On the final day of the NBA season the Hornets defeated the Cavaliers to tie with the Blazers with 21 wins. To decide which team holds the 3rd and 4th place draft lottery odds, the NBA conducted a tiebreaker which today confirmed Charlotte will hold the 3rd best odds ahead of the NBA Draft lottery.

Although there is only a 0.1% difference for the first overall pick between picks three and four, the threat of falling back in the draft lottery is significantly higher when picking fourth. At pick three, a team has a 7% chance at falling outside of the top six and cannot fall below seventh, where at pick four that increases to 19% and a worst case scenario of eighth.

The full odds for Charlotte’s lottery odds can be seen below:

1st Pick = 13.3% 2nd Pick= 12.9% 3rd Pick = 12.4%

4th Pick = 11.7% 5th Pick = 15.3% 6th Pick = 27.1 7th = 7.4%

The NBA Draft lottery is set to be hosted on May 12th. Unlike the 2023 draft, there is no clear-cut number one pick with up to eight prospects currently under consideration. Due to the uncertainty at the top of the draft, the eventual draft order will have a bigger impact than ever on dictating selections as team needs will have a larger impact on decision making.

Despite the lack of consensus, the first overall selection would still come with an element of pressure as it does in any US professional sport. Especially for Jeff Peterson, Charlotte’s new VP of Basketball Operations who is in the lead decision making role for the first time in his career.