2025 NBA Draft

[pepe1991]

Is it rigged ? Who knows. It's closed circle and private league, all have common interest, and that's making money. Is it bit questionable that lottery winner with 1,8% chance comes from team who just gave biggest market, biggest star for low return, in same time those owners also own gambling business? In years where US is being flooded with sport betting as biggest money making machines, and one of biggest sport betting supporters for years were- Mavs owners, who are still fighting to legalize sports betting in Texas?

Possible.

There are still several nba teams, who are irrelevant to nba, who are yet to win lottery. Despite fact they are in lottery very often.
Grizzlies, Thunder, Jazz, Nuggets, Pacers. What they all have in common? Oh look. They are all small market teams with unremarkable owners. Shocking.

I don't know. What i do know? When Pelicans were worthless team owned by a League, guess who won lottery to boost value to sell? Another shocking lottery winner.

After Lebron left, Cavs won 3 lotteries in 4 years. Probability? 0,005% i think? or some 1:13500 event. Just like Nike "didn't know Lebron's decision to go home" and by accident purchased s** loud of land in Cleveland before "return"?

In general, pretty much all lotteries are rigged. That's how industry works, they only draw winner once they gathered enough money to pay- a -winner + make profit for themself. That's why gambling is biggest and most profitable industry in the world. You play, they win.

Come on guys, let's not be naive. Money makes a world go round, it's in nba's best interest to have biggest nba teams set to be good. Nobody cares about Pacers. People won't care about nba if OKC is champion. NBA has no interest in Giannis being stuck with Bucks.
NBA, private league, is at it's best when biggest stars are in biggest markets. That makes money for everybody.
It's way better for a League to have Dallas and Spurs winning lottery than Jazz and Hornets. Who wants to see first white-US born superstar since Bird in Charlotte?

Speaking of Charlotte. 36 seasons. 24 in lottery. 1 first overall pick, never won lottery since 1991. In last 12 years alone, they had top 5 worst record - 6 times. But hey, too small to matter- no 1st overall pick for you sir
Even before "lottery fix" they didn't won lottery after 7-59 season (worst season in nba history) when they had 25% chance at 1# pick.

Hey, i'm not saying it's fix. I'm saying that every time nba needs impossible coincidence to happen to smooth something up with lottery, that impossible coincidence occurs out of thin air.

[Bensational]

Check this out:

2011 Hornets/Pels traded CP3 to LAC (after failed attempt to send him to LAL). Hornets won the #1 pick that season after finishing with the 8th worst record. AD was drafted with that pick.

2019 Pels traded AD to LAL. Won the #1 pick and Zion sweeps that season with 10th best odds. (Also got #4 from Lakers pick)

2025 Dallas trade Luka to LAL for AD. They win #1 pick after finishing with the 11th worst record.

Conclusion: It must be prophecy.

[SOUL]

Mavs have never moved up in the lottery until today though lol. So theoretically, if we're saying that teams/franchises get rigged when they become relevant/moved up to the big boy club (i.e. Chicago in the 90s), (Golden State in the 2010s), then there is basically an excuse for rigging for any team period for basically any reason (team needs a star, team needs trade chip, team needs repayment for "favor", team gets hometown kid).

I mean, Magic won three drafts with two hall of famers and a star in Paolo without much rigging accusations. Simply press Tankathon three times and see what wacky results happen.

The ACTUAL reality is that teams/owners banding together to benefit a team simply because of a bad trade or to prop up Dallas as a fanbase isn't worth tanking other fanbases/risking the entire NBA shutting down because of its practices. People just like to throw conspiracy theories out there because we do that for everything nowadays.

[cedric76]

Draft IS NOT rigged, do you guys understand that someone from each team + people from the press are in that room during the draft?

1 st you d need all teams in that room to agree that Dallas get #1 and SA to get #2 and Phily to get #3

2 nd , reporting that this draft was rigged would be a Scoop of a life time for the journalist who report it

Zero chances it s rigged

But i can assure you that the NBA is NOT happy that teams like Utah and others were bluntly tanking, TANKING IS BAD for the NBA

[RookieStar]

Im not saying its rigged... but someone from GB reposted a Raps poster from their board that says something like...

" Show me a multi-billion dollar corporation headed by 30 billionaires who got there by not being dumb, and makes important decision based on a throw of a dice "

Then again... i already had DAL or WAS winning it so... ehhh..

[RookieStar]

When do we start bringing in guys for workouts?

[SOUL]

Im not saying its rigged... but someone from GB reposted a Raps poster from their board that says something like...

" Show me a multi-billion dollar corporation headed by 30 billionaires who got there by not being dumb, and makes important decision based on a throw of a dice "

Then again... i already had DAL or WAS winning it so... ehhh..

Seems like there's a lot of " I told you sos" and not many "I just won a shitton amount of money from betting on what I thought was gonna happen"

[pepe1991]

Mavs have never moved up in the lottery until today though lol. So theoretically, if we're saying that teams/franchises get rigged when they become relevant/moved up to the big boy club (i.e. Chicago in the 90s), (Golden State in the 2010s), then there is basically an excuse for rigging for any team period for basically any reason (team needs a star, team needs trade chip, team needs repayment for "favor", team gets hometown kid).

I mean, Magic won three drafts with two hall of famers and a star in Paolo without much rigging accusations. Simply press Tankathon three times and see what wacky results happen.

The ACTUAL reality is that teams/owners banding together to benefit a team simply because of a bad trade or to prop up Dallas as a fanbase isn't worth tanking other fanbases/risking the entire NBA shutting down because of its practices. People just like to throw conspiracy theories out there because we do that for everything nowadays.

To me it boils down to simple question: why wouldn't lottery be rigged?

We know 1 thing and 1 thing we assume because there is lot of evidence of it:

Thing we know:
1) owners aren't actually OWNERS, they are team holders/ handlers and can be ran out ( Sterling).

The NBA's constitution outlines a process where a three-quarters vote by other owners can compel a sale if an owner violates the league's rules or is deemed detrimental to the league's interests

So yea, that idea of keeping soldiers in line isn't that far fetched. btw did you notice how many teams changed owners last 5 years alone?


Thing we kind a know:
1) not all the owners prioritize winning. They handle teams like firms, profit being main goal.



So based on those two premises alone you can start questioning lottery. You know for fact that close circle is very close ( 30 men + nba board, and you have to stay in line to stay within circle ), and you know that majority of them only care about $$$ and don't give a flying f**** who gets some silver pitcher in May.

League needs league to be exiting to sell product & reach out. Needless to say way more people are Lakers/ Celtics / Knicks fans than they are nba fans.
Meaning, league's value depends on biggest market teams to be good. Thinking otherwise would be foolish and simply naive.



As whole "how could they pull rigging off" is bit silly and naive as well.
They put very, very very VERY limited amount of media in a room. For instance, 2024 draft only had 12 media members in room. 6 of them work for nba teams.

btw there is whole drama about Texas ( hmm, isn't it interesting ? ) lottery worth $95M being rigged, as somebody invested $25M worth lottery tickets in Europe to win
Is that money laundering, rigging, fixing? Call it whatever.



Thing is, this is 3rd time in 14 years when somebody deals big star to LA based team and wins lottery with low odds in same year. How many times coincidences can occur again and again to stop being coincidences?

[KillMonger]

Sorber is a beast!

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

Dwight like numbers

Sent from my [Sidekick 5G] using RealGM mobile app

Great measurements.
Some nice prospects in our draft range

Can't complain, I know for sure we're keeping one pick as weltman doesn't usually trade first rounders but we'll see.... Quite a few players I like so I don't think we can make a bad pick however..... Sometimes weltman tries to prove he's the smartest guy in the room and pick someone out of left field..... I guess we will see

Sent from my [Hands] using RealGM mobile app

[RookieStar]

Im not saying its rigged... but someone from GB reposted a Raps poster from their board that says something like...

" Show me a multi-billion dollar corporation headed by 30 billionaires who got there by not being dumb, and makes important decision based on a throw of a dice "

Then again... i already had DAL or WAS winning it so... ehhh..

Seems like there's a lot of " I told you sos" and not many "I just won a shitton amount of money from betting on what I thought was gonna happen"

Ssssshhhh... just let me flex SOUL lol

[Husky1]

Gee whiz, this pick swap next year (worse of Suns/Wizards) is almost our best tradeable asset, borderline untradeable? They can easily both be bottom 5 teams going into next years lottery. Durant will be traded, Wash miss out on Harper/Flagg this year. Amazing

[Bensational]

Check this out:

2011 Hornets/Pels traded CP3 to LAC (after failed attempt to send him to LAL). Hornets won the #1 pick that season after finishing with the 8th worst record. AD was drafted with that pick.

2019 Pels traded AD to LAL. Won the #1 pick and Zion sweeps that season with 10th best odds. (Also got #4 from Lakers pick)

2025 Dallas trade Luka to LAL for AD. They win #1 pick after finishing with the 11th worst record.

Conclusion: It must be prophecy.

Adding some more:

2008 Grizzlies trade Pau Gasol to LAL for Marc Gasol and some other pieces. Finished 5th last, won 2nd pick (drafted Hasheem Thabeet, lol).

2012 Magic trade Dwight to LAL. Finished dead last, get #2 pick.

These two kinda go against the prophecy since they didn’t land #1 and had high odds, though they got the next best thing. Kinda circling the prophecy drain is also…

2011 LAC trade Baron Davis and unprotected #1 pick to Cleveland to save cap space. That pick won the lottery and Cavs got Kyrie. This also happens to be the very next season after LeBron walked out on the franchise.

I have no strong convictions or really cares about the possibility the draft could be rigged but there’s a lot of strong coincidences of draft luck balancing unfavourable recent transactions which benefitted LA (or LeBron).

It is an entertainment league with a priority of maximising returns for owners and star players, so it’s not like they have to provide a fair draft other than for the sake of fans wanting an even playing field. But if they can get away with just giving the fans the perception of that whilst controlling the product for most profitable returns, why wouldn’t they?

[Ducklett]

Dwight like numbers

Sent from my [Sidekick 5G] using RealGM mobile app

Great measurements.
Some nice prospects in our draft range

Can't complain, I know for sure we're keeping one pick as weltman doesn't usually trade first rounders but we'll see.... Quite a few players I like so I don't think we can make a bad pick however..... Sometimes weltman tries to prove he's the smartest guy in the room and pick someone out of left field..... I guess we will see

Sent from my [Hands] using RealGM mobile app

With the way the apron works and how bad tax is now, guys on their draft deals are going to be at a premium.

[basketballRob]

Richardson scares me because his measurements were bad, and he'll likely fall. I don't really want him. He's just too small. Sexton had similar measurements but has a 6'7.25" wingspan and 183 lbs.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

[RookieStar]

Richardson scares me because his measurements were bad, and he'll likely fall. I don't really want him. He's just too small. Sexton had similar measurements but has a 6'7.25" wingspan and 183 lbs.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

Sexton was 6ft barefoot?

[basketballRob]

Richardson scares me because his measurements were bad, and he'll likely fall. I don't really want him. He's just too small. Sexton had similar measurements but has a 6'7.25" wingspan and 183 lbs.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

Sexton was 6ft barefoot?

Sexton is 6'05" w/o shoes. He was a bigger scorer in his 1 year in college.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

[basketballRob]

Danny Wolf's measurements were impressive for how mobile he is

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app

[T-Cat]

Gee whiz, this pick swap next year (worse of Suns/Wizards) is almost our best tradeable asset, borderline untradeable? They can easily both be bottom 5 teams going into next years lottery. Durant will be traded, Wash miss out on Harper/Flagg this year. Amazing

How does this scenario actually help us? In other words we get another 1st round draft pick from whomever is worse next season between the Suns and Wizards?

If that's the case we need to trade for Durant right now

[GelbeWand09]

Im not saying its rigged... but someone from GB reposted a Raps poster from their board that says something like...

" Show me a multi-billion dollar corporation headed by 30 billionaires who got there by not being dumb, and makes important decision based on a throw of a dice "

Then again... i already had DAL or WAS winning it so... ehhh..

Aha, and the billionaire owners of the Wizards, Hornets & co just say every year take those Superstars, we are fine. We dont need star players like the last 2-4 decades before already.

[basketballRob]

Moritz is the same height as Wolf but has a 9' reach, 7' wingspan, and weighs 241 lbs.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using RealGM mobile app