Throughout the 2019/20 NBA season, Hoops Rumors is maintaining a feature that allows you to keep an eye on what the 2020 draft order will look like. Our 2019/20 Reverse Standings tool, which lists the NBA’s 30 teams from worst to first, is updated daily to reflect the outcomes of the previous night’s games.
Our Reverse Standings are essentially a reflection of what 2020’s draft order would look like with no changes to lottery position. We’ve noted each club’s odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick, based on the league’s current lottery format.
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In instances where two non-playoff teams or two playoff teams have identical records, the order in our standings isn’t necessarily definitive — for draft purposes, the NBA breaks ties via random drawings, so those drawings would happen at the end of the year. Of course, the 14 non-playoff teams all draft before the 16 playoff teams, even if some non-playoff teams have better records than playoff teams. Our reverse standings account for that.
Traded first-round picks are included via footnotes. For example, the note next to Cleveland’s pick says that the Cavaliers will send their pick to the Pelicans if it’s not in the top 10. As of today, Cleveland has the NBA’s fifth-worst record, meaning that pick wouldn’t change hands, even if several teams were to leapfrog the Cavs in the lottery.
A handful of the NBA’s worst teams have been playing fairly well as of late. The Knicks have a winning record over their last nine games; the Cavaliers have won four of their last five, as have the Warriors; and the Pelicans are currently riding a four-game win streak of their own. As a result, the 6-27 Hawks are currently in the driver’s seat for the most favorable pick in this year’s draft. Atlanta has a 2.5-game “lead” over the NBA’s second-worst team.
While the league’s bottom three teams will all have an equal chance at the No. 1 overall pick and a top-four selection, finishing atop the reverse standings would still benefit the Hawks — the NBA’s worst team can’t fall further than the No. 5 pick, while the third-worst team could end up selecting as low as No. 7.
Our Reverse Standings tracker can be found at anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features” on our desktop site, or on the “Features” page in our mobile menu. It’s a great resource not just for monitoring a team’s draft position, but also for keeping an eye on whether or not traded picks with protection will be changing hands in 2020. So be sure to check back often as the season progresses!
Note: Mobile users are advised to turn their phones sideways when viewing the Reverse Standings in order to see team records and lottery odds.