Who won the NBA Draft lottery last year?

The NBA determines its draft order based on a lottery system. The lottery is used to determine the first 14 picks in the draft. The first four picks will be determined by a drawing, with picks five through 14 being decided by inverting the 2022 records for the remaining teams giving the worst team remaining the fifth pick. The 2022 NBA draft lottery will be held on Tuesday, May 17th in Chicago, Illinois with the 2022 NBA Draft taking place on Thursday, June 23rd.

Ahead of this year’s NBA draft lottery, let’s take a look at how last year’s went.

2021 NBA Draft lottery results

1. Detroit Pistons
2. Houston Rockets
3. Cleveland Cavaliers
4. Toronto Raptors
5. Orlando Magic
6. Oklahoma City Thunder
7. Minnesota Timberwolves (pick transferred to GSW)
8. Chicago Bulls (pick transferred to ORL)
9. Sacramento Kings
10. New Orleans Pelicans
11. Charlotte Hornets
12. San Antonio Spurs
13. Indiana Pacers
14. Golden State Warriors

Detroit won the 2021 NBA Draft Lottery and used the pick to select guard Cade Cunningham. He played in 64 games his rookie year and averaged 17.4 points and 5.6 assists per game. Unfortunately for the Pistons, their season didn’t go how they wanted it to and they ended up with only 23 wins putting them back in a similar situation.

The Pistons, Rockets and Magic have the best odds of winning the draft lottery this year. If Detroit wins the number one pick, they would be the first back-to-back lottery winners since the Cleveland Cavaliers did in 2013/2014.