2012 NBA Draft Tiebreakers, Order

The NBA draft lottery doesn't take place until May 30th, so we won't know the complete draft order until then. But today the league announced the winners of a number of tiebreakers, locking the draft "seeds" in place as we approach the lottery.

As I explained earlier this week, when two lottery teams finish tied in the standings, they split the difference when it comes to odds of landing a top pick. For instance, since the Cavaliers and Hornets tied for the league's third-worst record (21-45), each team's chances of landing the first overall pick will be an average of the third- and fourth-best odds (15.6% and 11.9%). Because the Cavs won the tiebreaker, they'll receive slightly better odds than the Hornets (13.8% to 13.7%) and will draft ahead of New Orleans if neither team lands a top-three pick.

Here are the complete results of today's tiebreakers:

  • Cavaliers over Hornets for 3rd
  • Kings over Nets for 5th
  • Warriors over Raptors for 7th
  • Knicks over Mavericks and Jazz for 16th
  • Mavericks over Jazz for 17th
  • Clippers over Hawks for 22nd
  • Lakers over Grizzlies for 24th
  • Bulls over Spurs for 29th

And here's how the overall draft order for the first round will look heading into the lottery (chances of landing first overall pick in parentheses):

  1. Charlotte Bobcats (25.0%)
  2. Washington Wizards (19.9%)
  3. Cleveland Cavaliers (13.8%)
  4. New Orleans Hornets (13.7%)
  5. Sacramento Kings (7.6%)
  6. New Jersey Nets (7.5%)1
  7. Golden State Warriors (3.6%)2
  8. Toronto Raptors (3.5%)
  9. Detroit Pistons (1.7%)
  10. New Orleans Hornets (1.1%)3
  11. Portland Trail Blazers (0.8%)
  12. Milwaukee Bucks (0.7%)
  13. Phoenix Suns (0.6%)
  14. Houston Rockets (0.5%)
  15. Philadelphia 76ers
  16. Houston Rockets4
  17. Dallas Mavericks
  18. Minnesota Timberwolves5
  19. Orlando Magic
  20. Denver Nuggets
  21. Boston Celtics
  22. Boston Celtics6
  23. Atlanta Hawks
  24. Cleveland Cavaliers7
  25. Memphis Grizzlies
  26. Indiana Pacers
  27. Miami Heat
  28. Oklahoma City Thunder
  29. Chicago Bulls
  30. Golden State Warriors8

The second round will look like this:

  1. Charlotte Bobcats
  2. Washington Wizards
  3. Cleveland Cavaliers9
  4. Cleveland Cavaliers
  5. Golden State Warriors10
  6. Sacramento Kings
  7. Toronto Raptors
  8. Denver Nuggets11
  9. Detroit Pistons
  10. Portland Trail Blazers12
  11. Portland Trail Blazers
  12. Milwaukee Bucks
  13. Atlanta Hawks13
  14. Detroit Pistons14
  15. Philadelphia 76ers
  16. Washington Wizards15
  17. Utah Jazz
  18. New York Knicks
  19. Orlando Magic
  20. Denver Nuggets
  21. Boston Celtics
  22. Golden State Warriors16
  23. Los Angeles Clippers
  24. Philadelphia 76ers17
  25. Dallas Mavericks18
  26. Toronto Raptors19
  27. New Jersey Nets20
  28. Minnesota Timberwolves21
  29. San Antonio Spurs
  30. Los Angeles Lakers22

1 Send pick to Trail Blazers if not in top three
2 Send pick to Jazz if not in top seven
3 Acquired from Timberwolves
4 Acquired from Knicks
5 Acquired from Jazz
6 Acquired from Clippers
7 Acquired from Lakers
8 Acquired from Spurs
9 Acquired from Hornets
10
Acquire from Nets
11 Acquired from Warriors
12 Acquired from Timberwolves
13 Acquired from Suns
14 Acquired from Rockets
15 Acquired from Mavericks
16 Acquired from Hawks
17 Acquired from Grizzlies
18
Acquired from Lakers
19 Acquired from Pacers
20 Acquired from Heat
21 Acquired from Thunder
22 Can accept cash from Nets rather than Bulls' pick, if they so choose

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