The Utah Jazz’s position in the 2026 NBA draft lottery will be decided by a coin flip.
What’s more, whether or not the Jazz are guaranteed to keep their first-round pick will be decided by the same coin flip.
Sunday night’s results (it was the final night of games in the 2025-26 regular season) meant the Jazz and Sacramento Kings finished with identical records of 22-60 after the Jazz fell 131-107 to the Los Angeles Lakers and the Kings were beaten 122-110 by the Portland Trail Blazers.
When it comes to lottery positioning, a tie between teams with identical records is broken with a coin flip rather than any of the regular-season-related tiebreakers that fans are familiar with when it comes to teams vying for playoff seeding.
So later this month, the NBA will conduct a coin flip that will determine who, between the Jazz and Kings, will be awarded the fourth and fifth best odds in the lottery.
This is a coin flip that could end up really mattering for the Jazz.
Solidifying the fourth lottery position guarantees that team can fall no lower than eighth on lottery night. The fifth spot has an incredible chance at staying in the top eight on lottery night — 99.3% — but it’s not guaranteed.
This matters for the Jazz because they owe a top-8 protected pick to the reigning NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2026 draft.
So, in order for the Jazz to retain that pick and forgo the obligation to OKC, the pick needs to fall in the top eight. In other words, even a 0.7% chance of losing the pick is a chance the Jazz don’t want to deal with.
Coin flips have historically had a really drastic impact on the NBA draft. Last year, the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Mavericks finished with identical records and a coin flip gave the Mavericks the edge.
Though most people gave no thought to the coin flip at the time because it was to determine the 11th and 12th best odds, the Mavericks ended up winning the lottery, so the 1.8% chance at the No. 1 overall pick was huge compared to the Bulls’ 1.7% odds.
The date of the coin flip has not yet been announced but has usually come after April 20 in previous years.
The NBA Draft Lottery will be held in Chicago on May 10.