Rockets Land Major Victory During Draft Lottery

The NBA’s draft lottery took place on Sunday, in what will ultimately be the final year under the old draft format. Teams have been attempting to tank their way to the top overall pick of the draft.

Many times, it’s successful. And even when it’s not, teams still luck up into a top-five pick. Case in point, the Houston Rockets of yesteryear, who identified a need to hit the reset button and start over in 2020.

The Rockets nabbed top-five draft picks in four consecutive years, landing Jalen Green, Jabari Smith Jr., Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard. Which is the definition of having luck on their side.

Granted, several of these picks came by way of owning other teams’ draft capital from trades, so the Rockets didn’t tank their way to all of these picks. Houston emerged victorious in Sunday’s draft lottery as well, without even having a lottery pick. Or a first-round pick at all, for that matter.

The top overall pick went to the Washington Wizards, which is their first time drafting first overall since the 2010 NBA Draft, when they drafted John Wall, who would later play for the Rockets, after playing for the Wizards for the first 10 years of his NBA career.

Interestingly enough, Wall represented the Wizards at the lottery. The second pick went to the Utah Jazz, the third pick went to the Memphis Grizzlies, the fourth pick went to the Chicago Bulls and the fifth pick went to the LA Clippers.

The Brooklyn Nets ultimately landed the sixth pick, which could prove to be beneficial for the Rockets. As a reminder, the Rockets own the Nets’ pick in 2027 and will especially be hoping for the Nets to have another losing season.

With the sixth overall pick, Brooklyn will miss out on the marquee guys in this year’s draft. Sure, they will land a prized talent with the pick, but likely in a much lower tier than Daryn Peterson, Cam Boozer, AJ Dybansa and Darius Acuff Jr.—who are easily the five best players in the draft.

Again, the Nets will get a good player (if they draft right, of course). But the likelihood of the Nets landing a player good enough to turn them into a contender at sixth overall is very low. Even in a rich draft class like this year’s.

As it pertains to this year’s draft, the Rockets own two second-round picks.