NBA Draft Lottery Standings: Pencils Down

For teams like the Sacramento Kings, the NBA Draft Lottery is all that’s left now that the 2025-26 regular season is officially over.

What really did turn into the “Year of the Tank” has reached the finish line, with teams like the Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards, Brooklyn Nets, and Utah Jazz all locking in their final positions.

For Sacramento, the season closes at 22-60, placing them into a tie with the Utah Jazz for the fourth-best odds.

After being neck-and-neck with Utah down the stretch, there’s no more movement left — no scoreboard watching, no scenarios to track. The records are set.

Now it shifts from standings to luck.

The 2026 NBA Draft Lottery is set for Sunday, May 10th, and that’s where everything changes. The Kings will be hoping for a jump into the top four — or if things finally break their way, the No. 1 overall pick.

It’s been a long time coming. Sacramento hasn’t picked first overall since 1989, and this is the moment where a franchise could flip its future overnight, especially with this year’s loaded Draft class.

The season’s done. The positioning is locked. Now, it’s all about the ping-pong balls.

Final 2026 NBA Draft Lottery Standings

(Tankathon)

How The Odds & NBA Draft Lottery Work

The NBA Draft Lottery is designed to give the league’s worst teams the best chance at landing the top pick, while discouraging outright tanking.

For a team like the Sacramento Kings, lottery odds come into play only if they miss the playoffs and finish in the bottom 14 of the standings.

The three teams with the worst records each have a 14 percent chance to win the No. 1 overall pick, with odds decreasing incrementally by record.

If the Kings finish, for example, with the fourth-worst record, they would have a 12.5 percent chance at the top pick and a much higher likelihood of falling outside of the top five.

The NBA Draft Lottery itself only determines the top four picks. After that, selections are ordered by regular-season record.

This system means Sacramento can move up, stay roughly where projected, or slide back—sometimes significantly—depending on how the lottery balls bounce. It’s why even small differences in late-season standings matter. One extra win can slightly reduce top-pick odds but also protect against a big drop.

(Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images)

How Will A Tie-Breaker Between The Kings & Jazz Be Determined?

When two teams finish with the same record — like the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz this year — there isn’t a traditional “tiebreaker” like you’d see for playoff seeding. Instead, the NBA handles it with a random drawing before the NBA Draft Lottery, and that result determines how the odds are officially assigned.

Here’s how it works: the league conducts a random drawing between the tied teams. That drawing decides which team is slotted ahead of the other in the draft order for odds purposes only.

So in this case, one team will be designated as having the fourth-best lottery odds, and the other will fall to fifth.

But here’s the important part — both teams still share the combined odds of those two positions.

The NBA essentially averages the odds for the No. 4 and No. 5 slots and gives each team an equal share. So even though one team is technically “fourth” and the other is “fifth” after the tiebreaker, their chances at landing the No. 1 overall pick (and other lottery positions) are identical.

Where the tiebreaker does matter is after the lottery drawing itself. If neither team jumps into the top four, then the order between them reverts back to that initial coin flip. So whichever team won the tiebreaker would pick ahead of the other in the final draft order.

(Photo by Jennifer Pottheiser/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Kings and Jazz will have the same lottery odds despite the tie, but that pre-lottery coin flip could still decide who picks higher if neither team gets lucky on lottery night.

The 2026 NBA Draft is projected to be a top-five-heavy draft, with each of the top-five picks posing as a potential franchise-altering talent.

One of Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Duke’s Cameron Boozer, North Carolina’s Caleb Wilson, Houston’s Kingston Flemings, or Arkansas’ Darius Acuff Jr. could be donning a Sacramento Kings jersey come NBA Summer League in Las Vegas this June.

It all depends on draft position, and if the Kings want to bring in a new face of the franchise, this could be the draft to do so.

Stay tuned for more NBA Draft Lottery coverage right here on Sactown Sports.

When is the next Sacramento Kings offseason date of interest?

The Sacramento Kings will now look ahead to the highly anticipated NBA Draft Lottery, which is set for Sunday, May 10th.

Sacramento hasn’t secured the top pick in the NBA Draft since 1989, when it selected center Pervis Ellison with the first overall selection.

Be sure to stay locked in to Sactown Sports 1140 all offseason for NBA Draft Lottery coverage, NBA Draft previews and analysis, NBA Summer League content, and MUCH more!

More Sacramento Kings content from Sactown Sports

• Report: Doug Christie will return as Kings head coach next season
• Christensen: Tanking isn’t in Doug Christie’s DNA
• NBA salary cap expert advises against stretching Zach LaVine’s contract
• Slater: Kings’ ‘tanking’ controversy was just a coaching mistake

Upcoming Sacramento Kings & NBA Offseason Schedule

• Tuesday, April 14th – NBA Play-In Tournament begins
• Saturday, April 18th – NBA Playoffs begin
• Sunday, May 10th – NBA Draft Lottery
• Thursday, June 4th– NBA Finals begin
• Thursday, June 25th – NBA Draft (Round 1)
• Friday, June 26th – NBA Draft (Round 2)
• Tuesday, June 30th – NBA Free Agency negotiation period begins (3 PM PT)
• Thursday, July 9th – NBA Las Vegas Summer League begins
• Monday, July 13th – Free Agency moratorium ends / signings can become official

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