The 2025/26 NBA regular season is officially over, but the draft order for this June has not yet been set.
A handful of factors, including the play-in results, random tiebreakers, and - of course - the lottery results themselves will ultimately determine what the 60 picks in the 2026 NBA draft look like. But with the season in the books, there's plenty we do know.
Let's dive in and check in on several key aspects of the lottery standings and projected draft order...
I brought up this scenario on another article, but it may not be answered, so I’ll ask it in a simpler form here…
The answer is probably obvious, but wouldn’t it be funny if the 37 win Warriors beat the 41 win Clippers on Wednesday and send LA home..,
But then if the Warriors LOSE on Friday and are out of the playoffs, they’ll still pick ahead of the Clippers because of 37 wins compared to 41 wins?
Is that how it would play out?
Yeah, the Warriors would have the more favorable pick in that scenario.
The 14 non-playoff teams are all sorted by regular season record, then the 16 playoff teams are sorted by record — all that matters is whether they made the playoffs or not, not when they’re eliminated (by the same token, if the Warriors earned the final playoff spot and then won the NBA Finals, they’d still pick 15th, not 30th).
Excellent. Thank you. We can follow the NBA for years and these little things can evade our understanding yet still.
I’m thankful for this website and for you personally Luke !!