{"id":714993,"date":"2026-04-21T05:42:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714993\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T05:42:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T05:42:29","slug":"nba-breaks-ties-for-2026-draft-position-jazz-keep-protected-pick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/714993\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA breaks ties for 2026 draft position; Jazz keep protected pick"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">The NBA conducted its tiebreaking process for the league&#8217;s 2026 draft Monday afternoon, setting the order from 15 to 30 and breaking a pair of ties among teams nestled inside the lottery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The most consequential result, determined by random drawing at the league&#8217;s offices in Secaucus, N.J., broke the tie for the fourth-best lottery odds between the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/sac\/sacramento-kings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sacramento Kings<\/a> and the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/utah\/utah-jazz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Utah Jazz<\/a>, with Utah winning and Sacramento landing the fifth-best odds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The tiebreaker doesn&#8217;t change much for the lottery, as the two teams split the odds designated for the fourth and fifth spots in the draft. That means both teams have a 45.2% chance of jumping into the top four and an 11.5% chance of winning the top pick. Monday&#8217;s result also means that the Jazz can&#8217;t drop out of the top eight in the lottery, guaranteeing that they keep their top-eight protected pick that would have gone to the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/okc\/oklahoma-city-thunder\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> if it landed ninth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Five other ties were also decided. The <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/no\/new-orleans-pelicans\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> were awarded the seventh lottery slot, and the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/dal\/dallas-mavericks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Dallas Mavericks<\/a> landed eighth. New Orleans, though, will not get that pick because the Pelicans traded it during last year&#8217;s draft to the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/atl\/atlanta-hawks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Atlanta Hawks<\/a>. Atlanta will get the better pick between New Orleans and the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/mil\/milwaukee-bucks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, who have the 10th lottery slot. Milwaukee will get the lesser of the two selections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Dallas and New Orleans picks both have a 29% chance of jumping up in the lottery and a 6.3% chance of landing the top pick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The other tiebreaks were as follows:<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The 16th, 17th and 18th picks will be made by the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/mem\/memphis-grizzlies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, Thunder and <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/cha\/charlotte-hornets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, respectively &#8212; though none of those teams originally owned any of those picks. Instead, Oklahoma City has Philadelphia&#8217;s pick, while Memphis received the better of Orlando&#8217;s and Phoenix&#8217;s selections, and Charlotte received the lesser.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/tor\/toronto-raptors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Toronto Raptors<\/a>were awarded the 19th pick, and the 20th pick will be made by the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/sa\/san-antonio-spurs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, who have Atlanta&#8217;s first-round pick in this year&#8217;s draft.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/phi\/philadelphia-76ers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Philadelphia 76ers<\/a> will pick 22nd, using what originally was Houston&#8217;s first-round selection, while the 23rd pick will be made by the Hawks, who have Cleveland&#8217;s first-round pick.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">And, finally, the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/ny\/new-york-knicks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">New York Knicks<\/a> will pick 24th, and the <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/team\/_\/name\/lal\/los-angeles-lakers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> will select 25th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The NBA&#8217;s draft lottery will be held May 10 in Chicago, where the league&#8217;s draft combine will run May 10-17. The NBA draft will be a two-night event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with the first round occurring June 23 and the second round June 24.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The deadline for early entrant players to choose whether to enter this year&#8217;s draft is Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA conducted its tiebreaking process for the league&#8217;s 2026 draft Monday afternoon, setting the order from 15&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":714994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[89135,208,7,473,193,149,130,194,150,177,121,6,478,470,191,4073,4072,67,179,675,207,477,474,476,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-714993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-89135","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-charlotte-hornets","12":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-espn","15":"tag-houston-rockets","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","18":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-new-orleans","21":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","22":"tag-new-york-knicks","23":"tag-neworleans","24":"tag-neworleanspelicans","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-pelicans","28":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","29":"tag-sacramento-kings","30":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","31":"tag-toronto-raptors","32":"tag-utah-jazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116441104140539347","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}