The Rockets inch closer to their fate for the 2024 NBA Draft

HOUSTON — The Houston Rockets are once again relying 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 in the league schedule, the Rockets are five days away from knowing their fate. For the first time, the league will organize the Draft Lottery on Sunday. In previous years, the event was held on a Tuesday evening in Chicago.

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

The 2024 NBA Draft won’t feature a generational talent like Victor Wembanyama from the previous year, but holding the No. 1 overall selection would give general manager Rafael Stone more flexibility when revamping his top-performing roster as as general manager.

“I love my team — I think potentially we just bring back everyone we have,” Stone said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t look at things, but we’re not sitting here today saying, ‘Oh, we have to go get player X.’

“The guys we have in the locker room, we’re excited to bring them back. We’ll look at things. If we find someone we think is special, we’ll think about it carefully. But from my point of view, it’s not like there’s a gaping hole.”

Thanks to the trade that sent James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets in January 2021, Houston will obtain a major lottery prospect for the fourth year in a row.

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 landing the No. 1 overall pick. The 2002 draft lottery marked the last time the Rockets held the top overall selection, used to draft future Hall of Famer Yao Ming.

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