Wizards win draft lottery; Jazz, Grizz, Bulls round out top 4 - ESPN

In likely the final year of the current system for the NBA's draft lottery, the Washington Wizards proved the eighth time is the charm.

After the team with the worst record in the NBA in each of the previous seven draft lotteries under the current format had failed to land the top overall selection in the NBA draft, the Wizards — who went 18-64 this season — came out on top in the much anticipated lottery Sunday afternoon in Chicago.

Washington was followed by the Utah Jazz (tied for the fourth-best odds) at No. 2, the Memphis Grizzlies (sixth-best odds) at No. 3 and the Chicago Bulls (ninth-best odds) at No. 4.

That meant the two other teams tied with the Wizards for the best lottery odds — the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets — fell to fifth and sixth in June's draft respectively. However, that also meant the Pacers pick was sent to the LA Clippers, as part of a trade that saw Indiana land center Ivica Zubac at February's trade deadline.

Indiana will now get its 2031 pick back instead, as the Pacers were only going to keep their pick in this year's draft if it moved into the top four spots in the lottery.

The big winners, though, are the Wizards, who made massive trades during the season to land All-Stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis, and have designs on taking a big step forward next season. Those hopes will be aided by selecting one of the top prospects in a banner class of prospects.

This year's draft — with a deep crop of prospects at the top including BYU forward AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson, plus a promising group of guard prospects (Arkansas' Darius Acuff, Houston's Kingston Flemings, Louisville's Mikel Brown and Illinois' Keaton