2024 NBA Draft Lottery: Preview, Odds and How to Watch

The 2024 NBA Draft Lottery is officially here, as we find out who will earn the No. 1 overall pick.

May 16, 2023; Chicago, IL, USA; A overall shot of the final four teams in the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

The 2024 NBA Draft Lottery is set to take place today, as the teams in that top-14 pick range will learn where each of their respective picks will land. This event serves as the official launch of draft season, as most teams around the league have now been eliminated from or missed the playoffs and are focused on the offseason.

While every NBA team has been scouting the prospects in this class for years, they will now have the opportunity to interview and work out their favorites in the coming weeks. But before then, we must find out the official lottery order for the 2024 NBA Draft, which will be revealed this afternoon.

How it Works

While the NBA Draft Lottery is an enjoyable event to watch, there is complexity in how the order is determined. In 2017, the NBA Board of Governors approved changes to the lottery system which were implemented officially in the 2019 NBA Draft.ad

The new system will level the odds at the top of the NBA Draft Lottery so that the teams with the three worst regular-season records will each have a 14% chance of winning the lottery. After drawings are conducted for the first four picks of the NBA Draft, the other lottery teams will continue to pick in inverse order of their regular-season record.

The actual lottery procedure will take place in a separate room just before the television broadcast. Select media, NBA officials and representatives of the participating teams and the accounting firm Ernst & Young will be in attendance for the drawings.

Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. Before the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations will be assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams.

Odds

While several teams have more complex situations regarding previously traded picks conveying based on where the selections land this afternoon, the odds for each teams' picks are solidified entering today.

NBA Draft Lottery Odds / Tankathon

How to Watch

* Date: Sunday, May 12
* Time: 2 p.m. CT
* TV Channel: ABC
* Live Stream: ESPN+

Top Prospects

Once the order is determined, teams will have much more clarity on which prospects they could have a chance to select in that range. While this class doesn’t appear to have as much superstar talent, it’s still a talented group of prospects.

Take a look at Draft Digest’s most recent mock draft that released ahead of the lottery.

Up Next

From here, the NBA Draft Lottery will take place as teams evaluate nearly 100 different prospects in Chicago. From there, players will be invited to work out with individual teams as travel ramps up for most prospects.

Finally, the 2024 NBA Draft will take place late next month, with the first round on June 26 and the second on June 27.

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