Why aren’t all teams participating in the NBA Draft lottery, and which teams are in 2023?

After every NBA regular season, the draft lottery is one of the following influential events. This weighted lottery system determines the order of choice for the upcoming draft, which takes place after the Finals and the crowning of a champion. This marks the beginning of the next season’s cycle. Anticipation is typically high, mainly when a potential generational player like French center Victor Wembanyama is in the spotlight as the projected number-one pick.

The draft options, scheduled for June 22 this year, vary depending on a team’s position in the regular phase and are determined by a lottery system. The NBA draft is open only to the fourteen teams not qualifying for the playoffs, and the rest of the sixteen go to the playoffs in a league of thirty teams.

In this way, the teams that play in the playoffs do not enter the weighted draw. When the lottery has been carried out, they are placed from pick 15 and in descending order, from worst to best, by the balance in the regular season of those 16. The other 14, those who do not play for the title, go to the lottery and decide their options to pick the highest possible. This determines the first three picks, and the rest are ordered, with the remaining eleven, from worst to best, up to 15. Then, the non-lottery picks arrive.

And these are some of the important conditions regarding some of the elections:

-Trail Blazers pick has top-14 protection or will go to Chicago Bulls

-Washington Wizards pick also has top-14 protection or will be from Houston Rockets

-Mavericks pick has top-10 protection or will be transferred to New York Knicks

-Orlando Magic’s second pick is originally from the Chicago Bulls