Their 2025-26 NBA season is over, but the Kings still can’t catch a break.
On Monday, the league held random drawings to break ties among teams with identical records in order to finalize the order of selection for the 2026 NBA Draft.
Having both finished the season at 22-60, the Kings and Utah Jazz were one of those drawings at the league office in Secaucus, New Jersey; Utah was announced as the winner over Sacramento.
This means the Kings currently are slotted to pick at No. 5 entering the NBA Draft Lottery, which is set for Sunday, May 10.
However, their lottery odds aren’t affected at all. Both the Kings and Jazz retain an 11.5-percent chance at landing the No. 1 overall pick and a 45.2-percent chance at a top-four selection, the average of the standard odds for the fourth- and fifth-worst teams.
This tiebreaker essentially only comes into play if neither Sacramento nor Utah are among the top four picks after the lottery. If so, the Jazz will select one spot ahead of the Kings during the first round of the NBA Draft on Tuesday, June 23.
As for the second round of the draft, these teams will select in the inverse order of their first-round picks. In other words, if Utah’s first-round selection is ahead of Sacramento’s after the lottery, then the Kings would have the No. 34 overall pick and the Jazz No. 35, and vice versa (Utah already has traded away its 2026 second-round pick, while Sacramento still holds its own selection).
But for now, Kings fans must wait with bated breath for a couple of weeks until the draft lottery, in the hopes of landing an early pick in an acclaimed prospect class.
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