A drama-filled Sunday afternoon in Chicago at the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery saw the Atlanta Hawks win the right to pick No. 1 in a stunner. It marks the first time in franchise history the Hawks have won the lottery, as they converted just a 3% chance to win the No. 1 pick in the lottery and moved up nine spots after the drawings.
Washington earned the No. 2 pick and two teams from Texas – the Houston Rockets at No. 3 and the San Antonio Spurs at No. 4 – secured the next two spots. Detroit, meanwhile, which had an NBA-best 14% chance of winning the lottery after posting the worst regular season record in the NBA, fell to No. 5. The fall is the worst possible outcome for the Pistons in the lottery and the second consecutive year it had the best odds to win the lottery and fell to No. 5.
Charlotte also dropped from its prelottery position from No. 3 to No. 6 and Portland fell from No. 4 to No. 7.
Here are the official 2024 NBA Draft Lottery results:
| 1 | Atlanta |
| 2 | Washington |
| 3 | Houston (via Brooklyn) |
| 4 | San Antonio |
| 5 | Detroit |
| 6 | Charlotte |
| 7 | Portland |
| 8 | San Antonio (via Toronto) |
| 9 | Memphis |
| 10 | Utah |
| 11 | Chicago |
| 12 | Oklahoma City (via Houston) |
| 13 | Sacramento |
| 14 | Portland (via Golden State) |
Detroit’s lottery woes continue
For the second consecutive year, the Pistons posted the worst regular-season record among all NBA teams and entered the lottery tied for the best odds to win the No. 1 pick. And for a second consecutive year, the Pistons bucked the odds and fell to its worst possible outcome, landing with the No. 5 overall pick.
Detroit summed it up well:
The Pistons won 17 games two seasons ago and 14 games this season and only have two No. 5 picks to show for it. That’s tough to swallow.
Detroit has a nice young core of players that could grow and develop around Cade Cunningham – the 2021 No. 1 pick – but if you’re a Pistons fan you might be reeling with all the misfortune. This isn’t a draft at the top that will necessarily change the trajectory of any one franchise, but there’s (obviously!) a big difference between picking first and picking fifth. Having to swallow that pill twice in a span of two years has to sting.
Atlanta’s unlikely win
Only four teams entered Sunday with worse odds to win the NBA Draft Lottery than the eventual lottery-winning Hawks of Atlanta. They had just a 3 % chance to win the No. 1 pick before doing exactly that. It makes the Hawks the second-biggest riser in total spots jumped from pre-lottery to post-lottery, per CBS Sports Research, as they moved up nine spots. The only team to rise more was the Orlando Magic more than two decades ago when it leapt 10 spots up to No. 1 in 1993.
Biggest risers in lottery based on prelottery odds
1993: Magic: +10
2024: Hawks: +9
2014: Cavaliers: +8
2008: Bulls: +8
This will be the Hawks’ first overall pick in the modern era and first since 1975, when at the time it selected David Thompson, who later signed with the ABA and never played for the Hawks.
Spurs set to reload quickly
One year after winning the No. 1 pick and the ultimate prize of 7-foot-4 French supernova Victor Wembanyama, the San Antonio Spurs post-lottery looked primed to reload in 2024 around their star big man. The Spurs not only got the No. 8 pick (conveyed by Toronto as part of the Jakob Poetl trade) but also moved up to No. 4 with their own pick despite entering the lottery with a 42.1% chance of getting a top-four pick.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on the ABC broadcast that San Antonio may look to add at the point guard position – either via in the draft this year or next year or in free agency this summer – and the huge wins in the lottery seem to make that all the more possible. There’s a good chance Nikola Topic, Reed Sheppard or Rob Dillingham could be available at one or both of those positions when they land on the clock, which could further bolster the franchise’s chances of rebooting – and quickly – around Wemby.
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