Alright Washington Wizards fans, here is the breakdown on the odds.
This Washington Wizards offseason has started off slowly. There is no word on who the team is interviewing besides interim head coach Brian Keefe. But the NBA calendar moves in one direction, forward. As Greg Finberg wrote right after the end of the regular season, the first major date on the calendar is the NBA Draft Lottery. It’s just seven days away! So here is a quick FAQ on what to expect for the Wizards on draft day.
When and where is the draft lottery?
The Draft Lottery is on Sunday, May 12, in Chicago at the McCormick Convention Center. The results will be aired at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN. The drawing itself is actually done a little before the televised event.
What is the lottery for? We know it’s for the No. 1 pick but how many picks is it done for?
The NBA Draft Lottery decides which teams get the No. 1 through No. 4 picks in the Draft. All of the teams that didn’t make the playoffs are assigned a certain number of lottery ball combinations for those picks. There are 1,001 in total.
When the actual drawing happens, only team representatives, NBA officials and select media will attend. Accounting firms Ernst & Young oversees this process. The NBA’s site has a more detailed explainer here.
Lottery draft picks are tradable with their order remaining as it is to the team that acquired the pick. So for example, if the Pistons traded their 2024 first round pick to the Denver Nuggets, while the Nuggets will have a lottery pick based on the Pistons’ performance last year, not their own. The Nuggets have their own first round pick for that.
AND JUST AS A REMINDER, THE NUGGETS AND PISTONS DID NOT MAKE A TRADE INVOLVING DETROIT’S FIRST ROUND PICK. LET’S MAKE THAT CLEAR RIGHT NOW.
Who will represent the Wizards at the Draft Lottery, at least on TV?
We don’t know. But it’s a safe bet that the representative would either come from ownership (Ted Leonsis), the front office (Michael Winger or Will Dawkins), or a player (ex. Kyle Kuzma or Bilal Coulibaly).
What are the odds for each lottery team getting the No. 1 pick?
After the end of the 2024 play-in tournament, the 14 teams that didn’t make the Round of 16 in the NBA Playoffs received their official lottery odds. After all the tiebreakers, here are all of the lottery teams’ chance of getting the No. 1 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
- Detroit Pistons: 14.0%
- Washington Wizards: 14.0%
- Charlotte Hornets: 13.3%
- Portland Trail Blazers: 13.2%
- San Antonio Spurs: 10.5%
- Toronto Raptors: 19.0%
- Memphis Grizzlies: 7.5%
- Utah Jazz: 26.0%
- Brooklyn Nets (to Houston Rockets): 4.5%
- Atlanta Hawks: 3.0%
- Chicago Bulls: 2.0%
- Houston Rockets: 31.5%
- Sacramento Kings: 0.8%
- Golden State Warriors: 0.7%
What are the Wizards’ chances of getting the No. 1 pick?
Again, it’s 14 percent. That is tied for the best odds with the Detroit Pistons.
How low can the Wizards go in the 2024 NBA Draft?
The Wizards could finish as low as getting pick No. 6 in this year’s draft.
What are the chances of the Wizards getting each pick?
Greg wrote this in his post, but it’s worth repeating again. Here are the chances of the Wizards getting the No. 1 through No. 6 picks in the numbered list below.
- 14.0%
- 13.4%
- 12.7%
- 12.0%
- 27.8%
- 20.0%
The Wizards have the exact same odds of getting the No. 1 through No. 4 picks as the Detroit Pistons, the team with the worst record in the 2023-24 season. However, the Pistons cannot go lower than pick No. 5. So in Detroit’s case, they have a 47.9 percent chance of getting the No. 5 pick while Washington has 27.8 percent at that possibility.
Who are the Wizards working out?
We aren’t quite at that point of the year when teams are announcing who is working out whom.
However, the Draft Combine is in Chicago this year from May 12-19 at Wintrust Arena and we can expect the Wizards’ coaching staff, meaning Brian Keefe and David Vanterpool to be there. Usually draft prospect workouts are announced in late May to June.