Rockets Inching Closer To Learning Their Fate For the 2024 NBA Draft

The Houston Rockets are five days away from learning their fate for the 2024 NBA Draft.

May 17, 2022; Chicago, IL, USA; People look at the draft lottery order after the 2022 NBA Draft / David Banks-USA TODAY Sports

HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets are back depending on ping-pong balls in hopes of significantly improving their roster. The Rockets will be one of 14 teams participating in the 2024 NBA Draft Lottery. 

However, due to recent changes within the league's calendar, the Rockets are five days away from learning their fate. For the first time, the league will hold the Draft Lottery on Sunday. Over the previous years, the event would take place on a Tuesday evening in Chicago.

The lottery will begin at 2 p.m. CT, right before the start of the Game 3 contest between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers.

The 2024 NBA Draft will not feature a generational talent like Victor Wembanyama from the previous year, but holding the top overall selection would give general manager Rafael Stone more flexibility when re-tooling his most successful roster as general manager.

"I like my team — I think potentially, we are just bringing back everyone that we have," Stone said. "That doesn't mean we won't look at things, but we are not sitting here today feeling like, 'Oh, we need to go get player X.'

"The guys we have in the locker room, we are excited to bring back. We will look at things. If we find someone, we think is special, we will look strongly at that. But from my perspective, it is not like we have a gaping hole."

Due to the trade that sent James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets in January 2021, Houston will obtain a prominent lottery prospect for the fourth consecutive year.

The Nets' pick has a 50.7 percent chance of landing the ninth overall pick, and the draft selection has a 4.5 percent chance of reaching No. 1 overall. The 2002 Draft lottery marked the final time the Rockets held the top overall selection, used to draft future Hall of Famer Yao Ming.

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