The middle part of the lottery is very guard-heavy, and Garland and Mathurin have them set in the backcourt, so this will be a test of this front office's creativity.

But that's a great problem to have. A year ago, they had one of the bleakest futures in the NBA. Now they have Garland, Mathurin, a top draft pick and cap flexibility in the NBA's most desirable market. That's a heck of a rebound.

Loser: Indiana Pacers

The Pacers' reasonable roll of the lottery dice did not work out

After losing Myles Turner, the Pacers knew they were going to need to make a significant investment to find a suitable replacement center. They also likely knew that with Tyrese Haliburton coming back, they would never have another chance at another very high draft pick. In the ongoing roster-building arms race led by San Antonio and Oklahoma City, winning a championship in the coming years probably necessitated both. So the Pacers took a risk: they traded their rare lottery pick, with protections from No. 1 through No. 4 and No. 10 through No. 30, as part of a package for Ivica Zubac. Essentially, this turned their certain lottery pick and rare chance to nab a high-upside youngster into a 50-50 proposition.

That risk ultimately busted. Look, the Pacers are going to be OK. With Zubac replacing Turner, they'll jump right back into the championship mix. But the Pacers have missed the playoffs 10 times since 1990. They're just very rarely positioned to make high draft picks, and since the Indianapolis market isn't exactly a star magnet, they're unlikely to recruit any veteran stars to join them in the near future either. This was by far the best chance the Pacers were going to have at securing a long-term co-star for Tyrese Haliburton. Even if they won't come out of this gap year totally empty-handed thanks to Zubac, that's still a devastating blow. They tried to balance their short- and long-term needs by trading for Zubac in a way that still gave them a chance at landing a top pick, but their dice roll came up snake eyes.

Winner: Memphis Grizzlies

This was a crucial lottery for Memphis, and it worked out perfectly for the Grizz

The Grizzlies picked a potentially unfortunate moment to initiate a rebuild. Though they got great returns for Desmond Bane and Jaren Jackson Jr., they won more games than they might have liked by holding Jackson into the season, and now, with lottery reform and weak draft classes coming, they theoretically have less to gain by being bad over the next few years than the teams that have spent the past few lotteries jockeying for position. That made 2026 a critical lottery for the Grizzlies, specifically. They didn't get multiple bites at the weighted lottery apple. This was by far their best chance at a superstar.

And they'll fortunately have their chance at one. Considering their track record, a top-four pick in their hands is a fairly safe bet to become a high-level player. The Grizzlies are one of the best drafting and developing teams in the NBA, and even if Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. never led them to playoff glory, both became undeniable stars on their watch. Now this year's pick should be at the center of a very promising rebuild. Cedric Coward was a home run selection last year and while Zach Edey hasn't been healthy, he's been great when he's been on the floor. Combine those two with all of the picks the Grizzlies still have from the Bane and Jackson trades and they're in great shape to build around their new centerpiece.

More than that, this is a win for their fans. Though the Morant era went down in flames, he remains an enormously popular player in Memphis. He's the only homegrown superstar that city has ever had, and getting this pick will make trading him far easier for those fans to stomach. They'll have someone new to build around, and they'll have someone new to market as the face of their city. Though relocation has never actually been on the table (so far as we know), that talk has pestered Memphis for years. LeBron James fed that fire earlier in the season. This pick has a chance to put the Grizzlies on the map in a way no player ever has. Memphis needed this win as much as the Grizzlies did, and the lottery balls delivered.