The draft lottery involves all 16 non-playoff teams. Two separate draws are conducted — one for the #1 overall pick and one for the #2 overall pick. Every non-playoff team has a chance to win, but the odds are weighted so that the worst teams have the best chances.
The team with the worst regular-season record gets the highest probability of winning the lottery — currently 25.5% for the first draw. The odds decrease from there, with the 16th-worst team receiving the lowest odds at approximately 0.5%.
Draw 1 — The #1 Pick: All 16 non-playoff teams participate. A combination of numbered balls is drawn to determine the winner.
Draw 2 — The #2 Pick: The lottery winner from Draw 1 is removed. The remaining 15 teams participate with recalculated proportional odds.
Picks 3–16: All remaining teams slot in order of regular-season standings (worst to best). No additional lottery draws are conducted.
A critical rule: no team can drop more than 10 spots from their pre-lottery position. This means the team with the worst record is guaranteed to pick no lower than 11th overall, even if they lose both lottery draws. This rule prevents the very worst teams from being pushed too far down the order and was introduced to balance randomness with fairness.