Context:

The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery yielded significant outcomes, with the Dallas Mavericks emerging as the biggest winners by securing the top pick against slim odds, allowing them to draft Cooper Flagg, a transformative prospect for their team. The San Antonio Spurs, while missing out on Flagg, secured Dylan Harper as the second pick, a promising guard with a strong basketball lineage. The Houston Rockets, despite not landing a top-four pick, gained valuable trade assets with the No. 10 pick, positioning themselves for potential major trades in the upcoming season. The Philadelphia 76ers, benefiting from lottery luck, retained their pick and moved up to the third spot, enhancing their potential to acquire key talent alongside existing stars. Conversely, the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards, despite having the best odds, fell to fifth and sixth picks respectively, while the Chicago Bulls remained stagnant at twelfth, continuing their struggle for upward mobility in the NBA standings.

Dive Deeper:

• The Dallas Mavericks, with only a 1.8% chance, secured the first pick in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery, allowing them to draft Cooper Flagg, a highly anticipated prospect expected to rejuvenate the franchise, especially after alienating fans post-Luka Doncic trade.

• The San Antonio Spurs secured the second overall pick and selected Dylan Harper, a talented guard with an NBA pedigree, expected to complement existing star Victor Wembanyama despite a crowded backcourt.

• The Houston Rockets, while not achieving a top-four pick, capitalized on receiving the Suns' pick, which became the tenth overall, providing them with a valuable asset for potential trades involving superstars like Kevin Durant or Giannis Antetokounmpo.

• Philadelphia 76ers' luck favored them as they retained and improved their draft position to third overall, despite a 36.1% risk of losing their pick, thus opening opportunities to draft promising talent to support Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain.

• The Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards, despite having the best odds for a top-four pick due to poor season records, landed the fifth and sixth picks respectively, marking a disappointing outcome for their rebuilding efforts.

• The Chicago Bulls remained at the twelfth pick, reflecting their mid-tier performance strategy, which keeps them in the Play-In Tournament range, despite having hoped for a lucky lottery jump.

• Ace Bailey's draft stock potentially suffered after the NBA Draft Combine revealed his height was 6-7.5 without shoes, contrasting with earlier Kevin Durant-like comparisons based on presumed height of 6-10.

• It's always good to get the top pick in the draft. This year was more important than most, though. Cooper Flagg has the potential to turn an entire franchise around. Teams were pulling out all of the stops towards the back end of the season to try and solidify their odds of landing him.

• For the Mavericks, that move paid off. 

• Dallas is the clear big winner of the lottery. They came in with only 1.8 percent odds of landing the Duke star, and they pulled off the miracle. They badly needed it after alienating their fan base post-Luka Doncic trade.

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• There were some other smaller wins and some painful results for the other 13 teams that participated in the lottery night. Here's a summary of the night's events. 

• 2025 NBA Draft Lottery winners

  Mavericks

  Everyone knew that Victor Wembanyama was going to be a superstar. Flagg is the second-best prospect that we've seen over the past six years. 

• The fit for the Mavericks is intriguing. They have great center depth with Anthony Davis, Dereck Lively II, and Daniel Gafford in tow. Flagg can play power forward alongside those big guys and create a monster defensive unit.

• Nico Harrison has stated his belief that defense wins championships. He has the pieces to prove that now. 

• MORE: Complete 2-round NBA Mock Draft  | Cooper Flagg NBA Mock Draft scouting report

• Spurs

  Welcome to San Antonio, Dylan Harper! 

• Everyone wanted Flagg, but Harper isn't a bad consolation prize. He will almost assuredly go no. 2 in this draft. He's got the NBA pedigree — his dad Ron was a solid veteran with five rings, and his older brother Ron Harper Jr. has had a few cups of coffee in the NBA too. 

• Dylan is going to be the best player in the family. He's a great pick-and-roll guard with high feel that shows up on both ends of the floor. He can be the lead engine for an NBA offense, and he has the size at 6-foot-6 to make every pass.

• It might be a bit crowded next to De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, but Harper should be a great natural fit with Victor Wembanyama. 

• Rockets

  The Rockets are sending out their No. 27 pick to the Nets. What makes that easier to bear is that they received the Suns' pick. 

• That pick had a 17.3 percent chance of jumping into the top four of the draft. Houston didn't get quite that lucky, but they should still be thrilled at having the No. 10 pick in this draft after finishing with the fourth-best record in the league. 

• That could end up being an extremely valuable trade asset. The Rockets are positioned as well as anybody to make a big swing this summer. Kevin Durant is going to get moved. Giannis Antetokounmpo might not be far behind him. The Rockets have a strong shot at landing a superstar.   

• 76ers

  The Sixers had the most at stake out of anyone coming into the lottery. Their pick was protected for the top six selections. They had a 63.9 percent chance of keeping it, or a 36.1 percent shot of sending a great pick in the middle of the lottery to the Thunder. 

• One of the best-case scenarios happened for them. Not only did they keep their pick, they jumped into the No. 3 pick in the draft. They came into the night with only a 10.6 percent shot at that outcome. 

• There is a substantial dropoff in talent after the first two players in this draft, but the Sixers will still get a good player out of this. Ace Bailey, V.J. Edgecombe, Kon Knueppel, Tre Johnson, and others are all fine NBA players. 

• The Sixers still have a ton of work to do. Joel Embiid and Paul George are negative value contracts that are on their books for a long time. But that pick now gives them the ammunition to go after one of the big names this summer or draft another young talent next to Tyrese Maxey and Jared McCain. 

• MORE: Kon Knueppel NBA Mock Draft scouting report: Why Duke freshman is looking like a lottery pick

• 2025 NBA Draft Lottery losers

  Jazz/Wizards

  The Jazz and Wizards came into the night tied for the best odds of getting a top-four pick courtesy of the worst and second-worst records in the league. 

• All of those losses weren't rewarded — the Jazz fell to the No. 5 pick in the draft, and the Wizards fell to No. 6. That was the lowest that either team could slide. It was a tough pill to swallow after losing 64 and 65 games, respectively. 

• Bulls

  Nobody knows exactly what the Bulls are doing. While most teams tried their hardest to avoid finishing in the middle of the pack this year, Chicago embraced it. They finished with the 12th-worst record, mostly by beating up on the other teams in the lottery towards the end of the year. Their one path to relevancy was to get lucky and jump up in the lottery. 

• That didn't happen. The Bulls came in slotted at No. 12, and that's the pick they ended up with. They still can get a good player with that selection. They made a great pick last year at 11, getting Matas Buzelis. But they look destined for their fourth consecutive Play-In Tournament appearance after tonight. 

• Ace Bailey

  This technically happened before the draft lottery, but Bailey's measurements came out during the NBA Draft Combine, and they may hurt his draft stock. Bailey was thought to be 6-10, giving him Kevin Durant scoring comparisons.

• Instead, he measured at 6-7.5 without shoes. 

• Bailey should still go somewhere in the 3 to 10 range of the draft. Monday wasn't a good day for him, though.  

• MORE: Height, wingspan and more measurements for 2025 NBA Draft prospects

• 2025 NBA Draft full order post-lottery

  Pick	Team
  1	Mavericks
  2	Spurs
  3	Sixers
  4	Hornets
  5	Jazz
  6	Wizards
  7	Pelicans
  8	Nets
  9	Raptors
  10	Rockets
  11	Blazers
  12	Bulls
  13	Hawks
  14	Spurs
  15	Thunder
  16	Mavic
  17	Wolves
  18	Wizards
  19	Nets
  20	Heat
  21	Jazz
  22	Hawks
  23	Pacers
  24	Thunder
  25	Magic
  26	Nets
  27	Nets
  28	Celtics
  29	Suns
  30	Clippers