NBA draft lottery winners and losers from a wild night

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There have been plenty of intriguing NBA draft lotteries over the years, but have any been as jaw-dropping as what went on in Chicago on Monday? Not that we can think of.

After the bottom of the lottery went chalk, with San Antonio, Atlanta and Chicago each staying put, about 10 minutes of intense and stunning entertainment would play out.

When Portland’s logo was revealed by deputy commissioner Mark Tatum at 11, it meant the Dallas Mavericks had leapt into the Top 4, an unthinkable possibility beforehand after all of the drama of the Luka Doncic disaster.

When Houston was shown next, it was really on as that meant bad news for a lot of teams, since both Dallas and San Antonio had hopped up.

That meant the Raptors had free-fallen to nine from seven — a regrettable result for them — and Brooklyn went a couple spots to eight.

Seeing New Orleans (three spots down), Washington and Utah (four spots each) also out of it meant Philadelphia had done the unlikely and not only kept its pick, but entered the Top 4.

Charlotte always seems to have bad luck and indeed dropped from three to four, and when the Sixers were revealed at three it meant either redemption for Dallas or an unreal partner for Victor Wembanyama in San Antonio. With the Spurs shown next, the party was on in Dallas.

Here are our winners and losers from an incredible night:

WINNERS

DALLAS MAVERICKS

We don’t need to go too deep into explaining why. The team’s fanbase was enraged, general manager Nico Harrison was on about the hottest seat in all of sports, and everything changed in a flash.

SAN ANTONIO SPURS

The rich get richer. Now they’ll have a good problem to solve: What to do with a glut of extremely talented guards in De’Aaron Fox, rookie of the year Stephon Castle, likely Dylan Harper in this draft and Devin Vassell (with ageless veteran Chris Paul also an option to return).

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

If the team’s stars somehow stay healthy (don’t bet on it based on history) and management makes the right call at No. 3, there’s now a chance this is a contender to at least make the conference final for the next few years.

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS

Social media was filled with claims the lottery was “rigged” and that’s understandable given how crazy things went, but there are serious protocols in place to ensure everything is above board. People have been thinking the fix could be in since Patrick Ewing and the “Frozen Envelope” in 1985. Derrick Rose coming home to Chicago despite the odds being extremely against that happening also raised eyebrows, as did LeBron James landing in Cleveland, the Cavs winning after he left, New Orleans getting Zion Williamson after losing Anthony Davis, the Spurs landing Wembanyama and so on. But there’s no basis to the theories. It’s a lottery and bizarre things can and will happen.

GOOD/DECENT TEAMS IN EAST

The top prospect always seems to end up in the Western Conference, a juggernaut of a conference. The East is like the junior varsity group and just got even weaker with the clear top two, Flagg and Harper, heading West. The conference remains pretty wide open moving forward, especially if Jayson Tatum’s unfortunate injury costs him all or most of next season. Add in Giannis Antetokounmpo potentially being dealt and the East might just keep getting watered down. With Flagg and Harper elsewhere, a lot of teams — including the Raptors — can convince themselves a playoff spot and a series win or two are attainable. That wouldn’t be the case for most of them if they played in the West.

LOSERS

THE WORST TEAMS

Utah, Washington and Charlotte just put their fans through hideous seasons (again), only to come nowhere close to the top dogs. The Hornets and Pelicans were only slightly better than those teams and also fell. How can the league’s doormats crawl out of their holes if they constantly flame out spectacularly at the lottery? Detroit has managed to do it, but they did land Cade Cunningham one year in between lotto debacles and that went a very long way.

CHICAGO BULLS

Dallas and Chicago each went 39-43 and made the play-in, with the Mavericks winning a game before losing and the Bulls going home right away. A coin flip determined who would have the 11th-best lottery odds and who would have the 12th-best, with the Bulls losing out. Ouch. Instead of bringing in the highest-profile draft pick since Rose, Chicago remains in no man’s land, a flip away from Flagg and forever thinking about it if he meets expectations.

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

Nobody feels bad for the Thunder, the league’s best team and also the franchise most loaded with incoming future draft picks, but it hurt them to see Philadelphia jump. Payroll is going to be an issue with so many good players there, so the Thunder could really have used a cheap producer in the 7-9 area of this draft. They’ll likely instead get a pick closer to 20 in next year’s draft to complete the deal with the Sixers.

RAPTORS/NETS

Both Atlantic Division doormats wanted far better results. Toronto is way ahead of Brooklyn talent-wise, so it’s probably worse for the Nets, who also don’t control their 2027 first, which will hurt if they still stink, unlike the Raptors who control all their future firsts, but it was still a tough night for Toronto.

Instead of adding a player on par or better than Scottie Barnes or Brandon Ingram, they’re left to again try to unearth a gem late in the lottery. They’re good at evaluating prospects and only Ingram, RJ Barrett and Barnes were higher draft picks than whoever goes ninth, but it would have been a lot better to bring in Flagg, Harper, V.J. Edgecombe or whoever was left at four than this result.

Brooklyn’s only option is to tank harder than anyone next year to try to get a franchise player with better lotto luck. Good luck with that.

@WolstatSun