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The NBA Draft Lottery establishes the draft selection order for the upcoming NBA Draft. Here’s the explanation of the process.
Scheduled for May 12, 2025, the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery will take place in Chicago at 7 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on ESPN.
The 14 teams participating in the Draft Lottery are those that did not qualify for the 2025 NBA Playoffs:
Eastern Conference: Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Washington
Western Conference: Dallas, New Orleans, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, and Utah
Here are the participating teams in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery along with their odds of winning:
*This pick may be transferred to Oklahoma City
*This pick may be transferred to Atlanta
For detailed odds for each Lottery team, click on the graphic below:
The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, proudly presented by State Farm, will air live from Chicago at 7:00 PM ET on ESPN.
Check out the following for the 2025 lottery odds for each franchise ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/N6yidm0EO3
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 12, 2025
On September 28, 2017, the NBA Board of Governors approved revisions to the lottery system. The new format, implemented for the 2019 Draft, guarantees that the team with the worst record will secure no less than the fifth overall pick. Previously, under the old system, the team with the weakest record would ensure themselves a top-four pick.
The updated lottery structures level the playing field by giving the teams with the three poorest regular-season records an equal 14 percent chance of winning the lottery. In the prior format, the worst team had a 25 percent likelihood of winning, the second-worst team had 19.9 percent, and the third-worst team had a 15.6 percent shot.
After the drawings determine the first four picks, the other lottery teams will select according to the inverse order of their regular-season records.
Tonight, May 12, the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery sponsored by State Farm will be conducted at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, with results broadcast live at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
This year marks the 41st NBA Draft Lottery, which will decide the selection order for the first 14 picks of the 2025 NBA Draft sponsored by State Farm. The initial drawings will determine the first four picks, while the remaining lottery teams will select in reverse order of their regular-season standings.
The actual lottery drawings will occur in a separate space right before ESPN’s live coverage. Selected media, NBA officials, and representatives from the participating teams will observe the drawings.
The NBA utilizes a lottery machine made by the Smart Play Company, renowned for producing state lottery machines across the U.S. Prior to the drawing, Smart Play assesses and certifies the ping-pong balls involved.
The lottery process functions as follows:
Fourteen ping-pong balls, numbered one through fourteen, are used. There are a total of 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn. Before the lottery begins, 1,000 of those combinations will be allocated among the 14 participating teams.
During the drawing, all balls are placed into the lottery machine. They are mixed for 20 seconds, and then the first ball is drawn. The remaining balls are mixed for an additional 10 seconds before the second ball is picked. This is repeated for the third and fourth balls, each preceded by a brief mixing. The team that corresponds to the drawn combination of these four balls receives the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
After this, the ping-pong balls are returned to the machine, and the same procedure is followed for determining picks two through four. If any team appears more than once (or if the remaining unassigned combination is drawn), that outcome is disregarded, and another set of four balls is drawn.
The intervals for mixing the balls—20 seconds initially and then 10 seconds for subsequent mixes—are supervised by a timekeeper who does not face the machine. Marc Dieli, a partner at the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP, will be present to monitor the drawing process. Following the drawings, he will seal and prepare envelopes for each of the first 14 picks, labeled with the respective team logo, before delivering them to the studio for the live announcement, accompanied by a member of NBA Security.
NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum will reveal the lottery results by opening the envelopes in reverse order, starting with the 14th pick and concluding with the first. A secondary representative from each participating team will also be present on-stage during the announcement. Neither Tatum nor the team representatives on stage will know the lottery outcomes before the envelopes are unveiled. The 2025 NBA Draft is set for June 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. ET at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, home of the Brooklyn Nets. The first round will be broadcast on ABC, ESPN, and the ESPN App, while the second round will be available on ESPN and the ESPN App. National coverage will also be provided by ESPN Radio.
Representatives from the NBA teams involved in the Lottery will be present in the drawing room and are set to participate in the unveiling of the results.
Check out the list of the team representatives who will be in the lottery drawing room ⬇️ https://t.co/iZLnP6ojP6 pic.twitter.com/2WCFGk0Q7T
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 12, 2025
A select group of media personnel will witness the drawing process in the lottery room.
14 media members will be present during the drawings pic.twitter.com/iCMtAFAw7C
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 12, 2025
For insights on top prospects and the latest mock drafts, the NBA.com Draft section offers extensive coverage.
Each team is assigned odds based on their regular season standings, starting with the inverse order of their records. The default odds are as follows:
Team > Default Odds for No. 1 Pick
Note: The above odds are set as defaults in cases where no teams finish with identical records. In instances of ties, tie-breaking procedures can slightly alter these odds.
—1966-1984: For nearly two decades, from 1966 to 1984, the teams with the worst records in each conference faced off in a coin flip to determine who would receive the No. 1 overall draft pick. The winner got the top pick, while the loser settled for the second overall selection, with the rest picking based on their regular-season standings.
—June 1984: The NBA Board of Governors established a lottery system for teams that did not qualify for the playoffs (or those trading picks) to determine their selection order, commencing in 1985. Non-playoff teams would select in order opposite their regular-season records for subsequent rounds until the draft was reduced to two rounds in 1989.
—April 1986: The Board of Governors introduced a procedural change that allowed the lottery to determine only the order of the first three teams, while the remaining non-playoff teams selected based on their records. This meant the worst team was guaranteed at least the fourth pick, the second-worst at least fifth, and so forth.
—October 1989: The NBA implemented a weighted lottery system starting with the 1990 draft, accommodating 11 teams following expansion. The team with the worst record received 11 chances for the top pick (from a total of 66), while the second-lowest claimed 10 chances and the non-playoff team with the best record obtained just one chance.
—November 1993: Adjustments approved by the NBA Board increased the odds for the teams with the worst records to secure a top three pick while decreasing the probabilities for teams with better records. The teams with the worst records’ chance of landing the first pick rose from 16.7 percent to 25 percent, whereas the top non-playoff team’s odds fell from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent.
—October 1995: With the addition of Toronto and Vancouver, the participating teams in the lottery grew from 11 to 13. From then on, the worst team would maintain its 25 percent chance for the top pick, while teams two through six received slightly reduced chances, team seven retained the same, and teams eight through twelve enjoyed slightly increased probabilities. Team 13’s odds remained unchanged.
—2004: The 2004 NBA Draft Lottery saw an increase to 14 teams with the entry of the Charlotte Bobcats. However, due to their expansion agreement, the Bobcats were secured in the fourth position for the 2004 NBA Draft, meaning they did not compete for higher lottery picks.
—September 2017: The Board of Governors approved new modifications to the lottery system that took effect for the 2019 NBA Draft, establishing that the three worst teams would share an equal 14 percent chance to secure the No. 1 overall draft pick. The odds for other lottery participants were gradually decreased following the top three spots. The lottery drawings will be conducted for the top four picks, while the remaining lottery teams will continue selecting based on their regular-season standing order.
Year | Team with No. 1 Pick | Winning Odds | Player Drafted
