The 2024-25 NBA regular season has concluded, which means the worst teams in the league will not play basketball again for another six months or so. While the best teams are still duking it out for the championship, the others are already looking ahead to June’s NBA Draft. And the conclusion of the regular season offered some important clarity on that front as the draft order is now set. Well… most of it.
As you surely know, the NBA does not order draft picks entirely on record from the previous season. While picks No. 15-30 are determined exclusively via record, picks 1-14 are slotted through a lottery. Now that regular season has ended, we know which 10 teams have missed the postseason entirely and what odds they will have on lottery night.
After those 10 lottery locks, there is still quite a bit to be determined. We will only know the final order once we learn who the last four playoff teams will be. The four Play-In teams that miss the playoffs will hold picks 11-14. After that, the 16 playoff teams are ordered by record. If there are ties anywhere in the bracket, they are broken through a random drawing held before the lottery.
So, what is the 2025 NBA Draft order? Below is what we know now, keeping in mind that those picks in the middle of the first round are still to be determined.
*pick belongs to 76ers if 1-6, Thunder if 7-30
**pick belongs to Kings if 1-12, Hawks if 13-30
***still to be determined based on Play-In results
When is the NBA Draft Lottery?
The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery will be held on May 12. That is when we will find out where Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper and the rest of the top prospects in the 2025 NBA Draft will land. For now, we have a good chunk of the order determined. That undecided middle area will be settled this week, as seeds 7-10 in each conference participate in the Play-In Tournament for the right to reach the playoffs proper. The winners keep playing; the losers get higher draft picks.
Something you likely noticed is that barely any playoff teams control their own picks. Of the teams outside of the Play-In Tournament, only the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics currently control the picks that originally belonged to them. That is a function of the all-in NBA we currently exist within. Most of those teams at the back end of the first round traded draft picks for veteran help at some point in the recent past. They’re now paying for that privilege.
All told, we are headed for a first round of the postseason in which more than half of the 30 picks in the first round could change hands before the draft even begins. Add all of the trading that inevitably comes during the draft itself and barely anybody outside of the lottery uses their own picks anymore. This order represents where we sit now, but when the dust settles, expect many more of these picks to change hands.
