CHICAGO — The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery was a disaster in almost every way the Pelicans could’ve imagined.
New Orleans went into Monday night with about a dozen other teams, with dreams of moving to the top of the draft order and getting an opportunity to add potential star prospects such as Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper. The lottery is always unpredictable, but the Pels came in with a 48.1 percent chance of at least landing a top-four pick in this year’s draft.
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What’s the worst that could happen?
Well, the Pels got close to finding out when three teams —Dallas, San Antonio and Philadelphia — jumped ahead of them and pushed New Orleans from No. 4 to the No. 7 pick in June’s draft. The absolute worst-case scenario was four teams jumping ahead of them and pushing them back to No. 8, so it could’ve been worse, right?
Well, technically, yes. However, the two teams awarded the top two picks in the draft made this night even more difficult for New Orleans.
As if the future wasn’t bright enough in San Antonio after drafting the last two Rookie of the Year recipients, including French superstar Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs will also get to add the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft. Harper is the heavy favorite to be the No. 2 pick, and while his fit next to recently-acquired Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox might not be ideal as backcourt mates, San Antonio has time to figure out how to make it work. Or, even worse, the Spurs could just trade the No. 2 pick and add even more assets to their war chest.
Then, there were the biggest winners of the night, the Dallas Mavericks. The team that had been the laughingstock of the NBA after their shocking decision to trade Luka Dončić in February. Now, Dallas will have a new face of the franchise — Cooper Flagg — and a much brighter outlook despite the injuries to Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis that derailed its season.
Even though Dallas has been stern in its preference to build a win-now team since moving on from Dončić, getting to add a player with the star power that Flagg will bring on and off the court has to adjust the franchise’s thinking somewhat.
For the foreseeable future, the Pelicans will have to compete in a Southwest Division that’ll feature Flagg and the Mavs, Wembanyama and the Spurs, Ja Morant and the Grizzlies and a Houston squad that won 52 games this year and is currently the favorite to land Giannis Antetokounmpo if he were to get traded this summer. Maybe the Spurs can use that No. 2 pick as part of their package to go after Antetokounmpo.
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If you thought the Western Conference couldn’t get any tougher, you’d be mistaken.
After losing 60-plus games for the second time in franchise history, the Pelicans have to find a path forward with the seventh overall pick as the teams around them continue to load up.
While the lottery results were tough to handle, something else was happening on the stage that may bring joy to a certain portion of the Pelicans’ fan base.
Zion Williamson is in the building pic.twitter.com/6x5RdYt9L7
— Will Guillory (@WillGuillory) May 12, 2025
Zion Williamson was the representative for the Pelicans on stage Monday night. He wore a collared shirt featuring the Pelicans logo as he spoke on the broadcast about feeling “nervous and excited” six years ago when New Orleans won the lottery the year he came out of college.
After weeks of speculation concerning Williamson’s future with the franchise, his presence Monday night was the strongest signal yet that the Pelicans and the best player on the roster remain aligned as they enter a new phase.
In reality, nothing is stopping the Pelicans from trading Williamson in a few weeks and leaning into a full rebuild if they find the right deal. Considering how rocky this marriage has been in recent years, some may view this as the most sensible path forward. However, the effort to push Williamson to the forefront on this national broadcast was far from a coincidence. Both sides wanted to portray that they are still on the same page.
If Williamson sticks around, New Orleans already has several building blocks in place for a team that could make noise in the West if a few things go their way. Starting with Williamson, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones and Yves Missi as the foundation moving forward isn’t bad at all, as long as they all remain healthy.
And as the three Texas teams continue to ascend, the likelihood of Antetokounmpo pushing his way out of Milwaukee will increase. This will only aid New Orleans as the team that owns the rights to the Bucks’ first-round pick swaps in 2026 and 2027.
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With Antetokounmpo potentially gone, the Pels could hold premium picks in the next two drafts, or they could turn around and trade those draft rights back to Milwaukee for the right offer.
While adding one more elite talent to the Southwest Division wouldn’t be ideal, it would put New Orleans in position to make a big move before the summer of 2026.
We can’t look past this year’s draft either.
While most teams were aiming to land somewhere in the top-four picks, some great talent will be left on the board once the No. 7 pick comes around in June.
Tre Johnson from Texas and Kon Knuppel from Duke are big-time shooters with the potential to grow into dynamic offensive weapons.
Jeremiah Fears of Oklahoma and Kasparas Jakucionis of Illinois are dangerous on-ball threats who can become the leaders of an offense with more seasoning.
Khaman Maluach of Duke and Derik Queen of Maryland are bigs with different skills, but as double-big lineups continue to rise in prominence around the league, both will be coveted at the top of the board.
Monday turned out to be a dark day for those who thought the Pelicans could strike gold in the lottery the same way they did six years ago. Still, as long as the primary pieces on the roster remain healthy, there are other ways this team can keep up with the arms race out West.
It begins with finally taking advantage of the lottery luck they had six years ago.
(Photo: Tyler Kaufman / Getty Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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