How Draft-Pick Tiebreaker Impacts Sixers' 2026 NBA Draft Approach

The 2026 NBA draft order is now officially set.

The NBA held drawings Monday to break ties between any teams that finished with the same record. That was particularly notable for the Sixers for two reasons.

The Sixers, Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns all finished the regular season tied at 45-37, which left them drawing for the Nos. 16-18 picks. Unfortunately for those three teams, none of them control their own draft picks this year. The Sixers will owe theirs to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Magic owe theirs to the Memphis Grizzlies and the Suns owe theirs to the Charlotte Hornets.

The Suns won that three-way tiebreaker, so they'll be sending the No. 16 overall pick to the Hornets. The Sixers will send the No. 17 pick to the Thunder, while the Magic wills end the No. 18 pick to the Grizzlies.

Luckily, the Sixers do have one first-round pick via the Houston Rockets courtesy of the Jared McCain trade. The Rockets finished tied with the Cleveland Cavaliers at 52-30, so the NBA held another drawing to determine which team would get the No. 22 pick and which team would get the No. 23 pick.

This time, the Sixers lucked out. The Rockets won the tiebreaker, so the Sixers will have the No. 22 overall pick in the 2026 draft.

The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/xwSJfpkaf5
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 20, 2026

This past season, the No. 22 pick had a rookie-scale amount of roughly $2.8 million. Teams almost always give the full 120% of the scale amount that they're allowed to offer first-round picks, so No. 22 overall pick Drake Powell earned nearly $3.4 million with the Brooklyn Nets.

The rookie scale for the 2026-27 season hasn't been set yet, but it increases at the same percentage as the overall salary cap. Given the latest cap projection of $165 million—which is roughly a 6.7% increase over this year's salary cap—the No. 22 overall pick's scale amount in 2026-27 projects to be roughly $3 million.

If the Sixers keep the pick and give whomever they select the full 120% of his scale amount, the No. 22 pick would earn nearly $3.6 million in 2026-27. A veteran-minimum contract projects to be around $2.45 million next season, so the rookie won't be earning much more than a typical minimum signing.

What will the Sixers do with the pick?

Plenty will change between now and the start of the draft on June 23. For one, the NBA still needs to hold the draft lottery on May 10. (Happy Mother's Day, everyone!)

The lottery won't directly impact the Sixers since their pick and the pick they're sending to OKC are already set. However, it will shake up the league's overall landscape no matter how it plays out.

The Indiana Pacers will send their first-round pick to the Los Angeles Clippers if it falls between Nos. 5-9. Since they finished with the league's second-worst record, they have a 52.1% chance of landing in the top four and a 47.9% chance of sending that pick to the Clippers.

They aren't the only ones who'll be sweating out lottery night. The Atlanta Hawks get the better of the New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks' first-round picks, while the Clippers owe their first-rounder to the Thunder. If either of those teams lands a top-four pick, it'll spell trouble for the rest of the league.

How the lottery plays out could impact what the Sixers plan to do this offseason.

If they see the gap only widening between themselves and the title favorites, they might be more inclined to keep the pick and spend it on someone who complements Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe for the post-Joel Embiid and Paul George era. But if they decide to double down on the current core, they could look to trade the pick for a win-now veteran.

After the trade deadline, team president Daryl Morey explained his rationale for the McCain trade and his vision for the picks they acquired.

"We think the draft picks we got will help us more in the future and could have helped us this deadline," Morey told reporters. "The picks we got were offered to many teams, and nothing materialized for a player that we thought could move the needle with those picks now, but we feel like going forward, those picks will help us build the team in the future in a good way."

How NIL factors in

The top of the 2026 NBA draft class has had scouts and front office executives drooling all year. However, the 2027 and 2028 draft classes aren't projected to be nearly as loaded.

That—plus the allure of NIL money—might convince some underclassmen to bypass this year's draft, return to school and try again next year.

Duke center Patrick Ngongba II, who was projected as "a borderline first-round pick" this year, according to ESPN's Jeff Borzello, announced Monday that he's returning to school. UConn freshman Braylon Mullins, who also figured to be a mid-to-late first-round pick, is likewise heading back to college.

If the pool of draft-eligible talent continues to thin out, what once looked like a loaded class top to bottom could start to become less appealing in the Sixers' range. That might have them reconsidering whether to stay put, trade up or down, or trade out of the draft entirely.

The Sixers have roughly two months to figure out their approach to the draft either way. Monday's tiebreaker was another step in a long process.

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Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM.

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