The NBA Playoffs continue this week live on NBC and Peacock, but there’s more news out of the league for fans whose teams didn’t manage to make the postseason this year. 

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On Sunday, the NBA announced the results of the 2026 Draft Lottery, awarding the top four picks of the 2026 NBA Draft to four of the 14 teams who didn’t make the NBA Playoffs this season. It’s a system that’s been in place, with various changes, since 1985, and it’s intended to spread out the top picks in the draft among teams who most need emerging talent. It’s also, for the fans, a very exciting moment. 

So, how does it all work? Who won this year’s NBA Draft Lottery? Who’s gonna be the number one pick? Who are the other top prospects? Let’s take a closer look.

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How does the NBA Draft Lottery work?

As the name suggests, the Draft Lottery uses a lottery machine loaded with ping pong balls to determine who gets the first four picks in the NBA Draft. Each of the 14 teams who didn’t make the NBA Playoffs, including teams eliminated during the Play-In Tournament, are assigned combinations of four numbers, with odds of winning determined by record. The team with the worst record in the league gets the most possible combinations, while the team with the best (of the 14 non-playoff teams, anyway) gets the least number of possible combinations. Still, there are a total of 1,001 possible combos in the lottery machine, so any of the 14 teams have a chance to win first pick. This year the Washington Wizard, Indiana Pacers, and Brooklyn Nets all received 14 percent NBA Draft Lottery odds, according to the NBA’s website, while the Charlotte Hornets came in last with just a 0.5 percent chance of winning. 

The lottery then proceeds basically like a standard lottery draw. The balls are mixed for 20 seconds before the first draw and for 10 seconds in between each ball, with a timekeeper monitoring to make sure the intervals are exact. After the first four-ball combination is set, all 14 balls are returned to the machine and the process repeats for picks two through four. Once the first four picks are set by the lottery system, the remaining 10 teams who didn’t win a lottery draw are assigned draft picks based on their records. At the end of the playoffs, the playoff-qualifying teams are then given draft picks based on their records, setting the final draft order (not including trades, which can jumble the order up). 

Who won the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery?

The Washington Wizards, who finished the regular season with the NBA‘s worst record, won the first overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft via the Lottery system on Sunday, marking the first time since 2019 that the team with the worst record actually received the first pick in the draw. The second pick went to the Utah Jazz, third to the Memphis Grizzlies, and fourth to the Chicago Bulls. According to the NBA, with draft pick trades incorporated, that means the first 14 picks in the 2026 Draft will look like this:

WashingtonUtahMemphisChicagoLA Clippers (via Indiana)BrooklynSacramentoAtlanta (via New Orleans)DallasMilwaukeeMiamiOklahoma City (via LA Clippers)MiamiCharlotte

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 Top prospects in the 2026 NBA Draft: AJ Dybanta, Darryn Peterson, Caleb Wilson & more

Now that the Draft Lottery order is set, the big question is simple: What are the NBA Draft projections? Obviously, teams are able to shift their picks right up until their time on the clock is up, so surprises are possible, but looking at the best available talent today, there are some clear favorites for who will hold up a Wizards jersey at the beginning of the NBA Draft on June 23. 

According to NBC Sports’ first mock draft since the Draft Lottery, the top prospect for the 2026 NBA Draft is expected to be BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, a six-foot-nine star who, at just 19 years old, impressed across the board in his first and only season as a college athlete. So, how good is AJ Dybantsa? Well, he was the NCAA scoring champion for the 2025-2026 season, a first team All-American, a Julius Erving Award winner and, on the international stage, he won the FIBA Under-19 World Cup MVP trophy. He has Potential Superstar written all over him, and it’s hard to see the Wizards passing that up. 

But Dybantsa is not alone at the top. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson is projected to go to the Jazz as the second overall pick, while Houston guard Kingston Flemings could go third to the Grizzlies, and Duke forward Cameron Boozer feels like a good fit for the Bulls at four. The Clippers, who traded up to get the fifth pick from Indiana, look like a solid fit for North Carolina star forward Caleb Wilson. We’ll just have to wait to see how it all shakes out, though! 

The 2026 NBA Draft is set for June 23-24 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, so expect plenty more updates between now and then. 

For more NBA Draft news, head to NBC Sports.Â