The Milwaukee Bucks will hope the stars align May 10 at the NBA draft lottery, when the top portion of the 2026 draft order will be revealed. They’re turning to a familiar good-luck charm to manifest the best possible result.
Mallory Edens, the daughter of Bucks co-owner Wes Edens, served as the franchise’s representative in 2014 when Milwaukee landed the No. 2 overall pick. Twelve years later, she’ll be back, announced as the team’s on-site representative for the event held in Chicago.
She’ll join Charlotte Hornets star Kon Knueppel, an alumnus of Wisconsin Lutheran High School in Milwaukee, among the team luminaries on hand. Former Bucks player Toni Kukoč will represent the Bulls.
Edens was 18 years old in 2014, heading into a draft where the Bucks had a 25% chance of actually landing the No. 1 overall pick, the best odds of any team in the field. Milwaukee didn’t get the top prize (with Cleveland winning and selecting Andrew Wiggins) but did get the No. 2 selection, which they used to draft Jabari Parker out of Duke.
No. 3 pick Joel Embiid wound up being the prize of the early part of the draft, though Denver struck gold in the second round with the 41st pick, Nikola Jokić. Parker had an injury-riddled career, but the Bucks didn’t yet know what a superstar they had in Giannis Antetokounmpo, drafted 15th overall the previous year.
Edens garnered a fair amount of attention during her appearance in 2014, something she has since said had adverse effects.
The odds are much longer this time for the Bucks to land the top pick (3%), and the Bucks also would need to surrender the top overall pick to Atlanta (via New Orleans) if it wound up winning the top spot thanks to the stipulations of a trade agreement for Jrue Holiday back in 2020.
The best-case scenario for Milwaukee is for New Orleans to win the No. 1 pick, of which it has 6.8% chance of doing. That means the Bucks can keep their original selection, which could be as high as No. 2. The odds of a scenario in which both of those picks move up, giving the Bucks pick No. 2, 3 or 4, is 2.6%, but longer odds have prevailed in the draft before.
Dallas won the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft with 1.8% odds of doing so.
When is the NBA Draft lottery?
The Bucks haven’t participated in a lottery since 2016, when they landed the No. 10 pick and ended up with Thon Maker. The lottery will air on ABC at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 10.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mallory Edens will be back at draft lottery representing Bucks
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
