In the Draft Lottery, the Houston Rockets win the third overall pick with the advantage of the Brooklyn Nets

The Houston Rockets entered the 2024 lottery on Sunday with a 4.5% chance of winning the No. 1 overall pick and a 20.3% chance of landing among the top three picks in June’s draft.

They didn’t get the first pick, but on June 26, Houston will use the Brooklyn Nets pick they acquired in January’s James Harden deal to make that number three selection.

Such is the luck of the Brooklyn Nets.

After the Nets went 32-50 in the 2023-24 season, the ninth-worst record in the NBA, the Rockets earned the ninth-best lottery odds for what is widely considered a weak draft. But they had a chance to improve, and they did. As with most drafts of this caliber, there is no consensus among the mock drafts, so quite a few prospects are in play for Houston, from Serbian Nikola Topić to UConn big man, 7’2″ Donovan Clingan, Ron Holland of G League Ignite, and many more.

Meanwhile, at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic, Sean Marks twice hinted that the Nets — who currently have no first- or second-round picks under their belt — could acquire a pick in the coming weeks.

Houston is not. The No. 3 overall pick in June is one of three picks and four trades (all first round) acquired by general manager Rafael Stone’s team in the (first) James Harden trade four years ago.

Before Sunday’s lottery, the assets sold by Brooklyn had not returned too strongly. In 2021 and 2023, the Nets finished with a better record than Houston, so no trade was made. In 2022, the Rockets selected Tari Eason out of LSU with Brooklyn’s pick, which landed at No. 17. Through two years of his career, Eason appears to be a promising wing, even displaying some All-Star potential. Defense, but not a franchise changer.

Of course, everything is exacerbated by the fact that James Harden is no longer even a Brooklyn Net, and the team is not in a position to chase titles, and therefore would kill for a young player of the caliber of Tari Eason in this domain. This is not a rebuild retool.

But now it’s getting a little scary. The Brooklyn Nets are already Harden’s ex-team, and as currently constructed, they’re not very good. When the Boston Celtics selected Jaylen Brown with the No. 1. third overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, also a Brooklyn asset lost in a blockbuster gone wrong, the Nets were already committed to a complete rebuild . The following year, Brooklyn was even worse and finished with 20 wins. Following a pick swap, Boston landed the number. 1 pick and traded up two spots to select Jayson Tatum.

Of course, the specifics of each situation are very different; most notably, Brooklyn was actually a title contender after mortgaging its future for James Harden. But it’s hard to take comfort in that now.

Once again, the Brooklyn Nets have landed at number 1.3 in a draft where they could desperately use some talent. And once again, someone else will make this choice for them.

At least these Suns picks are it looks goodRIGHT?