The NBA broke several tiebreakers for the 2019 NBA Draft. The Portland Trail Blazers won a tiebreaker with the Houston Rockets for 25th overall pick. Houston's pick at No. 26 will be conveyed to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Oklahoma City Thunder won a tiebreaker with the Boston Celtics for the 21st overall pick. Boston will select No. 22. There was a three-way tiebreaker for Nos. 18-20 with the Indiana Pacers getting No. 18, the San Antonio Spurs getting No. 19 and the Los Angeles Clippers (conveyed to the Celtics ) getting No. 20. The Orlando Magic won a tiebreaker with the Brooklyn Nets to get the No. 16 pick. Brooklyn will select No. 17. The next tiebreaker was a three-way involving the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat and Sacramento Kings. Charlotte will select No. 12, followed by Miami at No. 13 and Sacramento at No. 14. The Kings' pick will be conveyed to the Celtics unless it is No. 1, in which it will go to the Philadelphia 76ers. The New Orleans Pelicans, Memphis Grizzlies and Dallas Mavericks had a three-way tiebreaker for picks 7-9. The Pelicans get the No. 7 pick, Memphis slots into No. 8 and the Mavericks get No. 9. The Grizzlies will retain their pick if they remain in the top-8 and will otherwise be conveyed to Boston. The Mavericks' pick will be conveyed to Atlanta if it is out of the top-5. The final tiebreaker saw the Cavaliers get the No. 2 slot with the Phoenix Suns getting the No. 3 slot.<doc-sep>Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press The NBA draft order is one step closer to being finalized after tiebreakers between teams locked in the regular-season standings took place on Friday. Tim Bontemps of ESPN revealed the post-tiebreaker order, which will be set in stone after the NBA draft lottery determines the first 14 slots: Picks No. 15 through No. 60 are official. The format for this year's draft lottery has changed a bit, with each team's odds for landing the No. 1 pick evening out a bit more. NBA.com provided more information: "Under the revamped format, the NBA Draft Lottery will ensure that the team with the worst record will receive no worse than the fifth pick. Under the pre-2019 system, the team with the worst record would pick no lower than fourth. "The new system will level the odds at the top of the NBA Draft Lottery so that the teams with the three worst regular-season records will each have a 14 percent chance of winning the lottery. In the pre-2019 structure, the top seed had a 25 percent of winning the lottery, the second seed had a 19.9 percent and the third seed had a 15.6 percent. "The odds for the remaining participants in the 14-team lottery will be reduced gradually after the top three. [...] "After drawings are conducted for the first four picks of the NBA Draft, the other lottery teams will continue to pick in inverse order of their regular-season record." Video Play Button Videos you might like CBS Sports released the odds for each team to land the No. 1 pick: Naturally, the draft-lottery switch isn't good news for the New York Knicks, who finished with the league's worst record and would have earned a 25-percent chance to land the No. 1 pick under last year's rules. New York may have used up its lottery luck in 1985, however, when it beat six other teams to land future Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing with the No. 1 overall pick. The Knicks have not earned a top-three selection since then despite missing the playoffs in 14 of the past 18 seasons. This year's draft features a rare prospect more coveted than Ewing was in 1985 thanks to Duke forward Zion Williamson, who averaged 22.6 points on 68.0 percent shooting and 8.6 rebounds last season. The 6'7", 285-pound forward looks like he can join a select few NBA legends known by primarily by their first name based on his freshman season. He'll undoubtedly be the No. 1 pick in this year's draft, and we'll find out who gets that coveted selection on Tuesday, May 14.<doc-sep>CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Cavaliers claimed their first major victory of the offseason. With chairman Dan Gilbert watching in New York, the Cavs, who finished 19-63 during the first year without LeBron James, won the tiebreaker -- a blind draw -- with the Phoenix Suns. This win catapults them into the No. 2 spot heading into the NBA Draft Lottery on May 14. Where they pick in the draft will be officially determined that night. No matter what happened with the blind drawing, the Cavs were going to have equal odds with Phoenix and New York of winning the lottery. They have a 14 percent chance of that. But the drawing ensures Cleveland won’t pick any lower than No. 6 -- a big development considering how this draft class is viewed. Hey @cavs fans, the lottery Gods have moved us over the big first hurdle as we just won the tie-breaker with Phoenix and are now officially slotted #2 for the NBA Lottery on May 14th, a mere 32 days from now. Let’s Go! — Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) April 12, 2019 This victory offsets Cleveland’s earlier loss, dropping from 25th to 26th in the first round, losing a tiebreaker with the Portland Trail Blazers. The Cavs get that 26th-overall pick from Houston as a result of the three-team trade ahead of the deadline involving Alec Burks, Brandon Knight and Marquese Chriss.<doc-sep>NEW YORK, NY - MAY 16: Deputy Commissioner of the NBA, Mark Tatum announces the Miami Heat's 14th pick during the 2017 NBA Draft Lottery at the New York Hilton in New York, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) The Miami Heat were involved in the NBA’s annual coin flip day, the mechanism the league uses to break lottery ties. We’ll take a look at how the Heat were impacted. While the Miami Heat had playoff aspirations this season, those goals fell just short with only a couple games left. Now that those playoff hopes are a thing of the past, we look forward to the draft and the lottery, and Friday’s so-called “coin flip day” set the stage for the final lottery seedings. Now, that title is a colloquialism, because the NBA doesn’t actually flip coins to determine the tiebreakers. Instead the league draws randomly among the teams tied to determine a winner. The Heat were in a three-way tie with the Charlotte Hornets and the Sacramento Kings, all of whom finished with 39-43 records. The Hornets won the tiebreaker, with the Heat coming second and the Kings third. This means that the Miami Heat will find themselves in the 13th lottery slot. Because of the NBA’s lottery-reformed odds, it’s a slightly more favorable spot than in past years. A team at 13 has a one percent chance to jump up to the number one pick, while in past years a team at 13 only had a 0.6 percent chance to jump to the first overall pick. The Heat also have a 4.7 percent chance to jump to a top-four pick. They could pick second 1.1 percent of the time, third 1.2 percent and fourth 1.4 percent of the time. The worst case scenario: the Heat could slip to 14th 4.6 of the time, meaning that 90.6 percent of the time they will pick exactly where they’re at, 13th in the draft. It’s certainly a no-man’s land, but gems can be found in the middle of the draft. We’ll be ramping up our own draft coverage and mocks in the coming days and weeks, so keep an eye on All U Can Heat for your Miami Heat draft coverage needs.<doc-sep>
On Friday, the NBA had to address the order of this year’s June 20th draft prior to the lottery on May 14. Several tiebreakers needed settling, four of which the Celtics were involved in. The NBA is about to conduct its draft pick tiebreakers in New York. League Executive VP Kiki VanDeWeghe is here to do the honors. Watching is Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, whose team is involved in two of the tiebreakers (them with Phoenix, and Rockets-Blazers). — Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 12, 2019 The first tiebreaker was Boston vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder for the 21st pick. The Celtics lost the tiebreaker and bumped down to the 22nd spot, according to Tim Bontemps of ESPN. The winner is Oklahoma City. So OKC will pick 21st, and Boston will pick 22nd. https://t.co/Ro7npVX6W7 — Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 12, 2019 Then there was a three-way tie for the 18th pick between the Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Clippers, the last belonging to the C’s. The Clippers landed the 20th pick, which was the worst-case scenario for Boston. And the winner is Indiana, and then San Antonio. So Indiana will pick 18th, San Antonio will pick 19th and Boston will pick 20th. https://t.co/LlrRGdla1t — Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 12, 2019 Then there was the matter of the Sacramento Kings pick. The Celtics were hoping they’d beat out the Charlotte Hornets and the Miami Heat for 12th in the draft. Once again, things didn’t go Boston’s way. They were saddled with the 14th pick. Charlotte will pick 12th, Miami will pick 13th and Boston will pick 14th. Celtics now 3-3 on worst possible outcomes from tiebreakers with one to go. https://t.co/o8TCNZJxvO — Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 12, 2019 The last tiebreaker that involved Boston was the Memphis Grizzlies pick. This pick is protected if it falls inside the top-eight. It fell to eight. The ping pong balls could still bump the Grizzlies back, but if that goes unchanged, it the Celtics won’t get that pick until 2020. And the winners are: New Orleans seventh, Memphis eighth and Dallas ninth. As of now, Memphis would keep its pick, which should be a win for Boston. https://t.co/fjcyntjArG — Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) April 12, 2019 Here’s the draft order, until the lottery alters things: