The NBA buried it’s draft lottery in the middle of a Sunday afternoon that also happened to be Mother’s Day. No one would blame you if you completely missed it. I almost did. It didn’t matter though, at least if you’re a fan of the Charlotte Hornets. They unsurprisingly stayed put at the 14th pick.

From a bigger NBA picture, it ended up being a very interesting lottery that was pretty ideal for a somewhat neutral observer. We didn’t have any annoying instances of good teams leapfrogging bad teams like we did last year. Everyone’s biggest fear was that the Thunder would vault into the top four with the Clippers pick that they own, but that didn’t happen. The Bulls were the big movers, jumping from nine to four. The Grizzlies moved up from six to three.

The two teams that got pushed out of the top four were the Pacers and Nets. It’s a tough break for the Nets, who don’t really have much going for them right now. But it might be an even tougher break for the Pacers, who now don’t have a pick at all. As part of the trade for Ivica Zubac, they gave the Clippers their first round pick this year provided it fell out of the top four. It did, landing at five, so it gets sent to the Clippers. The Pacers took a chance and hoped it would pay off to the point of adding a top four pick to a core of Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, and Ivica Zubac. The risk didn’t pay off.

The Hornets will pick 14th and 18th in the 2026 NBA Draft, which will happen in a little over a month. Before that, we have the NBA Draft Combine, which starts in Chicago today.