Mavericks win NBA draft lottery with 1.8% odds

The Dallas Mavericks moved past the Luka Doncic trade in resounding fashion Monday by winning the NBA draft lottery and the accompanying right to select Duke’s Cooper Flagg in June with the No. 1 overall pick.

The Mavericks had just a 1.8% chance to win the lottery and jumped 10 spots to grab the No. 1 pick, biggest jump by any team in lottery history, according to ESPN Research.

The unlikely victory in the lottery comes just three months after Dallas traded Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers in February, a move that drew widespread criticism from the fanbase.

“For us, it’s been a rough year as you all know,” said four-time NBA All-Star Rolando Blackman, who represented Dallas at the draft lottery. “But the important part of the whole thing is that we’ll get a chance to move our franchise forward. We have a tremendous staff and management. The important factor for us is to being able to continue in that tradition and to be able to move forward. It’s really a great honor, and it’s an important piece of the puzzle because we’ve been wanting hoop down in Dallas.”

San Antonio — with back-to-back rookies of the year in Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle — will pick second, Philadelphia will pick third, and Charlotte will pick fourth.

Flagg, a 6-foot-9 forward out of Duke, has been considered the frontrunner to be the top pick in the draft since August 2023, when he announced his decision to graduate high school a year early and enroll in a college as a 17-year-old.

Despite being one of the most heavily anticipated freshmen to enter the college game in several years, Flagg exceeded expectations by winning nearly every major national player of the year award, averaging 19.2 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists, and leading the Blue Devils (35-4) to a Final Four appearance.

The shocking win for the Mavericks comes three months after the franchise made the stunning and controversial decision to trade franchise superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis. Flagg now joins Davis on a Dallas team looking to compete immediately next season.

Projected to be drafted after Flagg are a pair of freshmen from Rutgers in Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, who each will be heavily studied by the teams selecting behind the Mavericks.

After Harper, a pool of players, including Bailey, Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe, Texas wing Tre Johnson, Oklahoma guard Jeremaiah Fears and Duke center Khaman Maluach, will be vying to be next up to hear their names called on June 25.

Utah (17-65), Washington (18-64), and Charlotte (19-63) entered the night with the best odds of winning the lottery with a 14% shot at matching the four-number combination of ping pong balls spit out by the lottery machine, followed by New Orleans (21-61) at 12.5%.

Utah will pick fifth, Washington sixth, New Orleans seventh, Brooklyn eighth, Toronto ninth, Houston 10th, Portland 11th, Chicago 12th, Atlanta 13th and San Antonio 14th.