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2025 NBA Draft Tiebreaker Results

April 21st, 2025 at 4:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Tiebreakers among teams with identical regular-season records were broken on Monday through random drawings to determine the order for this year’s draft prior to the lottery.

The results are as follows, according to a press release from the league (Twitter link):

Phoenix Suns (No. 9) over Portland Trail Blazers (No. 10)
- The Suns will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Trail Blazers.
- The Suns’ pick will be sent to the Rockets.
Dallas Mavericks (No. 11) over Chicago Bulls (No. 12)
- The Mavericks will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Bulls.
Sacramento Kings (No. 13) over Atlanta Hawks (No. 14)
- The Kings will get one more lottery ball combination (out of 1,000) than the Hawks.
- The Kings’ pick will be sent to the Hawks if it’s outside of the top 12.
- The Hawks’ pick will be sent to the Spurs.
Memphis Grizzlies (No. 18) over Milwaukee Bucks (No. 19) over Golden State Warriors (No. 20)
- The Grizzlies’ pick will be sent to the Wizards.
- The Bucks’ pick will be sent to the Nets.
- The Warriors’ pick will be sent to the Heat.
Los Angeles Lakers (No. 22) over Indiana Pacers (No. 23) over Los Angeles Clippers (No. 24) over Denver Nuggets (No. 25)
- The Lakers’ pick will be sent to the Hawks.
- The Clippers’ pick will be sent to the Thunder.
- The Nuggets’ pick will be sent to the Magic.

While the tiebreaker winner will pick ahead of the loser(s) in the first round, that order will be flipped in the second round.

For instance, the Warriors’ second-round pick (traded to the Grizzlies) will be at No. 48, followed by the Bucks’ pick (traded to Detroit) at No. 49, and the Grizzlies (traded to New York) at No. 50 — that’s the opposite of their order in the first round.

For lottery teams that finished with identical records, the second-round order is still to be determined depending on the lottery results.

For example, if Phoenix’s first-round pick (traded to Houston) stays at No. 9 and the Blazers’ first-rounder stays at No. 10, Portland’s second-round pick (traded to Toronto) would be at No. 39 and Phoenix’s (traded to Washington) would be No. 40. But if the Trail Blazers win the No. 1 overall pick on lottery night, moving ahead of Phoenix in the first round, then the Suns’ second-round pick would be No. 39, while Portland’s would be No. 40.

We’ll publish the full lottery odds and pre-lottery draft order for 2025 later tonight.

Mavs GM Harrison On Doncic Trade, Fan Reaction, More

April 21st, 2025 at 4:14pm CST by Rory Maher

At a press conference on Monday afternoon, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison discussed the shocking decision to trade Luka Doncic as well as the overwhelmingly negative reaction to it from fans, who have been chanting “fire Nico” since the deal was completed.

“I did know Luka was important to the Mavs’ fan base,” Harrison said, per RealGM. “I didn’t quite know to what level.

“But, really, the way we looked at it is if you’re putting a team on the floor that’s Kyrie [Irving], Klay [Thompson], P.J. [Washington], Anthony Davis and [Dereck] Lively, we felt that’s a championship-caliber team. And we would have been winning at a high level. That would have quieted some of the outrage. So unfortunately we weren’t able to do that, so it just went on and on.”

When asked why he should be able to keep his job, Harrison defended his Mavericks tenure, tweets Mike Curtis of The Dallas Morning News.

“Well, one, I think I’ve done a really good job here,” Harrison said. “And I don’t think I can be judged by the injuries this year. You have to judge the totality, from the beginning to end. I think I have a really good working relationship with [governor Patrick Dumont]. I think you add in Rick [Welts], the leadership we have is really elite and you’ll see next year when our team comes back. We’re going to be competing for a championship.”

Here’s more from Harrison’s press conference:

Harrison was pressed on why the Mavericks couldn’t get more assets from the Lakers for Doncic. “I think the biggest thing is if you don’t value AD as an All-NBA player and All-Defensive player, then you’re not going to like the trade,” Harrison said, according to Curtis (Twitter link).
The Mavs’ head of basketball operations said Dumont didn’t pressure him to make the deal, as Curtis relays (via Twitter). “Not at all. Patrick reminds me of the leadership that I had at Nike and a really good leader doesn’t tell the people that work for him what to do. It’s a collective, well thought out process to make a big move like that. Also, unfortunately, I’m super stubborn so someone telling me to do something doesn’t work too well for me.”
Despite the intense backlash, Harrison claims his relationship with Dumont has actually been “strengthened” in the two-plus months since the trade was made, according to Marc Stein (Twitter link).
Harrison said Davis won’t need surgery this offseason and he doesn’t believe Lively will either, per Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Both players missed significant time with injuries, but were able to return before the team was eliminated in the play-in tournament.
Regarding Kyrie Irving‘s $43.96MM player option for 2025/26, Harrison said he wasn’t sure if it would be exercised, but he’s confident the 33-year-old will be in a Mavericks uniform next season. “It’s too early to tell what Kyrie is going to do, but what I do feel is he’s going to be a Maverick next year,” Harrison said (Twitter link via Curtis).

Luka Doncic Discusses Mavs’ Harrison, Conditioning Criticism, More

April 19th, 2025 at 7:39am CST by Luke Adams

Roughly two-and-a-half months removed from the trade that sent him from Dallas to Los Angeles, Luka Doncic sat down with ESPN’s Malika Andrews (YouTube link) ahead of the Lakers‘ first-round playoff series with Minnesota and said he still hasn’t talked to Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison since the deal.

Speaking to select Dallas-based media earlier this week for the first time in over two months, Harrison said he had “no regrets” about the trade and repeated the mantra “defense wins championships” when asked why he didn’t feel that the Doncic-led core that made the NBA Finals last season was capable of winning a championship.

Doncic was asked by Andrews what he thought of Harrison’s comments.

“It’s just sad the way he’s talking right now,” the Lakers’ star said (story via Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com). “I never say anything bad about him, and I just want to move on. The fans, my ex-teammates, I’ll always keep at heart. It’s time for me to move on from there.”

Doncic admitted that he didn’t take the news of the trade well — he said he threw his phone across the room, cracking it, when he first learned he’d been dealt out of Dallas, and repeatedly asked if it was an early “April 1st” joke.

“Sadness, mostly,” Doncic said of his initial feelings. “I was still in shock. Like, crazy shock. I felt like my heart was broken, honestly.”

In the wake of the trade, numerous reports out of Dallas indicated the Mavericks had concerns about Doncic’s work ethic, diet, and conditioning issues. While it was impossible for the five-time All-Star to avoid those reports, he said he tried to ignore them and move forward with his new team, rather than dwelling on what went wrong with the Mavs.

“I mean it’s painful, depending on how you take it,” Doncic said. “It mostly came from Dallas, so I didn’t want to talk back. But I don’t really read that much stuff. I’m just trying to focus on my journey.”

Asked by Andrews if he had envisioned playing his entire career in Dallas prior to the trade, Doncic replied, “Of course. That’s an easy question.”

He’s no longer eligible for the five-year, super-max extension that the Mavericks could have offered him this summer, but Doncic will have the ability this offseason to sign a new contract with the Lakers that could be worth up to a projected $229MM over four years, beginning in 2026/27.

It remains to be seen whether the 26-year-old would prefer that long-term extension or a shorter-term contract that would put him in better position to maximize his future earnings, but it sounds like he’ll have interest in getting a deal done with the Lakers. Asked by Andrews if he wants to stay in Los Angeles, Doncic offered a succinct, straightforward reply.

“Yes,” he said.

And-Ones: Expansion, Playoff Schedule, Awards, Betting Scandal

April 18th, 2025 at 10:25pm CST by Luke Adams

Appearing on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday (Twitter video link), commissioner Adam Silver once again addressed the topic of possible NBA expansion.

Silver has said in the past that he wanted to finalize the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement and TV/media deals before looking seriously at bringing new teams into the NBA. That new CBA was implemented in 2023 and the new media deals will take effect later this year, clearing a path for expansion discussions to finally begin in earnest.

“Now that those things are done, we’re just beginning a process, internally at the league, of exploring the opportunity to expand,” Silver said (hat tip to RealGM). “I will say sometimes on the outside (expansion) looks like a no-brainer because it seems like you’re printing money to expand. But you’re really selling equity in the league. You have 30 teams that own the league, and now you’re saying, ‘We’re gonna have 32 teams that own the league,’ so you’re diluting the economic interest of all the 30 teams.

“You’re also potentially diluting the talent, because with roughly 450 players in the NBA, even among those – the greatest in the world – there’s only so many difference-makers. And then how are those players going to be distributed around the league? That’s a lot of what we spend time on in Collective Bargaining Agreements, the right distribution of players. And so we’re looking hard at it, we’re sort of modeling it, for lack of better term, in the league office.”

Silver went on to specifically name Las Vegas and Seattle as cities that will be involved in expansion discussions, but made it clear that the NBA will also be looking at other markets as well. The commissioner added that progress could be made this summer, though he doesn’t view it as a “foregone conclusion” that the league will expand.

“I don’t want to jump the gun here,” he said. “We have the 30 existing teams who all need to weigh in on this process, and also at some point need to have direct conversations with the people who are interested in those teams. It’s premature to do that right now. We’ve been contacted by groups who are saying, ‘We have interest in potentially being part of expansion,’ not just in (Las Vegas and Seattle) but others, and we’ve sort of said, ‘We’re not quite ready yet.’ But again, we will go through a very methodical approach to it and do it very cautiously, but we’ll continue to look at it.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the NBA:

The NBA has unveiled the schedules for the first round of the playoffs for both the Eastern Conference and Western Conference series (Twitter links). The latest possible Game 7 for a first-round series would take place on May 4, while the playoffs will get underway on Saturday at 1:00 pm Eastern time with Game 1 of the Bucks/Pacers series.
Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) takes a look back at the recent history of Executive of the Year voting and explains why he’s predicting that Lakers president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka will win the award this year, with Koby Altman of the Cavaliers and Sam Presti of the Thunder right behind him. Unlike most of the other major end-of-season awards, Executive of the Year is voted on by NBA general manager, not media members.
According to the NBA (Twitter link), the finalists for seven of the league’s major awards, including MVP, will be announced on Sunday at 6:30 pm Eastern time on TNT. The finalists are made up of the top three vote-getters for each award.
Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic checks in on where things stand with the betting scandal that resulted in Jontay Porter being permanently banned from the NBA. As Vorkunov details, the Porter case is linked to investigations into match-fixing across college sports, with five schools being looked at by the federal government for possible ties.

Pacific Notes: Butler, Booker, Clippers, Lakers

April 18th, 2025 at 5:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Although six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler has never won an NBA championship, he told Sam Amick of The Athletic this week that, as the playoffs get underway, he’s thinking more about getting a fifth title for two of his Warriors teammates than getting one for himself.

“Look, I’m not gonna say I’m not hungry, but I’m doing this for Steph (Curry),” Butler said. “I’m doing this for Dray (Draymond Green). I’m doing this for these guys. As much as I want to win a championship, I want Dray to win another one. I want Steph to win another one. I know I ain’t got mine yet, but they deserve it. They’ve been putting this city and this organization on their back for a very long time, and I’m glad that I can be here to try and do something special.”

The Warriors will enter the first round as the No. 7 seed, but they’re the solid betting favorites against the No. 2 Rockets, whose top players have far less postseason experience than Golden State’s stars. Given Curry’s and Green’s four championships – along with his own two NBA Finals appearances – Butler believes the Warriors’ veterans have a “target on their back” this spring, which he’s just fine with.

“I love having a target on my back,” Butler told Amick. “I think I’ve had it the last couple of years over in the East, and (the Warriors) are gonna always have it, until 30 (Curry) and 23 (Green) are gone out this motherf—er. They’re always gonna be the squad to beat. Everybody always fears them. Everybody always knows that they’re not out of any game, out of any series, and I love to be a part of it. I ain’t scared of nobody. You know me. I’m not scared of nobody. I know what I’m capable of.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

In the wake of reports stating that the Suns have no interest in trading Devin Booker, team owner Mat Ishbia reiterated that stance in his end-of-season media session, referring to the veteran guard as Phoenix’s “franchise player,” as Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports relays (Twitter video link). “I speak with him and we’re very aligned on what we want to do and what we’re gonna do,” Ishbia said. “And his mission and my mission are very similar: Let’s bring a championship to Phoenix. And he understands the vision.”
Following the offseason departure of Paul George, oddsmakers projected the Clippers to finish last in the Pacific and finish below .500 this season. Instead, the club won 50 games and claimed a top-five seed in a competitive Western Conference. “I think our group has been playing with a chip on its shoulders all year because of that (outside skepticism),” head coach Tyronn Lue said this week, per Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. “We just found ways to win. We just found ways to win. No matter whose night it was, we just kind of featured that guy, played hard defensively and competed and we played together. … Being counted out and staying the course and playing with that chip on your shoulder all year long.”
How did the Lakers take a significant step forward on defense in the second half despite having traded away longtime anchor Anthony Davis? Ramona Shelburne of ESPN digs into that question, exploring how the acquisition of Dorian Finney-Smith, the return of Jarred Vanderbilt, J.J. Redick‘s scheme, and improved communication have all factored into the team’s success on that end of the floor.

Lakers Extend, Promote Rob Pelinka

April 18th, 2025 at 3:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers have announced an extension and promotion for Rob Pelinka, who is now the team’s president of basketball operations as well as general manager, tweets Jovan Buha of The Athletic.

“For eight seasons, I have relied on Rob’s vision and leadership to do what’s best for the Lakers organization,” team governor Jeanie Buss said. “I value his partnership and professionalism and believe in his ability to deliver championship-caliber basketball for Los Angeles and Lakers fans everywhere.”

The Lakers hired Pelinka as general manager in 2017 and gave him the title of vice president of basketball operations in 2020.

He has delivered one championship during his tenure and may have the team in position to win more after acquiring Luka Doncic from Dallas in the season’s biggest deal. The addition of Doncic sparked L.A. to a 50-32 record and the third seed in the Western Conference.

Pelinka was also responsible for bringing LeBron James to Los Angeles during the summer of 2018. That gave the Lakers a star to build around after Kobe Bryant‘s retirement two years earlier and has made them a perennial playoff team.

In addition, Pelinka engineered a blockbuster deal in 2019 that brought Anthony Davis to the Lakers. Although Davis was later sent to Dallas in exchange for Doncic, the move showed that Pelinka wasn’t afraid to gamble to add star power to his team.

Pelinka, 55, won an NCAA title as a player with Michigan in 1989. He served as an agent, representing several prominent NBA stars, before getting hired by the Lakers.

L.A. Notes: Reaves, Lakers’ Title Chances, Kawhi, Zubac

April 17th, 2025 at 5:34pm CST by Earnest Marshall

The Lakers and head coach JJ Redick made good on their preseason comments about keeping Austin Reaves involved in the offense, Dan Woike of the Los Angeles Times notes. The end result paid off, with Reaves becoming a contender for Most Improved Player after averaging career highs of 20.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game while shooting 46.0% from the field and 37.7% on three-pointers.

As Woike writes, Reaves was included in a gathering with LeBron James and Luka Doncic in March, planting him within the team’s big three.

“Them being able to accept that challenge of figuring something out on the fly in the middle of a season — we challenged all three of those guys on that,” Redick said. “And Austin’s great to coach, awesome to coach. And, he’s accepted every challenge and exceeded any sort of baseline level of response that we could expect from him.”

We have more from Los Angeles:

The Lakers acquired a generational star at the deadline and posted their first 50-win season since the 2019/20 championship. But is that enough to make them a legitimate title contender this year? Mark Medina of RG writes that the Lakers’ window is open and that Reaves is a huge part of that. Additionally, the Lakers have rebuilt their depth and their three stars are playing well together, which should give the team “justified confidence” in winning it all, according to Medina.
Injuries have hampered Kawhi Leonard‘s time with the Clippers, but he looks good ahead of the team’s first-round series against Denver. According to Janis Carr of The Orange County Register, both the organization and Leonard trusted each other to get back to this point and win 50 games. “Giving [training staff president] Maggie Bryant a chance to show him some different things and different ways to be a hundred percent at the end of the season and do things a different way [was beneficial],” head coach Tyronn Lue said. “So her, along with Kawhi’s group, did a good job. The biggest thing is just trusting.” As Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times writes, Leonard has maintained his love for basketball through the injuries. “I love the game. I love the game and I have a passion for it still. I love to compete out there. So, that’s pretty much what drives me back,” Leonard said.
Clippers center Ivica Zubac is enjoying the best season of his career and is riding the momentum into a series-long matchup with Nikola Jokic, Carr writes in another piece. “He understands the game, the game has slowed down a lot for him to where he understands who he’s playing against and who he’s guarding and so he’s effective on both ends of the ball,” teammate James Harden said of Zubac. “You know, for guys like me my job is just trying to make it easy for him … to get him touches. But he’s worked his butt off.” In March and April, the big man averaged 19.9 points, 12.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists per night.

And-Ones: Clutch Player Award, NBA Europe, Award Picks, Oweh

April 15th, 2025 at 6:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The official candidates for Clutch Player of the Year have been revealed, NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor tweets. Here’s the list of candidates that voters can select for the award, as chosen by the league’s 30 head coaches:

Anfernee Simons, Trail Blazers
Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves
Darius Garland, Cavaliers
De’Aaron Fox, Spurs
DeMar DeRozan, Kings
Derrick White, Celtics
Donovan Mitchell, Cavaliers
Jaylen Brown, Celtics
Jalen Brunson, Knicks
Jayson Tatum, Celtics
Kevin Durant, Suns
Kyrie Irving, Mavericks
LeBron James, Lakers
Luka Doncic, Lakers
Nikola Jokic, Nuggets
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder
Stephen Curry, Warriors
Trae Young, Hawks
Tyler Herro, Heat
Tyrese Maxey, Sixers

Curry won the award last year.

We have more from around the international basketball world:

While the NBA is trying to establish a new league in Europe, NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum insists that the goal is not to replace the EuroLeague, Eurohoops relays via a Reuters interview. “Our goal is to create a commercially viable league that features high quality on -court competition and respects the rich tradition of European basketball. And we think that that will better serve fans and players on the continent,” Tatum said. He notes that there are major cities in Europe that don’t have a team where the NBA can establish roots. “There are big markets in Europe that aren’t being serviced today, where there are millions of basketball fans that aren’t being serviced,” he said. London, Paris, Berlin and Rome are among the candidates that NBA Europe considers as prime targets.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger reveals his award picks. He has Gilgeous-Alexander atop his MVP list and the Rockets’ Amen Thompson as his Defensive Player of the Year. O’Connor, writing for Yahoo Sports, has the same duo winning those awards. They also both have Stephon Castle taking Rookie of the Year honors, Payton Pritchard atop their Sixth Man of the Year lists, and Kenny Atkinson as Coach of the Year.
Kentucky junior guard Otega Oweh will test the draft waters, Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 tweets. Oweh averaged 16.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.6 steals this past season. He played his first two seasons at Oklahoma.

Pacific Notes: Booker, Lakers, Doncic, Butler, Curry

April 14th, 2025 at 6:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Suns’ disastrous season didn’t change Devin Booker‘s feelings about the organization. He wants to remain in Phoenix for years to come, he told Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic.

“I’ve spoke on it plenty of times,” Booker said. “I’m sure the people are sick of hearing my Phoenix love story, but I’m deeply rooting into this community. I take a lot of pride in it. We’ve built it from the ground up before. I didn’t think I’d be back in this situation, but it shows you how hard the league is. Once we get back to that championship level, I’ll be able to shed light on people that it can change very quickly.”

It seems unlikely Booker will be playing with both Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal again next season. There’s heavy speculation that Durant will be traded and the front office will try to do something regarding Beal’s onerous contract. Booker has no issues with either player.

“I love playing with both of them,” Booker said. “Even the moments that we played together, they haven’t been to what we expected or wanted out of it, but good things do take some time to build and they take experience. We haven’t had a lot of that, but that’s not a good excuse to fall back on.”

Booker is eligible to sign a two-year, maximum-salary extension this offseason, even though he just completed the first year of his four-year super-max extension. He seems tempted to take it if it’s offered.

“I’ve been in long enough where I’ve watched some of my heroes and idols just slowly get out of the league, and you see how it hurts them,” he said. “I don’t want to think about the day that I have to do that. It’s nice to be up for an extension.”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

The Lakers‘ best source of information as they prepare for the Timberwolves in the opening round could be their superstar newcomer. Coach JJ Redick will consult with Luka Doncic, who led the Mavericks to a series win over Minnesota in the Western Conference Finals last season. “There are nuances to what teams are trying to do against certain opponents,” Redick said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. The third-seeded Lakers will use their time off this week to heal up and gradually work on their game plan for the best-of-seven series. “It’s not necessarily going to be everything at once this week. We’ll have to slow drip, and I think that’s the approach that I think is going to work best for our group,” Redick said. “Tuesday will be more about us. Wednesday, we’ll introduce Minnesota.”
Speaking of Doncic, he became the first international player to have the best-selling jersey in the league, according to Mike Vornukov of The Athletic. Since the 2013/14 season, either LeBron James or Stephen Curry led the NBA in that category. The Lakers also had the league’s top-selling merchandise.
Jimmy Butler gave the Warriors fans a glimpse of “Playoff Jimmy” when he played 48 minutes, scored 30 points and matched up with Kawhi Leonard in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Clippers, Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic writes. Golden State was relegated to the play-in tournament but Butler gives the Warriors another player who can take over and assert his will, Thompson notes. “You have a guy who can kind of slow the pace of the game down for us, get us into good things,” forward Draymond Green said. “Just having that extra added weapon. Having another No. 1 next to Steph is different.”
The Warriors have a clean injury report for their matchup with Memphis on Tuesday night, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. Curry has a sprained right thumb and Butler took a knee to the thigh on Sunday, but both will play.

Postseason Seeding Set For Western Conference

April 13th, 2025 at 5:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The seedings for the Western Conference playoffs came down to the very last game — the Clippers‘ 124-119 overtime victory over the Warriors on Sunday afternoon. That outcome assured L.A. of a playoff spot and pushed Golden State into the play-in tournament.

The red-hot Clippers, winners of eight straight, nailed down the No. 5 seed. The Timberwolves, who won their last three games, grabbed the last automatic berth into the first round, joining the Nuggets, who secured the No. 4 seed with their win over Houston on Sunday.

Here’s how the top 10 teams in the West finished the regular season, as the NBA confirms (via Twitter):

Oklahoma City Thunder
Houston Rockets
Los Angeles Lakers
Denver Nuggets
Los Angeles Clippers
Minnesota Timberwolves
Golden State Warriors
Memphis Grizzlies
Sacramento Kings
Dallas Mavericks

The play-in tournament in the Western Conference will feature the Warriors hosting the Grizzlies on Tuesday and the Kings hosting the Mavericks on Wednesday. The Golden State/Memphis winner will claim the No. 7 spot in the playoffs and face the Rockets in the first round of the playoffs. The loser of that game will host the Sacramento/Dallas survivor on Friday for the No. 8 spot and the right to face the top-seeded Thunder in round one.

The Lakers will have home court advantage in the first round and face the Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs. The Nuggets will also have home court advantage in their first-round series against the Clippers.

The seedings for the Eastern Conference playoffs were decided prior to Sunday’s action and can be found here.