2012 NBA Draft Tiebreakers, Order

The NBA draft lottery doesn't take place until May 30th, so we won't know the complete draft order until then. But today the league announced the winners of a number of tiebreakers, locking the draft "seeds" in place as we approach the lottery.

As I explained earlier this week, when two lottery teams finish tied in the standings, they split the difference when it comes to odds of landing a top pick. For instance, since the Cavaliers and Hornets tied for the league's third-worst record (21-45), each team's chances of landing the first overall pick will be an average of the third- and fourth-best odds (15.6% and 11.9%). Because the Cavs won the tiebreaker, they'll receive slightly better odds than the Hornets (13.8% to 13.7%) and will draft ahead of New Orleans if neither team lands a top-three pick.

Here are the complete results of today's tiebreakers:

• Cavaliers over Hornets for 3rd
• Kings over Nets for 5th
• Warriors over Raptors for 7th
• Knicks over Mavericks and Jazz for 16th
• Mavericks over Jazz for 17th
• Clippers over Hawks for 22nd
• Lakers over Grizzlies for 24th
• Bulls over Spurs for 29th

And here's how the overall draft order for the first round will look heading into the lottery (chances of landing first overall pick in parentheses):

1. Charlotte Bobcats (25.0%)
2. Washington Wizards (19.9%)
3. Cleveland Cavaliers (13.8%)
4. New Orleans Hornets (13.7%)
5. Sacramento Kings (7.6%)
6. New Jersey Nets (7.5%)¹
7. Golden State Warriors (3.6%)²
8. Toronto Raptors (3.5%)
9. Detroit Pistons (1.7%)
10. New Orleans Hornets (1.1%)³
11. Portland Trail Blazers (0.8%)
12. Milwaukee Bucks (0.7%)
13. Phoenix Suns (0.6%)
14. Houston Rockets (0.5%)
15. Philadelphia 76ers
16. Houston Rockets⁴
17. Dallas Mavericks
18. Minnesota Timberwolves⁵
19. Orlando Magic
20. Denver Nuggets
21. Boston Celtics
22. Boston Celtics⁶
23. Atlanta Hawks
24. Cleveland Cavaliers⁷
25. Memphis Grizzlies
26. Indiana Pacers
27. Miami Heat
28. Oklahoma City Thunder
29. Chicago Bulls
30. Golden State Warriors⁸

The second round will look like this:

1. Charlotte Bobcats
2. Washington Wizards
3. Cleveland Cavaliers⁹
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
5. Golden State Warriors¹⁰
6. Sacramento Kings
7. Toronto Raptors
8. Denver Nuggets¹¹
9. Detroit Pistons
10. Portland Trail Blazers¹²
11. Portland Trail Blazers
12. Milwaukee Bucks
13. Atlanta Hawks¹³
14. Detroit Pistons¹⁴
15. Philadelphia 76ers
16. Washington Wizards¹⁵
17. Utah Jazz
18. New York Knicks
19. Orlando Magic
20. Denver Nuggets
21. Boston Celtics
22. Golden State Warriors¹⁶
23. Los Angeles Clippers
24. Philadelphia 76ers¹⁷
25. Dallas Mavericks¹⁸
26. Toronto Raptors¹⁹
27. New Jersey Nets²⁰
28. Minnesota Timberwolves²¹
29. San Antonio Spurs
30. Los Angeles Lakers²²

¹ Send pick to Trail Blazers if not in top three
² Send pick to Jazz if not in top seven
³ Acquired from Timberwolves
⁴ Acquired from Knicks
⁵ Acquired from Jazz
⁶ Acquired from Clippers
⁷ Acquired from Lakers
⁸ Acquired from Spurs
⁹ Acquired from Hornets
¹⁰ Acquire from Nets
¹¹ Acquired from Warriors
¹² Acquired from Timberwolves
¹³ Acquired from Suns
¹⁴ Acquired from Rockets
¹⁵ Acquired from Mavericks
¹⁶ Acquired from Hawks
¹⁷ Acquired from Grizzlies
¹⁸ Acquired from Lakers
¹⁹ Acquired from Pacers
²⁰ Acquired from Heat
²¹ Acquired from Thunder
²² Can accept cash from Nets rather than Bulls' pick, if they so choose

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