Not winning the draft lottery on Monday was a bitter pill to swallow for the Charlotte Hornets. They haven't selected first overall in the draft since 1991 and are the only team not to have a playoff series win for more than 21 years. What probably made it worse for the Hornets is that the Dallas Mavericks prevailed in the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.
The lottery result has had people calling foul, claiming the league fixed it to gift Dallas a top pick in exchange for sending Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. Of course, there's no way to corroborate it, although the Hornets probably aren't invested in proving it.
However, the Mavs' fortune of bringing in a generational talent after giving one up at the trade deadline could have a minor ramification on Charlotte's hopes of securing another high draft pick in the near future.
Hornets will likely receive a late first-rounder in 2027
Last year, the Hornets sent P.J. Washington to Dallas, collecting a package that included Grant Williams, Seth Curry, and a top-two protected first-round pick in 2027.
For a while, it looked like the Mavs got the better end of the deal after making a run to the 2024 Finals. But things went south for the franchise this season, as its decision to trade Luka Doncic for another superstar, albeit older, Anthony Davis, has been widely panned across the league. A disastrous stint in the play-in tournament gave Hornets fans hope that the 2027 first-rounder would continue to increase in value while Davis and Kyrie Irving also continued to age.
However, missing the playoffs turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Dallas, as it won the 2025 draft lottery. Interestingly, the organization's odds of seeing the team name and logo alongside the number "1" placard on Monday were just 1.8 percent. In contrast, Charlotte had a 14.0% chance of getting the first overall selection.
The Mavs capturing Flagg would mean that the likelihood of watching them return to championship contention soon has drastically increased. Let's say the incoming rookie takes a bit of time before developing into a high-impact player, and Irving's return from a torn ACL injury necessitates him sitting out much of the 2025-26 regular season. It's still not hard to imagine Dallas developing into one of the West's top squads by the time the 2026-27 campaign rolls on.
In that case, the Hornets will probably end up copping a late first-round pick in the summer of 2027 from the Mavs.
Then again, let's not forget that Dallas' general manager Nico Harrison didn't hesitate to trade Doncic at the deadline and kept defending the deal like he had done a masterful job. So, it's not out of the question that the executive will make another inexplicable decision, such as shopping the No. 1 pick for a win-now move that would turn out to be another disaster. Maybe that 2027 first-rounder would still be of high value after all.