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Washington will not be getting a bailout from the NBA this year. The Wizards will hold the ninth overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft after Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery.
The Wizards entered the lottery with the sixth-best odds after going 32-50 this season. They had less than a 40 percent chance of moving up into the top four, so getting stuck in the bottom half of the top ten isn’t a surprise, but falling to ninth is rough. Washington came into the lottery with better odds of moving up to one (9.0 percent) than they did of moving down to nine (3.8 percent), but that’s what happened thanks to the Lakers, Grizzlies, and Pelicans all moving up into the top four.
Tuesday’s results reinforce how difficult it will be for the Wizards’ next GM to make a quick turnaround. John Wall will miss a significant portion of next season recovering from a ruptured Achilles and the team’s cupboard of young talent is sparse. They only have their first round pick in this year’s draft and last year’s first round pick Troy Brown Jr. is the only first round pick on a rookie deal they have locked up for the 2019-20 season.
Here are the full 2019 NBA Draft Lottery results: