The Orlando Magic have won the 2022 NBA Draft Lottery, giving them the first overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, Sacramento Kings and Detroit Pistons round out the Top 5.
Coming into the night, the three NBA teams that held the worst records this season — the Rockets, Magic and Pistons — had the best odds to land the top pick at 14 per cent.
The Thunder came in just under that top tier, with 12.5 per cent odds to win the lottery with their own pick but also had a 1.5 per cent chance to win via the Los Angeles Clippers’ pick, which they own as part of the blockbuster deal that sent Paul George to L.A. in the summer of 2019.
The Kings entered the night with the seventh-best odds at securing the top pick, and moved up three spots in the lottery.
In some drafts, there is little doubt over who the No. 1 selection will be. Zion Williamson was a sure-fire top choice in 2019, for example. But this year comes with a more wide-open field.
Many draft boards feature some combination of Paolo Banchero, a big man out of Duke, Jabari Smith Jr., a forward from Auburn, or Chet Holmgren, another big out of Gonzaga, to be the top three possible selections. The order, though, has varied significantly over the year and the draft remains deep and undefined from that point on.
This year, there is a chance for two Canadians to be taken off the board as well, as London, Ont. native Shaedon Sharpe — who played for Kentucky — and Bennedict Mathurin, the Montreal native who played for Arizona, are expected to be among the top 14 selections.
If both players are taken in the lottery, it would mark the first time since 2014 that two Canadians went that high in the same draft since 2014, the year Andrew Wiggins went first overall and Nik Stauskas was taken ninth.
This year’s draft is slated to take place on June 23 at the Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets.
Full Draft Lottery Order:
1. Orlando Magic
2. Oklahoma City Thunder
3. Houston Rockets
4. Sacramento Kings
5. Detroit Pistons
6. Indiana Pacers
7. Portland Trail Blazers
8. New Orleans Pelicans
9. San Antonio Spurs
10. Washington Wizards
11. New York Knicks
12. Oklahoma City Thunder
13. Charlotte Hornets
14. Cleveland Cavaliers
