Rules: Draft and Draft Lottery 2027

We are switching up how we do our annual six round drafts. Gone is the Toilet Bowl, gone are RD1 draft slots, gone is the SWMP Rule. The new emphasis is on randomizing RD1 picks, and attaching them to the real NBA lottery odds. See below for details on how odds will be distributed for the RD1 lottery.

Previously, we had done round two through six in snaked Power Rankings fashion, with #1-16 Power Ranked teams starting with RD2. Now we will flip that around and go #16-1 starting in RD2 and continuing through to our last RD6, with no snake at all during rounds. This should help out the weaker teams tremendously.

RD1: Lottery

(1) Take the combined records from the two most recent regular seasons, with the team having the worst two-year cumulative record receiving the highest chance to win the #1 pick.

(2) Match the SlamNation teams to NBA teams’ lottery odds.

➕Adjustment: Lottery balls for NBA lottery slots #13 and #14 will be split among our SlamNation #1-4 Power Ranked teams. If somehow those balls come up, we’ll do a secondary lottery to determine which of those four top teams won the lottery. 

The total chance of NBA #13 and #14 winning the lottery is 1.5%, and we’ll split that equally. Essentially each of the top four SlamNation teams has a 0.375% chance at winning the lottery.

(3) Follow the results of the NBA lottery!

RD2-6: Power Rankings

Reverse power rankings from the most recent regular season, and no snake each round. Just #16-1, #16-1, and so on.

That's it and very simple. We are instituting this for the 2027 season. Also, in case you wanted to take a look, here are the 2024 and 2025 two-year cumulative records