On Monday, the NBA announced the tiebreakers to determine the order of the 2026 NBA Draft. The Charlotte Hornets will have the 14th pick (their own) and the 18th overall selection, which comes from the Phoenix Suns.
The 14th pick will give them a chance at winning the NBA Draft lottery, but they’ll need to conjure up whatever luck the Dallas Mavericks had a year ago, entering the lottery with just a 0.5% chance to win the top pick.
Lottery odds
Washington Wizards – 14%
Indiana Pacers – 14%
Brooklyn Nets – 14%
Utah Jazz – 11.5%
Sacramento Kings – 11.5%
Memphis Grizzlies – 9%
New Orleans (to ATL or MIL) – 6.8%
Dallas Mavericks – 6.7%
Chicago Bulls – 4.5%
Milwaukee Bucks – 3%
Golden State Warriors – 2%
L.A. Clippers (to OKC) – 1.5%
Miami Heat – 1%
Charlotte Hornets – 0.5%
Set draft order (Picks 15-30)
No. 15: Portland (to CHI)
No. 16: Phoenix (to MEM via ORL)
No. 17: Philadelphia (to OKC)
No. 18: Orlando (to CHA via PHX)
No. 19: Toronto
No. 20: Atlanta (to SA)
No. 21: Minnesota (to DET)
No. 22: Houston (to PHI via OKC)
No. 23: Cleveland (to ATL)
No. 24: New York
No. 25: L.A. Lakers
No. 26: Denver
No. 27: Boston
No. 28: Detroit (to MIN)
No. 29: San Antonio (to CLE via ATL)
No. 30: Oklahoma City (to DAL via WAS, PHI)
What could the Charlotte Hornets do?
Jeff Peterson Greeting Grant Williams
With the strides the Hornets took this past season, you could make the case for them to package the picks in a trade to land an upgrade in the frontcourt, but they could also attempt to move up the board to land another young player, adding to an already talented core.
President of Basketball Ops Jeff Peterson has continued to reiterate that he is not going to skip steps in this process, even after making the jump to 44 wins this season.
“I’m very excited about this draft. If it’s not the deepest, it’s one of the deepest that I’ve ever been a part of. Again, where we are from an asset standpoint, it’s going to allow us to be flexible — whether that means we bring two players in, consolidate, we’ll have different options that we’ll continue to explore and look at.”
With three first-round picks in 2027, perhaps next offseason is when they push their chips to the center of the table, especially when you take into account how highly regarded this rookie class is; you don’t want to miss out on adding potentially one more foundational piece.
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