Suns drop 3 spots in NBA Draft Lottery, slated to pick No. 6 in NBA Draft

The Zion Williamson to Phoenix hopes are officially over.

The Phoenix Suns dropped three spots in Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery and will have the No. 6 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.

The No. 6 pick was the most likely landing spot for Phoenix with 26% odds.

The New Orleans Hornets will draft No. 1, Memphis will pick No. 2 while the New York Knicks will have the No. 3 pick.

The Los Angeles Lakers (No. 4) and Cleveland Cavaliers (No. 5) round out the top five.

This year marks the ninth consecutive draft where the Suns will have drafted in the lottery. Since 2011, they have made 10 lottery selections, two via trades up in the draft, and have drafted in the top-five four times heading into Tuesday.

The Suns were hoping to make it two years in a row. They entered last year’s draft lottery with the league’s worst record and thus the best odds. With a 25% shot at the top pick, luck went their way, and they used the top choice to draft center Deandre Ayton out of Arizona.

After a 19-63 season in 2018-19, Phoenix tied for the second-worst record, and the reformed lottery odds in 2019 gave the team a 14% shot of earning the No. 1 pick in consecutive years. The Suns shared that 14% chance with the league-worst New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers, the latter of which had the same record at Phoenix but won a tiebreaker.

While the three teams atop the lottery had the same odds to earn the first through fourth picks, the Suns had the worst chances from there with the ability to fall to seventh.

Twice before during this decade has a team earned back-to-back first overall picks. The Philadelphia 76ers (2016-17) and Cleveland Cavaliers (2013-14) have most recently tipped off the draft in consecutive seasons.

The rest of the draft lottery after the Suns pick is as follows: Chicago Bulls (No. 7), Atlanta Hawks (No. 8), Washington Wizards (No.9), Atlanta Hawks (No. 10), Minnesota Timberwolves (No. 11), Charlotte Hornets (No. 12), Miami Heat (No. 13) and Boston Celtics (No. 14).

Suns NBA lottery picks this decade

2011 — Kansas PF Markieff Morris, 13th overall

2012 — North Carolina PG Kendall Marshall, 13th

2013 — Maryland C Alex Len, fifth

2014 — N.C. State F T.J. Warren, 14th

2015 — Kentucky SG Devin Booker, 13th

2016 — Int’l PF Dragan Bender, fourth

2016 — Washington F Marquese Chriss, eighth (via trade)

2017 — Kansas F Josh Jackson, fourth

2018 — Arizona C Deandre Ayton, first

2018 — Villanova F Mikal Bridges, 10th

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