The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery was certainly a memorable one. We explore four big winners and three crucial losers after a chaotic night in the NBA.
Well, it's official. The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery will be one for the record books. In the end, it was the Dallas Mavericks moving up 10 spots to earn the No. 1 overall pick. Of note, the San Antonio Spurs moved up six spots to No. 2, and the Philadelphia 76ers moved up a couple of spots to round out the top 3. There are still questions ahead of the 2025 NBA Draft, but there's certainly a level of clarity that has been found.
But before we completely dive into how the NBA Draft could unfold, let's take a look back at everything that transpired at the lottery by exploring four big winners and three colossal losers.
Cooper Flagg - Winner
This is not a huge knock on the Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards, or Utah Jazz, but there had to be part of Cooper Flagg (which he'd never admit) that was hoping one of the more successful franchises would move up in the NBA Draft Lottery. Well, fortunately for Flagg, that's exactly what transpired on lottery night. Unless something drastically changes, the Dallas Mavericks, who earned the No. 1 overall pick, will select Cooper Flagg.
Flagg will join a pretty loaded team of Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis. Dallas won't be 100 percent healthy at the start of the season, but a trio of Kyrie, Flagg, and AD is going to be a force to deal with by the end of the year in the Western Conference. You probably couldn't draw up a better situation for Flagg as he prepares to make the jump to the NBA.