With the NBA Playoffs in full swing, it’s time for another key moment in the NBA season: the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery. Tonight, 14 teams will get their shot at this year’s top NBA Draft picks, including Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, Ace Bailey and VJ Edgecombe. The three teams with the best odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick at the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery are the Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets — but nothing is set in stone until those lottery results are revealed.
Which team will get Flagg for his freshman season? You can find out live tonight, May 12 at 7 p.m. ET. Here’s what else you need to know about watching this year’s NBA Draft Lottery, including where to stream the lottery, NBA Draft Lottery odds and more.
How to watch the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery:
Date: Monday, May 12
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Time: 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT
TV channel: ESPN
Streaming: DirecTV, Sling, Fubo and more
When is the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery?
The NBA Draft Lottery is this Monday, May 12, 2025. While the actual lottery process will be held in private, the lottery results will be announced live on TV this evening.
NBA Draft Lottery time:
The NBA Draft Lottery results will be announced at 7 p.m. ET.
NBA Draft Lottery channel:
The NBA Draft Lottery results will be announced on ESPN.
How to watch the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery without cable:
To tune into the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, you’ll need access to ESPN. And if you’re a basketball fan who doesn’t already have access to ESPN, you’re probably looking for the best way to watch the NBA Playoffs, too. Here’s what we recommend.
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How does the NBA Draft Lottery work?
The draft lottery determines the order of the first 14 picks. It takes place in a private room with NBA officials, representatives of participating teams, select media and the accounting firm Ernst & Young, which oversees the drawings, in attendance.
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For the drawings, 14 ping-pong balls (numbered 1 through 14) are dropped in a lottery machine. Before the lottery, 1,000 of a possible 1,001 combinations are assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams. A league representative randomly selects four balls, revealing a four-number combination.
From the NBA:
The drawing process occurs in the following manner: All 14 balls are placed in the lottery machine and they are mixed for 20 seconds, and then the first ball is removed. The remaining balls are mixed in the lottery machine for another 10 seconds, and then the second ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the third ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the fourth ball is drawn. The team that has been assigned that combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The same process is repeated with the same ping-pong balls and lottery machine for the second through fourth picks.
If the same team comes up more than once, the result is discarded and another four-ball combination is selected. Also, if the one unassigned combination is drawn, the result is discarded and the balls are drawn again.
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After the first four picks are determined, the remaining picks are based on regular-season records, in reverse order.
NBA Draft Lottery teams:
The 14 teams that didn’t make the 2025 NBA Playoffs and are therefore eligible for the Draft Lottery are:
East: Atlanta, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto and Washington
West: Dallas, New Orleans, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio and Utah
NBA Draft Lottery odds:
14 teams have a shot at landing the No. 1 pick (AKA Cooper Flagg). The teams that finished with the three-worst records — Utah, Washington and Charlotte — each have the highest odds (14%) of winning the No. 1 pick.
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Here are the odds for every team in the draft lottery, based on team records at the end of the regular season. Teams that finished the season with identical records had their draft order determined by a random drawing.
1. Utah Jazz: 14%
2. Washington Wizards: 14%
3. Charlotte Hornets: 14%
4. New Orleans Pelicans: 12.5%
5. Philadelphia 76ers: 10.5% – The Sixers’ first-round pick is top-6 protected; if it falls between 7-14, it will go to Oklahoma City.
6. Brooklyn Nets: 9%
7. Toronto Raptors: 7.5%
8. San Antonio Spurs: 6%
9. Phoenix Suns: 3.8% – The Suns’ first-round pick will go to the Houston Rockets.
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10. Portland Trail Blazers: 3.7%
11. Dallas Mavericks: 1.8%
12. Chicago Bulls: 1.7%
13. Sacramento Kings: 0.8% – The Kings’ first-round pick is top-12 protected; if it falls out of that range, it goes to Atlanta.
14. Atlanta Hawks: 0.7% – The Hawks’ first-round pick will go to San Antonio.
2025 NBA Draft key dates:
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April 26: NBA Early Entry Deadline (11:59 p.m. ET)
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May 9-11: NBA G League Combine
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May 11-18: NBA Draft Combine
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May 12: NBA Draft Lottery presented by State Farm
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June 15: NBA Early Entry Withdrawal Deadline (5 p.m. ET)
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June 25: 2025 NBA Draft First Round
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June 26: 2025 NBA Draft Second Round
NBA Mock Draft:
Wondering who is going to end up where at the 2025 NBA Draft? Will Cooper Flagg find himself with the Utah Jazz or the Brooklyn Nets? What about Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey? Yahoo Sports has you covered with mock drafts.
More ways to watch the NBA Draft Lottery:
Read the full article here