Hawks win NBA Draft Lottery, Wizards to select No. 2 overall

When is 3 better than 14? When it’s 1, and it’s Wizards luck.

Washington will pick No. 2 in the 2024 NBA Draft, the ping pong balls failing their league-high 14% chance to pick No. 1 overall – but it won’t be Detroit, who also had a 14% chance at the top pick, opening the draft.

Instead, it will be Atlanta, who had a 3% chance of selecting No. 1 after finishing tenth in the East with a 36-46 record, with the top pick, while Houston and San Antonio select third and fourth, the Rockets taking that pick from the Nets as part of the long-gone James Harden deal.

And the Pistons, who set an NBA record for consecutive losses this season and had the league’s worst record at 14-68, fell as far as they could and will select fifth.

“I’ve got a lot of emotions inside, but I just play it cool and keep moving forward,” Wizards GM Will Dawkins told WaPo after Sunday’s lottery. “Stylistically, we’re still evolving. Our first line of business is to solidify our head coach and make sure they’re involved in how we want to play and what we look like moving forward. We’re going to find the best long-term fit [with the second pick].”

Atlanta’s winning combination, 6-10-14-13 was literally one ball away from granting the Wiz, who had 6-10-14-1, the top pick; instead, No.
2 will be their highest selection since they took John Wall No. 1 overall in 2010, and Dawkins said they could look at ‘as many as 10 players’ in a draft that has a half-dozen players right now that could all be taken in any order.

“There’s a lot of optionality at the top of the draft,” Dawkins said. “There’s probably not the same level of instant gratification in Year 1 with some of these rookies. But if you really dive down and have some patience and a forward-thinking outlook, these players are going to be pretty good players a few years from now.”