CHICAGO — The Utah Jazz will not be capturing the Flagg.
On Monday, the Jazz dropped all the way down to No. 5 in the NBA draft lottery. They entered the night with a 14% chance of getting the top pick alongside the Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets .
The furthest the Jazz could drop was No. 5, and the next six weeks will be spent speculating on which player they will take with their pick at the June 25 draft.
The Dallas Mavericks received the top pick.
The Jazz still have never had the top pick in the draft, but their efforts to win the ping pong ball lottery might not be over. Without a clearcut newly minted star (which is what Flagg would have been), the Jazz could risk things and try to rise to the top of the lottery again in 2026.
The Jazz have been near or at the bottom of the NBA standings for the last three years, but their tanking efforts were more concrete during the last season, and while their efforts paid off in a guaranteed top-five pick, they still weren't able to get the ultimate prize.
Since the lottery odds were flattened in 2019, the team with the worst overall regular-season record has not won the lottery.
The previous lottery system gave a 25% chance to win the No. 1 pick to the team with the worst record. The second- and third-worst teams were given a 19.9% and 15.6% chance, respectively.
The new format, approved in 2017 and put into practice in 2019, not only reduced the odds, but also gave equal odds to the three teams with the worst records from the regular season.
So, the Jazz, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets all entered the lottery on Monday with the same odds (14%) at landing the No. 1 pick.
