The Dallas Mavericks won the Cooper Flagg Lottery – more formally known as the 41st NBA Draft Lottery – on Monday night.
By beating out the NBA’s 13 other teams that did not make the postseason field, the Mavericks will pick first in the NBA Draft on June 25, with the Duke forward as the presumptive No. 1 choice.
Dallas posted a 39-43 record in the 2024-25 NBA season and had a 1.8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick. That ranked 11th among the 14 teams.
Held at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, the lottery set the first four picks in this year’s draft, with the San Antonio Spurs at No. 2, Philadelphia 76ers at No. 3 and Charlotte Hornets at No. 4.
The Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards and Hornets had the greatest chance of landing the No. 1 pick at 14 percent each. Those teams posted the three worst records in the NBA this season.
Rutgers guard Dylan Harper is considered the prohibitive favorite to be the second player selected. After the first two picks, draft prognosticators have differing outlooks on what will happen in the first round, with the selections becoming more team-dependent.
The other 10 teams in the lottery will select in the first round in inverse order of their records in the 2024-25 season. The order for the lottery picks will be:
1. Dallas Mavericks
2. San Antonio Spurs
3. Philadelphia 76ers
4. Charlotte Hornets
5. Utah Jazz
6. Washington Wizards
7. New Orleans Pelicans
8. Brooklyn Nets
9. Toronto Raptors
10. Houston Rockets
11. Portland Trail Blazers
12. Chicago Bulls
13. Atlanta Hawks
14. San Antonio Spurs
After the lottery picks, the rest of the first-round order is based on team records. The current order of those picks will be:
15. Oklahoma City Thunder
16. Orlando Magic
17. Minnesota Timberwolves
18. Washington Wizards
19. Brooklyn Nets
20. Miami Heat
21. Utah Jazz
22. Atlanta Hawks
23. Indiana Pacers
24. Oklahoma City Thunder
25. Orlando Magic
26. Brooklyn Nets
27. Brooklyn Nets
28. Boston Celtics
29. Phoenix Suns
30. Los Angeles Clippers
The Nets hold four first-round picks. The Jazz, Wizards, Spurs, Thunder and Magic have two apiece.
Five players from Alabama colleges are considered possibilities for the first round – Alabama guards Labaron Philon and Mark Sears, Auburn forward Johni Broome and guard Tahaad Pettiford and UAB forward Yaxel Lendeborg. All five are attending the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago this week, as is Alabama forward Grant Nelson.
Philon also played at Baker High School in Mobile.
The NBA Draft will be held June 25-26 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, with the first round on the first night and the second round on the second night.
