The NBA Draft Lottery will change the trade market, and these five teams could all make blockbusters

The buildup to the NBA Draft Lottery is all about the prospects. Where are AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson headed? Now, that part is at least partially settled. We don't know yet know who's taking who, but we at least know who's picking where. In all likelihood, those four players will land in Washington, Utah, Memphis and Chicago. With that part settled, the questions now turn to everybody else.

What are these teams going to do with their veterans now that they have young stars incoming? What do the teams that missed out on Sunday do now? The lottery sets the table for the entire offseason, so let's dive into some of the possible ripple effects of Sunday's result.

1. Will the Wizards trade Anthony Davis?

Congratulations to Anthony Davis on finding his true calling as the greatest good luck charm in NBA history. Consider the following...

• In 2019, Davis tried to force a trade from the Pelicans to the Lakers. New Orleans held onto him past the deadline, then won the No. 1 pick.
• In 2025, the Lakers traded Davis to the Mavericks, who proceeded to win the No. 1 pick.
• In 2026, the Mavericks traded Davis to the Wizards who, you guessed it, went on to win the No. 1 pick.

Essentially, in years in which Davis either gets traded or tries to get traded, his team wins the NBA Draft lottery. While that isn't going to compel anyone to take on the two years left on his max contract, we should address the elephant in the room here: Davis doesn't seem especially eager to be a Wizard. He has not yet played a game for Washington. 

Insider Chris Haynes has said he thinks there's a good chance Davis gets moved, and his interviews in Washington haven't exactly been enthusiastic. When asked about his future at his exit interview, he said "yeah, I'm under contract," while adding, with a laugh "I love my money." He has frequently referred to the Wizards as "they" rather than "we" in public comments.

Davis is 33. He wants to contend for a title now. He's also eligible for a contract extension that he'd presumably like to sign, and at least for now, there has been little reporting suggesting the Wizards plan to give it to him. So, does this No. 1 pick make a Davis trade likelier?

Well, let's see who they take. Neither Dybantsa nor Peterson overlap with Davis positionally. Cameron Boozer might, as he and Alex Sarr would presumably be the frontcourt starters in Washington, but for the time being, he looks like a long shot to go No. 1. 

However, merely getting the No. 1 pick does tighten Washington's books a bit. It's a roughly $6 million salary difference between their floor at No. 5, and more than that, there's going to be far less pressure to win now with this prospect creating a far brighter future. Davis was, in some ways, a contingency against the worst possible lottery outcomes. If the Wizards had slipped, having Davis and Trae Young would have made the Wizards competitive next season. Now, they can get there organically. If there's a good offer for Davis at this point, the Wizards can take it knowing their future is already secure.

2. How do the Jazz manage their sudden surplus?

As far as the non-Thunder or Spurs class of Western Conference teams go, you could argue no team has done a better job of accumulating talent and assets than the Jazz. They have two ascending young prospects already in Keyonte George and Ace Bailey, two veteran All-Stars in Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., and a defensive stud center in Walker Kessler returning from free agency. They're loaded everywhere, and they still have some draft upside coming from Cleveland and Minnesota through the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert trades. In the flattened lottery system to come, having any incoming picks or swaps is meaningful.

Now the Jazz add the No. 2 pick to the equation. For now, the likeliest selection would seem to be Kansas guard Darryn Peterson. Well, the Jazz are loaded with shooting and scoring. How much does Peterson overlap with George, Bailey and Markkanen? George is extension-eligible this offseason. Markkanen has been the subject of trade rumors forever and has lasted throughout this Utah rebuild. Danny Ainge is utterly devoid of sentiment on roster-building matters. If someone throws a big enough offer his way, he'll consider almost anything.

A Markkanen deal only really makes sense if the Jazz wind up with one of the forwards. That would create a genuine front-court glut. There's no sense rushing anything where George is concerned. If he and Peterson are indeed the backcourt of the future, it's worth seeing how they fare together before making any rash decisions. George should retain trade value on whatever extension he signs this offseason, assuming the Jazz get him back for less than the max.

There will inevitably be trade-up rumors here. Dybantsa played collegiately at BYU, whose biggest booster is Jazz owner Ryan Smith. Only time will tell if the Wizards are amenable. Trades within the top of the draft are rare -- the last one we saw was Philadelphia and Boston swapping Markelle Fultz and Jayson Tatum -- but in a class with this many top prospects, it makes sense if the Wizards prefer someone besides Dybantsa. There may even be trade-down rumors, if Memphis wants Peterson. Boozer's father, Carlos, was an All-Star for the Jazz and currently works for their front office.

No matter what, it's an enviable position for the Jazz to find themselves in. They can build whatever sort of team they want from here. After four years of tanking, they're finally ready to take the next step toward winning.

3. What does the No. 5 pick mean for Kawhi Leonard?

The Clippers are perhaps the single likeliest team in the lottery to make a trade. They have the No. 5 pick in a draft with four top-tier prospects, followed by a big group of mostly point guards. Their only major, long-term asset at this point is Darius Garland, a small point guard. He's certainly not a fit defensively with someone like Darius Acuff. Maybe one of the bigger point guards could make sense, but realistically, the Clippers need other things. After all, they don't control their own first-round pick again until 2030.

That makes them a prime trade-down candidate. If the Nets, Kings or Hawks have a strong preference for one of the guards in this class and are willing to pay a premium to go up and get him, that should suit the Clippers just fine. Or, if the Clippers want to make an aggressive push to jump up to No. 4 and grab Wilson, a player who makes a bit more sense next to Garland, they can try to do that as well. After all, they have a pretty clear way to increase their own asset pool before trying to do so.

The Clippers traded James Harden and Ivica Zubac at the deadline. That suggests they're moving towards some sort of retool, and if that's the case, it no longer makes sense to keep Kawhi Leonard. We know teams like the Warriors tried to get him at the deadline. Others will push in the weeks to come as well, and now that the Clippers have a top draft pick incoming, there's no longer much of a reason to cling to winning now. They can use Leonard to further boost their suddenly bright future. There's a good chance some other pick late in the lottery -- Golden State at No. 11, or Miami at No. 13, perhaps -- finds its way to Los Angeles in a Leonard deal before the draft.

We know almost nothing about how this front office will approach a top-five pick. There are only two active players in the NBA who were drafted by the Clippers in the lottery and actually played for them as rookies: Eric Gordon and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. This is uncharted territory for the Clippers, so they could take this in a number of directions. A Leonard trade felt likely before the lottery. Now, the Clippers should be all-in on youth and asset accumulation.

4. Are the Pacers about to make a win-now splash?

There's a lot of talk right now about the crazy mistake Indiana made by giving up a top-five pick, along with other assets, to get Ivica Zubac. I'm not sure I agree with that sentiment. The top four prospects are so overwhelmingly promising that any team in position to draft one of them should just do it and figure the rest out later. That isn't necessarily the case for the next tier of prospects. The Pacers are trying to win the championship here and now. They're also loaded at guard. What would they have really gained by taking a teenage guard Rick Carlisle probably wouldn't have trusted as part of a championship push? They took a calculated risk to fill their biggest hole. That risk didn't pay off... but the hole is still filled.

And as Rick Carlisle recently noted, not having the pick does free the Pacers up to a bit more aggressive on the trade market now. "If it doesn't happen, there's a contingency plan to build the team up, too," Carlisle said about the Pacers jumping into the top four. "So, we're gonna view it as a win-win situation. We got Zubac here, who's gonna be a terrific player for us. And if it turns out we don't get one of the (top) four picks, then we fulfilled a pretty significant part of what we owe the Clippers. And we've gotten a center, and we'd probably have the ability to go get some other veterans."

Had the Pacers kept the pick, they'd be looking at another meaningful salary on their books, and their 2031 first-round pick would have gone to the Clippers instead. Well, now that 2031 pick is essentially found money for the Pacers as a trade asset, and their books are cleaner if they want to pursue another upgrade. They're right around the luxury tax for the time being, and they will probably prioritize remaining below it. That's very doable. Most of the back end of their roster is on non-guaranteed deals anyway. Don't be surprised if the Pacers look to package players like Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard with picks for another win-now piece. If they're willing to put bigger salaries like Obi Toppin's or T.J. McConnell's on the table, bolder possibilities open up.

Of course, Indiana would have rather just kept the pick. Anyone in the top four has a chance to be a franchise cornerstone. But this notion that Indiana blew it by giving the pick away is a bit extreme. The Pacers were in Game 7 of the Finals a year ago. Getting back there is the goal, and they're still in good shape to try and do so.

5. Are the Nets about to make a win-now splash?

For the Pacers, a top-four pick would have been an awesome luxury. For the Nets, it was probably a necessity. Brooklyn's decision to trade for control over its 2025 and 2026 draft picks back now looks borderline catastrophic. In exchange for the No. 8 pick in 2025 and the No. 6 pick in 2026, they gave up the No. 10 pick in 2025, Phoenix's unprotected pick in 2027 and the two most favorable picks between the Suns, Mavericks and Rockets in a flattened lottery ecosystem in 2029. The Nets gained about as little through tanking as it's possible to gain. The two picks they traded for moved down by five combined slots.

The Nets didn't regain control over their 2027 pick in that trade with Houston. The Rockets still have it. With the 2028 class expected to be weak and lottery reform coming, the Nets no longer have a clean path to building through the draft. Even the players likely to be available to them at No. 6, mostly guards, are iffy fits on a roster that just added five rookies who need the ball last summer. Brooklyn's hopes for an organic rebuild might have just gone up in smoke.

But they still play in New York. They're still set for max cap space this offseason. And they're still positively loaded with picks to trade moving forward. The Nets control New York's picks in 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2031, Denver's in 2032, and the worst of Houston's, Dallas' and Phoenix's in 2029, on top of all of their own picks.

The last time Sean Marks built a contender, he did it through free agency and trades, pairing James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Is he going to have to get that aggressive again with tanking suddenly off of the table? Who would he even target? Donovan Mitchell tried to get to New York in 2022. Would he consider Brooklyn a reasonable alternative as a 2027 free agent? There have been Giannis Antetokounmpo rumors for quite some time. Would he be open-minded about joining a Nets team without a co-star in place?

The Nets were on nobody's bingo cards for Durant and Irving... until it happened. That's probably how this is going to have to go. Someone will want to go to New York because someone always does. That will be the starting point for Brooklyn's true rebuild.