Utah Jazz guaranteed to keep lottery pick after winning tiebreaker with Kings
Jazz win tiebreaker with Sacramento for fourth-worst regular-season record
People walk by a sign during the NBA basketball draft lottery in Chicago, Tuesday, May 16, 2023. | Nam Y. Huh, Associated Press The Utah Jazz will not be sending their 2026 draft pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
In order to determine draft and draft lottery position, the NBA conducts tiebreaker drawings for teams that finished the regular season with identical records. The Jazz and Sacramento Kings both finished with a regular-season record of 22-60, vying for the 4th and 5th worst record in the league. Importantly, the Jazz owed a 2026, top-8 protected, first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
So, after the draft lottery, if the Jazz’s pick fell out of the top-8, they would have to send it to OKC. During the draft lottery, the team in the fourth position can fall no lower than 8th. While the team in the fifth position has a 99.
3% chance at staying in the top-8, there is still risk at falling to 9th. That made the tiebreaking drawing on Monday really important for the Jazz. Since they now have the fourth spot on lottery night, it means that they are guaranteed a top-8 pick, and no longer need to worry about the Thunder swooping in to take their lottery pick.