The Sixers’ fortunes suddenly look far brighter after what happened Monday.
What a night Monday turned out to be for the Sixers.
We all knew the odds. They entered the 2025 NBA draft lottery with roughly a 64 percent chance of keeping their first-round pick and a 34 percent chance of conveying it to the Oklahoma City Thunder. When the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks both jumped into the top four, the disaster scenario appeared to be unfolding. But when the New Orleans Pelicans were revealed as the team with the No. 7 pick, we got to breathe a collective sigh of relief.
The Sixers might not get Cooper Flagg or Dylan Harper, but landing the No. 3 pick is a massive win in and of itself. We now have six weeks to debate what they should do with it.
Meanwhile, disaster struck the Boston Celtics in their Game 4 loss to the New York Knicks hours after the lottery. Not only are they now one game away from elimination far earlier than anyone outside of the Big Apple would have expected, but Jayson Tatum suffered an Achilles tear that might put his entire 2025-26 campaign in jeopardy. The East suddenly appears far more wide-open moving forward than it did a week ago.
Now that we’ve had a full day to process everything that happened Monday—the Mavericks won the lottery three months after trading Luka Dončić, really?—it’s time for another offseason mailbag. If only we had something to talk about.
What questions do you have coming out of the lottery? Drop them in the comments or send them to me on Bluesky (@btoporek.bsky.social) and I’ll answer as many as I can tomorrow.
In the meantime… I guess it’s finally time to grind some Ace Bailey tape?