Near the bottom of the league, the Houston Rockets, Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic and Oklahoma City Thunder are all looking forward to the NBA Draft Lottery on May 17. The chance to draft a potential superstar player is on the table and for those teams, a top-3 pick would be franchise-altering.
Houston, Detroit and Orlando are each tied for the best odds (14 percent) to land the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. Whoever ends up winning the No. 1 pick, Gonzaga star Chet Holmgren or Duke phenom Paolo Banchero could join their respective young cores and instantly make a difference.
How will this year's drawing play out for a lottery-bound team desperate to acquire a rising star?
Here's a guide to everything you need to know about the 2022 NBA Draft Lottery, including the TV channel, start time and every team's percentage odds to win the No. 1 overall pick.
What time is the NBA Draft Lottery in 2022?
- Date: May 17, 2022
- Time: TBD
The 2022 NBA Draft Lottery drawing will be conducted on Tuesday, May 17 from Chicago, Illinois.
What channel is the NBA Draft Lottery on?
- TV channel: ESPN
- Live stream: Watch ESPN app, Sling TV
The 2022 NBA Draft Lottery can be watched on ESPN or streamed via the Watch ESPN app. You can also stream the broadcast live with Sling TV.
How does the NBA Draft Lottery work?
The NBA Draft Lottery will determine the order of the top four draft picks this year. After the first four teams are locked in, the rest of the lottery order goes by inverse regular-season record. The actual lottery drawing procedure will occur before the ESPN broadcast, and the 2022 NBA Draft order will be announced shortly after.
Here's the in-the-weeds explanation for the ping-pong ball drawing method, straight from the NBA:
Fourteen ping-pong balls numbered 1 through 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. Before the lottery, 1,000 of those 1,001 combinations will be assigned to the 14 participating lottery teams. The lottery machine is manufactured by the Smart Play Company, a leading manufacturer of state lottery machines throughout the United States. Smart Play also weighs, measures and certifies the ping-pong balls before the drawing.
The drawing process occurs in the following manner: All 14 balls are placed in the lottery machine and they are mixed for 20 seconds, and then the first ball is removed. The remaining balls are mixed in the lottery machine for another 10 seconds, and then the second ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the third ball is drawn. There is a 10-second mix, and then the fourth ball is drawn. The team that has been assigned that combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The same process is repeated with the same ping-pong balls and lottery machine for the second through fourth picks.
If the same team comes up more than once, the result is discarded and another four-ball combination is selected. Also, if the one unassigned combination is drawn, the result is discarded and the balls are drawn again. The length of time the balls are mixed is monitored by a timekeeper who faces away from the machine and signals the machine operator after the appropriate amount of time has elapsed.
NBA Draft Lottery odds 2022
Under the 2022 format, the three worst teams (Rockets, Pistons and Magic) will each have a 14 percent chance of winning the lottery.
Here are each team's lottery odds with the percent chances to land each pick (via Tankathon):
| TEAM | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | AVG |
| Rockets | 14.0 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12.0 | 47.9 | 3.7 | |||||||||
| Pistons | 14.0 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12.0 | 27.8 | 20.1 | 3.9 | ||||||||
| Magic | 14.0 | 13.4 | 12.7 | 12.0 | 14.8 | 26.0 | 7.1 | 4.1 | |||||||
| Thunder | 12.5 | 12.2 | 11.9 | 11.4 | 7.2 | 25.7 | 16.8 | 2.2 | 4.4 | ||||||
| Pacers | 10.5 | 10.5 | 10.5 | 2.2 | 19.6 | 26.7 | 8.7 | 0.6 | 5.0 | ||||||
| Kings | 9.0 | 9.2 | 9.4 | 9.6 | 8.6 | 29.7 | 20.6 | 3.7 | 0.2 | 5.5 | |||||
| Trail Blazers | 7.5 | 7.8 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 19.7 | 34.0 | 13.0 | 1.3 | >0.0 | 6.2 | |||||
| Spurs | 6.0 | 6.3 | 6.7 | 7.2 | 34.5 | 31.9 | 6.9 | 0.4 | >0.0 | 7.0 | |||||
| Lakers | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 50.7 | 30.3 | 4.1 | 0.1 | >0.0 | 8.4 | |||||
| Wizards | 3.2 | 3.5 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 61.3 | 22.3 | 1.6 | >0.0 | >0.0 | 9.2 | |||||
| Pelicans | 3.1 | 3.4 | 3.7 | 4.1 | 73.2 | 12.1 | 0.4 | >0.0 | 9.9 | ||||||
| Knicks | 1.5 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 86.1 | 6.7 | 0.1 | 11.4 | |||||||
| Hawks | 1.0 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 1.4 | 92.9 | 2.3 | 12.5 | ||||||||
| Hornets | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 97.6 | 13.7 |
2022 NBA Draft Lottery team representatives
Here are the representatives who will appear on camera for each lottery team.
| Team | Representative | Position |
| Detroit Pistons | TBA | TBA |
| Houston Rockets | TBA | TBA |
| Indiana Pacers | TBA | TBA |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | TBA | TBA |
| Orlando Magic | TBA | TBA |
| Sacramento Kings | TBA | TBA |
| New York Knicks | TBA | TBA |
| Washington Wizards | TBA | TBA |
| Portland Trail Blazers | TBA | TBA |
