NBA Draft Lottery: Magic, Kings among winners; Knicks, Lakers losers
By Yaron Weitzman
FOX Sports NBA Writer
CHICAGO — The NBA lottery is a powerful force. It can propel losers out of the cellar, reward grand plans — or ruin them.
It’s also the one time when you can see losers celebrate their stink.
So who got to celebrate after Tuesday night’s drawing? Here are the winners and losers from the 2022 draft lottery.
Winner: Orlando Magic
No, this isn’t exactly a hot take, but you have to go with the team that won the No. 1 pick as the first victor from the night. The Magic are coming off an ugly, 22-win season, but that was mostly by design. After multiple seasons of riding the mediocrity train, the team elected to hit the reset button.
They had two lottery picks last season. We know they hit one of those out of the park (Franz Wagner), and now, for the first time since 2004, when they selected Dwight Howard, they get to build around a No. 1 pick.
Whom will that pick be? Most experts have Jabari Smith Jr., Jaden Ivey, Paolo Banchero and Chet Holmgren as the top tier of this class. The Magic can choose whomever they want to pair with Wagner as the core of their future.
Loser: Portland Trail Blazers
This dates to their midseason CJ McCollum trade with the New Orleans Pelicans. As part of the deal, the Blazers would have received the Pelicans’ first-round pick this season if it had fallen anywhere in the 5-14 range. At the time, that seemed like a given.
The fact that the Blazers were tanking at the same time meant that they could very well enter the offseason — a crucial one, given all the noise around Damian Lillard’s future — with two lottery picks, one of them possibly in the top four.
Then the Pelicans ran off a couple of wins during the play-in tournament, earning a playoff berth, which meant no picks for the Blazers. Making matters worse: Instead of climbing into the top four, the Blazers fell from a projected sixth pick to No. 7.
Will they be able to find a player there who can help their team now? If not, is the seventh pick coveted enough that they can send it to another team in exchange for a veteran? Either way, recently promoted GM Joe Cronin now has fewer and less valuable assets to work with.
Winner: Sacramento Kings
The Kings entered the evening with a 7.5% chance of leaping into the top four. They did just that.
Do any of us think the Kings will actually make the right play here? Of course not. Given how desperate team governor Vivek Ranadivé is to make the playoffs, there’s always the chance that he ships the pick to, say, Houston in exchange for Christian Wood.
But right now, the Kings appear to be on the verge of adding a top-shelf prospect to their roster. That’s not something we can say very often.
Loser: New York Knicks
The Knicks entered the evening projected to have the 11th pick. They left the lottery in that exact slot.
They haven’t moved up in the lottery since 1985. That feels like something that shouldn’t be mathematically possible. And yet, as always, the Knicks defy math.
Winner: Oklahoma City Thunder
The Thunder are entering the third offseason of their rebuild (which is basically The Process without the branding), and this will be their first time choosing in the top five since 2009, when they grabbed James Harden at No. 3.
Combine that with the 12th pick — which they’re getting from the LA Clippers, courtesy of the Paul George trade — and OKC might finally reach the point where it’s comfortable shifting into Phase 2 and, you know, trying to win some games.
Loser: Los Angeles Lakers
Add one more L to their season. Because the Lakers' pick fell in the top 10, at No. 8, it will be sent to the Pelicans as part of the 2019 Anthony Davis deal. That trade led to a title, meaning it was worth the cost.
But the Lakers are going to need some breaks to reach that point again. They did not get one here.
Yaron Weitzman is an NBA writer for FOX Sports and the author of Tanking to the Top: The Philadelphia 76ers and the Most Audacious Process in the History of Professional Sports. Follow him on Twitter @YaronWeitzman.