Under the current rules, only the top four picks are decided by the lottery, and are chosen from the 14 teams that do not make the playoffs.

After the top four positions are selected (from the lottery slotting system), the remainder of the first-round draft order is in inverse order of the win–loss record for the remaining teams, or the teams who originally held the rights if they were traded.

However, a special territorial-pick rule allowed a team to draft a player from its local area.

[1] After the 1984 coin flip, which was won by the Houston Rockets, the NBA introduced the lottery system to counter the accusations that the Rockets and several other teams were tanking by deliberately losing their remaining regular season games in order to secure the worst record and consequently the chance to obtain the first pick.

After the three envelopes were drawn, the remaining non-playoff teams would select in reverse order of their win–loss record.

[8] In 1990, the NBA changed the format of the lottery to give the team with the worst record the best chance of landing the first pick.

[9] Despite the weighted odds, the Orlando Magic managed to win the lottery in 1993 with only one chance to obtain the first pick as it was the best non-playoff team in the previous season.

[11] If the proposed changes passed, the four worst teams in the league would have been given identical odds (around 11 percent) at winning the top pick.

[13] In 2016, Dikembe Mutombo made people question the draft's legitimacy when he prematurely tweeted a congratulatory message to the Philadelphia 76ers for receiving the first pick hours before the lottery was conducted.

[15] In response to teams like the Philadelphia 76ers deliberately seeking high-loss season records in order to improve their draft odds, beginning with the 2019 NBA draft the NBA implemented a new lottery system giving the worst three teams equal odds at the first overall pick and expanding the lottery to the top four picks (up from the top three picks).

In 1995, the NBA had an agreement with the two expansion franchises, the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies that neither team would be eligible to obtain the first overall pick in the 1996, 1997 and 1998 drafts.

The pool of lottery contestants consists of the 10 teams who failed to qualify for that season's post-season, plus four more that lost via play-in games.

The remaining 1,000 combinations are distributed amongst the lottery contestants according to their seed's assigned odds.

Until the NBA play-in tournament was implemented, trades were also the only way in which postseason teams can win a lottery pick.

Since the 2019 draft, the number of lottery winners was increased from 3 to 4, with the remaining picks still assigned based on regular season record, meaning a team can drop no more than four spots from its seeded position to its actual draft position.

The drawing of the ping-pong balls is conducted in private, though observed by independent auditors and representatives from each team.

The results are subsequently presented in a televised unveiling (formerly broadcast as a short ceremony prior to or during halftime of an NBA playoff game, but since the mid-2010s, presented as an hour-long special by ESPN), in which the order of the lottery is announced in reverse order, from the fourteenth selection to the first.

The decision of not showing the ping-pong balls live has fueled speculation that the NBA occasionally fixes the draft lottery if it can benefit the league.

Some have speculated[19][20][21] that the envelope containing the Knicks logo was refrigerated beforehand, enabling David Stern to recognize and select it.

The second-largest upsets occurred in 2008 and 2014 when the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers both won their respective lotteries with just a 1.7% chance.

[26] In 1999, the Charlotte Hornets also overcame long odds in the draft lottery when they won the third pick despite having the best record among all non-playoff teams.

Since the introduction of the draft lottery in 1985, eight teams have never won the first pick neither via lottery or trade: the Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies (joined as expansion team in 1995; previously located in Vancouver), Miami Heat (joined as expansion team in 1988), Oklahoma City Thunder (formerly Seattle SuperSonics), and Utah Jazz.