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Houston Rockets Have a Realistic Shot at the First Pick in the NBA Draft

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Horace Shivers | Last updated Apr 21, 2025 8:05 PM ET

The Houston Rockets will have a chance at the 1st pick in the 2025 NBA draft. Five ties among teams with identical regular season records were broken today through random drawings to determine the order of selection for the NBA Draft 2025 presented by State Farm. The Suns ( Rockets) won their tiebreaker with the Blazers to have the 9th best odds in the draft to land the first pick.

HOU (via PHX) wins the tiebreaker with POR for the 9th slot in the lottery. Here is a breakdown of where the PHX pick could land:

9th - 50.7%
10th - 28.3%
4th - 4.9%
3rd - 4.5%
2nd - 4.1%
1st - 3.8%
11th - 3.5%
12th - 0.1%
13th - negligible https://t.co/z6JK1dDS64
— David Weiner # (@BimaThug) April 21, 2025

There is a 3.8% chance the Rockets land the first pick on lottery night ( May 12th). Houston acquired the Phoenix Suns 2025 and 2027 first round picks through the Brooklyn Nets as part of the Kevin Durant trade. The Rockets have a significant opportunity to get a valuable asset to one of the leagues deepest young rosters.

The number one overall pick in the NBA draft is Cooper Flagg. Flagg had one of the better freshman season ever by a college basketball player. He won the Wooden Award which goes to the top college basketball player.

Flagg averaged 19.2 ppg in his only season with the Blue Devils. There are also rumors that the Rockets could look to trade the pick for a veteran such as Kevin Durant. The Rockets are very fortunate to be able to be in position to add such a dynamic player at the top of the draft after winning 52 games this season.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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