The NBA’s competitive landscape hung in the balance during a potential lottery apocalypse on Monday night. The Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs found themselves as the last two teams standing for the rights to Cooper Flagg on the TV broadcast.

The Mavericks received an unimaginable gift from the basketball gods in the form of the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft. John Fanta offers up his top takeaways from the lottery.

The Chicago Bulls, like Atlanta, are nowhere near close enough to meaningful contention to justify moving a back-end-of-the-lottery pick for a role player. Instead, they should be taking as many bites at the draft apple as possible to see who jells with a budding core that includes Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis and Coby White.