The NBA conducted its tiebreaking process for the league's 2026 draft Monday afternoon, setting the order from 15 to 30 and breaking a pair of ties among teams nestled inside the lottery.
The most consequential result, determined by random drawing at the league's offices in Secaucus, N.J., broke the tie for the fourth-best lottery odds between the Sacramento Kings and the Utah Jazz, with Utah winning and Sacramento landing the fifth-best odds.
The tiebreaker doesn't change much for the lottery, as the two teams split the odds designated for the fourth and fifth spots in the draft. That means both teams have a 45.2% chance of jumping into the top four and an 11.5% chance of winning the top pick. Monday's result also means that the Jazz can't drop out of the top eight in the lottery, guaranteeing that they keep their top-eight protected pick that would have gone to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it landed ninth.
Five other ties were also decided. The New Orleans Pelicans were awarded the seventh lottery slot, and the Dallas Mavericks landed eighth. New Orleans, though, will not get that pick because the Pelicans traded it during last year's draft to the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta will get the better pick between New Orleans and the Milwaukee Bucks, who have the 10th lottery slot. Milwaukee will get the lesser of the two selections.
The Dallas and New Orleans picks both have a 29% chance of jumping up in the lottery and a 6.3% chance of landing the top pick.
The other tiebreaks were as follows:
• The 16th, 17th and 18th picks will be made by the Memphis Grizzlies, Thunder and Charlotte Hornets, respectively -- though none of those teams originally owned any of those picks. Instead, Oklahoma City has Philadelphia's pick, while Memphis received the better of Orlando's and Phoenix's selections, and Charlotte received the lesser.
• Toronto Raptors were awarded the 19th pick, and the 20th pick will be made by the San Antonio Spurs, who have Atlanta's first-round pick in this year's draft.
• The Philadelphia 76ers will pick 22nd, using what originally was Houston's first-round selection, while the 23rd pick will be made by the Hawks, who have Cleveland's first-round pick.
• And, finally, the New York Knicks will pick 24th, and the Los Angeles Lakers will select 25th.
The NBA's draft lottery will be held May 10 in Chicago, where the league's draft combine will run May 10-17. The NBA draft will be a two-night event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with the first round occurring June 23 and the second round June 24.
The deadline for early entrant players to choose whether to enter this year's draft is Friday.