The Phoenix Suns won the lottery for the first time ever. In the draw for the first 14 picks in the next draft, the balls fell in their favor. The Sacramento Kings and the Atlanta Hawks finished second and third.
The balls have fallen and the top pick in the 2018 draft belongs to the Phoenix Suns. As in the last three years, the team with the highest probability actually won the lottery.
The two teams with the second and third highest chances for the first pick, however, were unlucky: Both the Grizzlies and the Mavericks dropped out of the top three because the Hawks and the Kings “overtook” them.
The Cavaliers were also among the teams that were unlucky in the end: The Brooklyn pick they had received from the Celtics in the Kyrie irving trade remained at the projected position 8 and did not make the hoped-for jump.
The Sixers got the pick of the Lakers in 10th place – so there was no jump in this case. Boston would have got the pick if it had landed in positions 2 or 3, now the Celtics are expected to get the first-round pick from Sacramento next year.