Nets NBA Draft Notebook: Lottery Day Odds and Storylines

The 2025 NBA Draft lottery is here.

On Monday, teams will gather in Chicago to find out the order of the lottery. The tension is high, and the reward is generational. Duke freshman Cooper Flagg will almost certainly be the No. 1 pick come June 25 at Barclays Center.

“We know what's at stake this year,” Brooklyn Nets general manager Sean Marks previously said.

The Nets would love nothing more than to pick the 18-year-old phenom at No. 1 inside their home arena. Flagg would be the franchise’s new cornerstone and the Nets' rebuild would have an immediate reward.

The Nets are locked into the sixth-best odds ahead of the lottery, with a 9% chance at the first overall pick. Brooklyn is likelier to move into the top four, with a 37.2% chance of that. Fans can simulate the lottery on Tankathon.

Zach Lowe, now on The Ringer and then on ESPN, previously wrote about the secretive process behind the draft lottery. Head coach Jordi Fernández will represent the Nets at the event.

"The lottery is this ultra-serious thing that can alter the course of entire franchises, with elaborate rules, observing accountants and sequestered attendees who must hand over their phones and Apple watches,” Lowe wrote..”It is also a human man plucking a ping-pong ball from a tube, and handing that ball to another human man who recites the number adorned on the ball. Repeat that four times, and you have a distinct four-number combination. That combination belongs to one of the 14 teams in the room. That team wins the lottery.”

The Utah Jazz, Washington Wizards and Charlotte Hornets all have a 14% chance at the first pick. That does not guarantee that the number one selection will go to one of those teams.