2022 NBA Draft, Combine and Lottery dates announced

On Tuesday, the NBA announced the dates of its draft-related events, all of which will be important for Washington Wizards fans, given that their play-in chances are dwindling with each additional loss.

The combine will be held from May 16-22 in Chicago. The lottery will be held on May 17, also in Chicago, featuring the 14 teams that don’t make the playoffs and/or received a draft pick from a team that doesn’t make the playoffs this season.

Finally, the Draft will be held on June 23 at the Barclays Center in New York City.

The Wizards are currently 11th place in the Eastern Conference and will not make the play-in. Even if they did, the Wizards would still have to win two games to earn the No. 8 seed in the East. Assuming they don’t get a lucky bounce of the lottery balls, given the current standings in the NBA, the Wizards are probably picking in the No. 10-12 range.

Given that the schedule isn’t getting any easier over the next couple weeks, the Wizards should have plenty of opportunities to .... “improve” their default draft position, a/k/a “tank.” That said, Kristaps Porzingis and Kyle Kuzma would like to make a run at that play-in tournament and see what happens from there.