Mavericks win NBA draft lottery with 1.8% odds

The Dallas Mavericks moved past the Luka Doncic trade in resounding fashion Monday by winning the NBA draft lottery and the accompanying right to select Duke‘s Cooper Flagg in June with the No. 1 pick.

The Mavericks had just a 1.8% chance to win the lottery and jumped 10 spots to grab the top pick, the biggest move by any team in lottery history, according to ESPN Research.

The unlikely victory in the lottery comes only three months after Dallas traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, a move that drew widespread criticism from the fan base.

“I am so happy for Mavericks fans,” Dallas CEO Rick Welts said, clutching the envelope with the No. 1 emblazoned on it. “I only got to Dallas Jan. 1 this year. Feb. 1, we broke the internet [with the Doncic trade]. I am just amazed at the depth of emotion and connection that the fan base has with this team. And what happened today, I can’t imagine a better day for Mavs fans. It’s going to really be something special. I can’t wait to get back to Dallas.”

Flagg, a 6-foot-9 forward, has been considered the front-runner to be the top pick in the draft since August 2023, when he announced his decision to graduate high school a year early and enroll in a college as a 17-year-old.

Despite being one of the most heavily anticipated freshmen to enter the college game in several years, Flagg exceeded expectations by winning nearly every major national player of the year award, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists, and leading the Blue Devils (35-4) to a Final Four appearance.

“I don’t know who we’re going to take, but should we take him, I think his résumé is pretty strong,” Welts said. “Every time he’s put in a situation that everyone wondered if he could succeed, he’s succeeded and then some.”

San Antonio — with back-to-back rookies of the year in Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle — will pick second, Philadelphia will pick third, and Charlotte will pick fourth.

“When you jump into the top four again, you put yourself as an organization in a place to make a really big acquisition with a really good player,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “And that’s what we’re going to look forward to doing.”

Utah (17-65), Washington (18-64), and Charlotte (19-63) entered the night with the best odds of winning the lottery with a 14% shot, followed by New Orleans (21-61) at 12.5%. Utah (fifth) and Washington (sixth) fell outside the top four despite having the two worst records in the NBA last year.

Under the new system implemented in 2019 — which flattens the lottery odds in an attempt to discourage tanking — the team with the worst record has yet to win the draft lottery.

New Orleans will pick seventh, Brooklyn eighth, Toronto ninth, Houston 10th, Portland 11th, Chicago 12th, Atlanta 13th and San Antonio 14th.

Dallas’ lottery win follows a recent trend of upsets at the top of the draft; Atlanta won the draft lottery last year with 3% odds.

Projected to be drafted after Flagg are a pair of freshmen from Rutgers in Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, each of whom will be heavily studied by the teams at the top of the draft.

Harper, a 6-foot-6 point guard, broke the freshman scoring record at Rutgers while finishing as the fifth-best scorer in the Big Ten Conference. His outstanding ballhandling ability, passing creativity, finishing skill and overall scoring ability make him a very strong candidate to be drafted early.

After Harper, a pool of players, including Bailey, Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe, Texas wing Tre Johnson, Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears and Duke center Khaman Maluach, will be vying to be next up to hear their names called during the first round.

The draft will take place on June 25-26 (8 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.