The lottery system is how the NBA determines the draft order for the teams that don’t make the playoffs. It only determines the first 14 picks of the draft and has no impact on the second round. The first four picks are determined by the lottery, and picks 5-14 are determined by the reverse standings of whoever is left.

The Dallas Mavericks had only a 1.8 percent chance of winning the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, but that was not the unlikeliest jump in lottery history.

Since 1985, the NBA has used a lottery-style process to determine the first several picks of the league's annual draft. Since the 2019 NBA draft, the format has ensured that the team that finished the regular season with the worst record receives no lower than the fifth pick in that summer's draft.