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, the Wizards -- who went 18-64 this season -- came out on top in the much anticipated lottery Sunday 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 going to keep their pick in this year's draft only if they 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.
"It's our fans that have endured the most," Wizards top basketball executive Michael Winger said. "And to me, this No. 1 pick is for them. It's a reward for hanging in there with us. It's a reward to continue to support us despite sometimes really bad basketball. They knew and they supported a multiyear teardown, a multiyear reinvention of the franchise."
This year's draft -- with a 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 guards (Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr., Houston's Kingston Flemings, Louisville's Mikel Brown Jr. and Illinois' Keaton Wagler) behind them -- carried an extra amount of attention from fans and teams alike.
Over the final couple months of the regular season, nearly a third of the league was outright attempting to be as bad as possible to secure the best chances of leaping up and winning a shot at one of these prized prospects at the top of the class.
That fervor was heightened when the NBA, in response to the widespread tanking the sport has seen across the past two seasons in pursuit of consecutive deep draft classes, has announced it's going to take fairly drastic measures to curb the effectiveness of tanking.
That, though, is a conversation for later this month, when the NBA's board of governors is expected to vote on whatever the new lottery system might be. Sunday's results instead will put a focus on the teams that got lucky enough to leap into the top four -- and, with it, a chance to land a prospect with the potential to change their franchise.
There is some level of irony in the fact that the Jazz, who were hit with a $500,000 fine for "conduct detrimental to the league" over their attempts to get as high a pick as possible, moved up in the lottery for the first time in history to land the second pick.
Now that the lottery is over, the debate over the ordering of the prospects will begin -- with the top overall spot likely coming down to the two players who have fought for that honor all season long: Dybantsa and Peterson.
Dybantsa is a 6-foot-9 forward from Brockton, Massachusetts, who averaged 25.5 points per game as a freshman to lead the nation in scoring, making him the first to do so since Trae Young did it at Oklahoma in 2018 and only the third freshman ever, per ESPN Research.
Peterson, meanwhile, averaged 20.2 points per game, the most ever by a Kansas freshman, but missed 11 games because of injuries -- the most missed games for a potential No. 1 overall pick coming out of college since Kyrie Irving was taken after playing just 11 games for Duke back in 2011.
A pair of forwards, Boozer and Wilson, are then likely to be tapped with the third and fourth selections, in either order.
Boozer, the son of two-time NBA All-Star Carlos Boozer, was the most productive player in America. The burly 6-9 forward swept virtually every individual honor in the country this season after averaging 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.4 steals while shooting 55.6% from the field and 39.6% from 3-point range across 38 games.
And then there's Wilson, an electric 6-foot-10 forward who averaged 19.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.4 blocks while shooting 57.8% from the field in 24 games, though he missed time with a fractured left hand and then a broken right thumb that ended his season prematurely ahead of the NCAA tournament.
All four of those players, and a few other likely first-round selections, were among those in the studio Sunday for the announcement of the lottery results at Chicago's Navy Pier.
"Obviously, we're going to find out on June 23 where I'm going to land," Dybantsa said. "I'm betting on myself to be a No. 1 pick. I think I'm very adaptable. I can play anywhere."
Boozer, meanwhile, could be selected by the Bulls or the Jazz -- two teams that his father, Carlos Boozer, played for in his NBA days.
"It could be surreal, for sure," Cameron Boozer said. "I don't know what the future holds, but it's super exciting for sure."
The mid-lottery is expected to be dominated by guards, with individual team preference likely determining where Acuff, Brown, Flemings and Wagler wind up, with Tennessee's Nate Ament and Arizona's Brayden Burries potentially entering the discussion as well.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.