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Since its reconstruction in 2019, the NBA Draft lottery has been notoriously difficult to predict. Few were more surprised by the Dallas Mavericks coming out on top of the 2025 lottery than Toronto Raptors president Masai Ujiri.
Ujiri's Raptors entered the lottery with the seventh-highest odds of landing the No. 1 pick and ended with the No. 9 pick of the draft. However, despite his team's minimal movement, Ujiri was shocked at how several teams with the most lottery balls fell down the list, according to Sportsnet reporter Michael Grange.
“I was sitting up there and I'm saying, ‘Who's going to be in this top three or top four?'” Ujiri said, via Grange. “And I look and the Hornets were the only guys that were in that conversation. Now everybody's kicked out of there. And here it is. This one was a crazy one. I guess the lottery is real.”
To Ujiri's point, the Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards entered with the highest odds of landing the top pick. That did not seem to matter, as Utah ended up with the No. 5 pick, while the Wizards landed one spot behind at No. 6.
The Mavericks began the process at No. 11 and were given less than a two-percent chance of landing the top pick. Regardless, they left with the No. 1 overall pick, which will more than likely be used on super prospect Cooper Flagg. Just three months removed from Dallas' head-scratching Luka Doncic trade, fans were quick to call the lottery rigged in their favor.
Raptors continue rebuild in 2025 NBA Draft
The lottery did not go in their favor, but the Raptors will continue their rebuild at the 2025 NBA Draft. The upcoming draft marks the third time in the last five years Toronto will enter with a lottery pick.
The results have not shown themselves on the court, but Ujiri has managed the draft well in the last half-decade. Two years after nailing its No. 4 pick of Scottie Barnes in 2021, Toronto made another splash with Gradey Dick at No. 13 of the 2023 draft.
Whoever the Raptors take at No. 9 will join their young corps of Barnes, Dick, Immanuel Quickley and Ochai Agbaji. Toronto still has veterans R.J. Barrett, Jakob Poeltl and Brandon Ingram under contract for the next three years, giving the team room to work in 2025-2026. They have not made the playoffs since 2022, but the expectations will be higher with Ingram back on the court in the fall.
