By John Hollinger, David Aldridge, Kelly Iko, Eric Koreen and Jenna West
The Atlanta Hawks won the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery in Chicago on Sunday.
The Hawks had a three percent chance to win the draft lottery and had never won the event in franchise history before Sunday. They finished the 2023-24 regular season with a 36-46 record and 10th in the Eastern Conference.
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The Washington Wizards, Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons round out the top five.
This marked Washington’s highest pick since the Wizards last won the lottery in 2010 and took John Wall at No. 1. The last time the Wizards’ franchise got the No. 2 pick, the team was located in Baltimore and called the Bullets. That year (1968) the Bullets took Wes Unseld, who would win Rookie of the Year and NBA MVP in 1969.
NBA Draft Lottery picks
- Atlanta Hawks
- Washington Wizards
- Houston Rockets
- San Antonio Spurs
- Detroit Pistons
- Charlotte Hornets
- Portland Trail Blazers
- San Antonio Spurs
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Utah Jazz
- Chicago Bulls
- Oklahoma City Thunder
- Sacramento Kings
- Portland Trail Blazers
See the full 2024 NBA Draft order here.
The 14 teams eligible for the draft lottery did not make the playoffs, and the final lottery odds were determined after the end of the 2023-24 regular season.
The draft lottery determines the selection order for the first 14 picks of the NBA Draft. The lottery drawings determine the draft’s first four picks, and the remainder of the lottery teams will select players in Nos. 5 through 14 in inverse order of their regular-season records.
The 2024 NBA Draft will be held June 26 and 27. The first round will be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., on June 26, and the second round will take place at ESPN’s Seaport District Studios in New York on June 27.
For more on the draft lottery, follow The Athletic’s live blog.
Hawks get lucky break
The Hawks’ unexpected move to the top of the draft board is a huge lucky break for a franchise that had been going sideways. It may also make it easier to sell the local market on a trade of Trae Young if they have a top pick joining the roster.
With two rim-protecting centers near the top of most draft boards, this could also be a great opportunity for the Hawks to select their center of the future and work on a trade involving Clint Capela’s expiring contract.
Given the team’s forward rotation, Atlanta could also seek help on the wing in the form of UConn’s Stephon Castle and G League Ignite’s Ron Holland or Matas Buzelis.
The win doesn’t come without problems, as the pick’s higher salary will complicate their efforts to stay below the luxury tax line. — John Hollinger, NBA senior writer
Not a major loss for Wizards to pick second
Washington, a 15-win team, has needs everywhere. But the Wizards’ new front office, led by Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and general manager Will Dawkins, covets positional length and players who have switchability. You need to look no further than the Oklahoma City Thunder, where Dawkins spent 15 years in various front-office roles before being hired by Washington last year, to see the kind of team Winger and Dawkins would like to build in D.C.
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They showed their intentions last year when they moved up one spot from eighth in the first round to seven in a trade with the Indiana Pacers to be sure they could take 6-8 forward Bilal Coulibaly from France, in whom they see significant long-term potential.
With the second pick, the Wizards can address their long-term needs in the middle by taking either 7-foot-1 French center Alexandre Sarr or Connecticut big man Donovan Clingan, depending on what the Hawks do with the first selection. But they could also look at lengthy forwards like France’s 6-foot-9 Zaccharie Risacher or Colorado’s 6-foot-8 Cody Williams — who happens to be the younger brother of Jalen Williams, the rising OKC star who Dawkins was instrumental in drafting in the first round in 2022.
And even though veteran Tyus Jones is an unrestricted free agent this summer and could leave, at No. 2, the Wizards could draft a potential replacement for him in 6-foot-6 point guard Nikola Topić from Serbia.
The Wizards won’t have the top pick, but in this year’s draft, it isn’t considered a major loss to go second. — David Aldridge, NBA senior writer
Rockets jump to No. 3
Well, well, well. When the Houston Rockets traded James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets in 2020, they aimed to stockpile assets to turn into something tangible down the road. There’s no way that the basketball gods could have predicted this franchise jumping from No. 9 (the most likely outcome) to No. 3.
Fresh off a 41-41 season, the organization has made it clear they are turning the page toward winning basketball and the Rockets are considered open for business. A top-three pick is an attractive piece on the market, even in draft class without a blue-chip prospect. Expect general manger Rafael Stone to be extremely aggressive between now and late June. — Kelly Iko, Rockets staff writer
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Spurs get nearly best-case scenario
This was pretty close to a best-case scenario for the San Antonio Spurs, who moved into the top four with their own pick and got the benefit of keeping the protected Toronto Raptors pick. San Antonio theoretically could have ended up with picks No. 1 and No. 7 in this draft in an absolute best-case scenario, but those were 1-in-30 odds.
Merely hitting the Daily Double of keeping the Toronto pick and moving into the top four with their pick was just a 1-in-5 proposition, and the Spurs cashed it. San Antonio will pick fourth and eighth, relative to a worst-case scenario where they might have ended up with just a single pick at No. 9. — Hollinger
Raptors lose pick with Spurs move
As I wrote Friday, the Raptors losing their pick this year isn’t all that bad. If this class is as weak at the top as most experts are projecting, the value of having certainty in the future allows the Raptors to build with fewer variables hanging over them. (Had they kept the pick, the same protections would have remained for their 2025 and 2026 first-rounders. They also would not have been able to trade one of their first-rounders until 2028.)
By falling out of the top six, the San Antonio Spurs got the Raptors’ pick, which dropped two spots to eighth, completing the ill-conceived Jakob Poeltl trade.
The Raptors have the 19th pick as part of the Pascal Siakam trade with the Pacers. The lack of a lottery pick also means the Raptors could create more salary cap room in the offseason if they choose to go that route.
Make no mistake: the Raptors need contributors on sub-mid-level contracts. A lottery pick would have been a crack at that. Still, not having this hanging over their head as they try to build around Scottie Barnes is a win of sorts. — Eric Koreen, Raptors staff writer
Required reading
- NBA mock draft 2024: Alex Sarr to Hawks in first post-lottery projection
- 2024 NBA Draft Big Board: Stephon Castle, Donovan Clingan rise into Top 5 after title run
- 2024 NBA Mock Draft: Zaccharie Risacher rises to No. 1; top three players all from overseas
- NBA Playoffs picks, odds for Sunday’s Game 4s: Knicks at Pacers, Nuggets at Timberwolves
(Photo: David Banks / USA Today)
