There's no doubt that the New Orleans Pelicans were the big winners of Tuesday's NBA draft lottery. Despite being tied for the seventh-best odds among the 14 lottery teams, the Pelicans still came away with the No. 1 pick and the chance to select Duke forward Zion Williamson, the consensus choice to go first in the draft.
Who else came out ahead after the lottery? And which teams should be the most disappointed? Let's take a look at all the winners and losers from Tuesday night.
Winners: New Orleans Pelicans
If the Pelicans decide not to honor star Anthony Davis' trade request, their chances of convincing him to stay long term in New Orleans just got much better. A frontcourt of Davis and Zion -- who have the top two projections by my consensus model for any NCAA prospects in my database, which goes back to 2003 -- would be a great building block for a more competitive team than the Pelicans have been able to put around Davis.
New Orleans could now become an interesting player in free agency this summer. If starting power forward Julius Randle declines his $9.1 million player option and the Pelicans waive Solomon Hill and stretch his $12.8 million 2019-20 salary over the next three years, they would create approximately $24 million in cap space to shop for a starting point guard to go with the quality trio of Davis, Williamson and wing Jrue Holiday.
Of course, New Orleans is still a winner even if the team ends up trading Davis. In that case, the haul of young players and draft picks the Pelicans could add to Zion would accelerate their rebuilding process.
Losers: Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls
Three of the four teams with the NBA's worst records in 2018-19 ended up outside the top four picks. While that was always a potential outcome, it would have been nearly impossible under the old format because fifth, sixth and seventh were the very lowest possible picks for teams entering the lottery where Cleveland, Phoenix and Chicago did, respectively.
Given dropping that far previously required the three top lottery picks all to be drawn from the bottom 10 teams, it was extraordinarily unlikely. The Cavaliers would have dropped to fifth just 12 percent of the time, the Suns to sixth 4.0 percent of the time and the Bulls all the way to seventh a scant 1.2 percent of the time. As it was, the three teams were still unlucky, but their odds entering the lottery were worse because of this year's changes to the format -- precisely what the NBA wanted, of course.
Winners: Los Angeles Lakers
Sure, the Lakers landing the fourth pick isn't quite as sexy as the possibilities when they first jumped from 11th entering the lottery into the top four. Still, it's an enormous jump in terms of the quality of prospect the Lakers can expect to select.
If they want to add another 3-and-D wing player who would fit well with LeBron James, they will likely have their pick of Texas Tech wing Jarrett Culver and Virginia forward De'Andre Hunter. Alternatively, the No. 4 pick should have far more trade value if the Lakers decide they'd rather not add another young player to the mix.
Slight losers: New York Knicks
Dreams of Zion starring at Madison Square Garden had helped Knicks fans sleep soundly throughout their team's 17-65 season. Because the Knicks had the worst record in the league, their chances of getting the No. 1 pick -- just 14 percent under the new lottery system -- were always overstated. Entering Tuesday, their chances of picking worse than third were nearly 60 percent, so from that standpoint they actually did somewhat better than expected.
Nonetheless, this does feel like a slight L for New York if only because this year's draft is so top-heavy. On paper, the difference between landing Williamson and whomever the Knicks draft at No. 3 -- Duke teammate RJ Barrett, per the latest mock draft by my ESPN colleague Jonathan Givony -- is much larger than the difference between the third pick and the fifth pick.
Winners: Memphis Grizzlies and Mike Conley trade suitors
The Grizzlies just missed out on Zion, at least in terms of the public reveal. In this case, however, landing No. 2 is a clear win. Murray State point guard Ja Morant has established himself as the second-best prospect, and my projections have him in a different tier than the likes of Barrett, Duke wing Cam Reddish and Vanderbilt point guard Darius Garland.
Assuming Memphis does pick Morant, there could be even more incentive for the team to trade stalwart veteran point guard Mike Conley after talks involving him failed to produce a deal at the trade deadline. That's encouraging news for the teams eying Conley, most notably the Utah Jazz and Detroit Pistons, who might not find the asking price quite as high this summer as it was in February.
TBD: Boston Celtics
It's unclear exactly how the Celtics, who were involved in more scenarios than any other team entering the lottery, should feel about the results. The Sacramento Kings' pick, 14th entering the lottery, predictably didn't move up, while the Grizzlies retained their pick, which was top-eight protected. That leaves Boston with three picks in this year's first round: No. 14, No. 20 and No. 22.
Memphis jumping up to No. 2 is almost certainly a good result for the Celtics, especially if it means trading Conley and rebuilding around a young core of Morant and 2018 lottery pick Jaren Jackson Jr. The Grizzlies' pick is protected through the top six picks in 2020 and completely unprotected in 2021, giving Boston a better chance of landing a high lottery pick in a draft considered deeper than this year's crop.
If Davis stays in New Orleans, that's bad news for the Celtics, who have long desired a trade for the star big man. That said, with Kyrie Irving's willingness to re-sign in Boston uncertain, perhaps dealing for Davis would no longer make sense for the Celtics anyway.