Nba Draft Lottery Winners And Losers: Did Tanking Pay Off?

Follow along for live updates and results from the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery.

It’s fitting that the NBA draft lottery coincides with spring.

It’s the chance for some of the most disadvantaged teams in the league to have their fortunes revived through the draft. And this year is particularly noteworthy for a few reasons.

For one, this is projected to be a generational draft class loaded with elite talent like AJ Dybantsa from BYU and Darryn Peterson of Kansas, though it’s also a very deep group.

For another, this year was also noteworthy because of the overt tanking that took place in the final months of the regular season, when the league’s worst teams not-so-subtly self-sabotaged their on-court performance with the hopes of securing one of these top picks. The lottery Sunday, May 10 determined whether all that tanking was worth it.

Here are the winners and losers from the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery:

WINNERS

Chicago Bulls

No team saw a bigger jump in the lottery than the Bulls, who entered with the ninth-best odds to sneak into the top four. The Bulls did just that, leaping up to No. 4.  

Chicago does have some nice pieces, but has lacked a star player who can create his own shot. The draft should fix that. Also, after Billy Donovan stepped down as coach, this leap up the board suddenly makes the vacant Chicago job a lot more appealing.

John Wall delivers for the Washington Wizards

Wall, the last player Washington selected No. 1 overall, had represented the Wizards in the 2011 lottery, a year when Washington fell to No. 6 and drafted Jan Veselý. This time, Wall came through.

The Wizards, who had the worst record in the NBA at 17-65, secured the No. 1 selection and suddenly are in an enviable position. They brought on some veterans in Trae Young and Anthony Davis, have some young pieces in Alexandre Sarr, Kyshawn George and Tre Johnson and will now get the chance to take their pick of Dybantsa or Peterson.

Memphis Grizzlies may find their Ja Morant replacement

Jumping up three spots — from No. 6 to No. 3 — could put the Grizzlies in an excellent spot to feel comfortable moving on from Ja Morant, whom the team reportedly made available in trade talks before the February deadline.

If Darryn Peterson falls to No. 3, he could be an excellent fit. Peterson has plenty of size at 6-foot-5, can handle the ball and has a natural scoring ability. Perhaps the thing Memphis would like most about Peterson is that he protected the ball, committing just 1.6 turnovers per game.

The Grizzlies this season tied for 20^th in turnovers, committing  15,1 per game.

LOSERS

Indiana Pacers and the trade for Ivica Zubac

The entered the draft with a 14% chance to claim the No. 1 overall selection and a 52.1% chance to land a top-four pick, tied for highest among all teams. Yet, the Pacers landed in the worst possible place.

They sent their first-round selection to the Los Angeles Clippers in the trade that landed center Ivica Zubac. That pick, however, was protected for picks No. 1-4 and 10-30. That means that if the pick fell anywhere between that 5-9 range, it would go to Los Angeles.

Indiana nearly made it, but with its selection landing at No. 5, it was the last hurdle the Pacers had to clear to secure a top-four pick. So instead of pairing an elite talent with a healthy Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Zubac, Indiana’s gap year ends up as a significant letdown.

It also puts a ton of pressure on Zubac to deliver and make the deal worth it. In essence, the Pacers traded away Bennedict Mathurin and a couple of first-round draft picks — one of which became the No. 5 selection in a deep draft — for Zubac.

Brooklyn Nets

A fall of three spots might not initially appear to be so terrible, but in this draft it likely means the difference between a great player and a generational one.

The Nets had the third-worst record in the NBA (20-62) and are a very young team, one that made first first-round selections last season. Assuming most pre-draft projections hold true, the third pick could’ve netted Brooklyn someone like Caleb Wilson, the North Carolina star who is climbing up draft boards because of his blend of size, skill and athleticism. The Nets should still secure a very good player at No. 6, but the lottery wasn’t kind to a team that has won just 46 games over the last two seasons.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA draft lottery winners and losers: Who hit big — and who didn’t