When was the last time each NBA team had the 1st overall draft pick?

With the 2025-26 NBA season in the books, franchises are looking ahead to the future with the 2026 NBA Draft less than a week away.

It’s a quick turnover in the world of basketball, with the New York Knicks celebrating their first title in 53 years merely days before other franchises look to start a new chapter in their stories with the NBA Draft.

While the draft is highly anticipated in all four major North American professional sports leagues, the impact that a high draft pick can have on an NBA team is uniquely significant due to smaller roster size and the ability for top players to play almost all of or even all of a game.

Though it didn’t end in a championship, this year’s NBA Finals served as the perfect example and reminder of this fact. In just his third NBA season, first overall draft pick and generational phenom Victor Wembanyama led his team to the NBA Finals, picking up a Defensive Player of the Year award in the process while finishing as the runner-up for the MVP award.

The rise of Wembanyama and the Spurs is abrupt – and while the team success is relatively without precedent, the same can’t be said for the individual success of top draft picks.

Just since the turn of the century, 18 of the 26 first-overall draft picks have either been named to an All-Star team or All-NBA team, with Yao Ming and Dwight Howard having already been enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

It was the Dallas Mavericks who received the golden opportunity to build a new future last year with the selection of top Duke prospect Cooper Flagg, with the Washington Wizards hoping to find a new face of the franchise in 2026.

With this year’s top pick, the Wizards now stand alone as the NBA team with the most first overall picks with seven, selecting at the top of the draft in 2026 for the first time since the club picked John Wall in 2010.

Unlike the drafts of Wembanyama and Flagg where both players were undisputed top overall picks, the Wizards have some options at the front of the draft pool this year, with the team likely debating between picking BYU wing AJ Dybantsa or Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, both of whom were freshmen for the 2025-26 season.

Now with both Anthony Davis and Trae Young on the roster, the Wizards hope a strong performance from either rookie could help catapult the club back into postseason contention, as the Wizards have been without a playoff appearance since Russell Westbrook led the team to some spring basketball in 2021.

While most clubs have gotten the chance to build their future with a top overall draft pick, there are a handful of teams that have still never won the draft’s first selection:

1. Denver Nuggets
2. Indiana Pacers
3. Memphis Grizzlies
4. Miami Heat
5. Oklahoma City Thunder
6. Utah Jazz

Considering the insane depth of young talent the Thunder has cycled through over the last 20 years, their inclusion on this list is likely the most surprising – but thanks to absolute wizardry from GM Sam Presti on both the trade market and in the draft, OKC hasn’t needed the fortune of the top overall pick.

The same could be said for the Heat and Nuggets, two teams that met in the NBA Finals in 2023 who have carved out their paths to success with timely free agent signings and late draft steals – none more famous than Nikola Jokic’s second-round selection that occurred during a Taco Bell commercial.

As for everyone else, the fortune of a top overall pick hasn’t always come with a guarantee of a fruitful career or team success – something Andrea Bargnani, Anthony Bennett, Michael Olowukandi and Kwame Brown can all attest to.

With the Wizards on the clock, here’s a look at the last time each team had the first overall selection in the NBA Draft:

1. Dallas Mavericks: 2025, Cooper Flagg, Duke
2. Atlanta Hawks: 2024, Zaccharie Risacher, JL Bourg (France)
3. San Antonio Spurs: 2023, Victor Wembanyama, Metropolitans 92 (France)
4. Orlando Magic: 2022, Paolo Banchero, Duke
5. Detroit Pistons: 2021, Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State
6. Minnesota Timberwolves: 2020, Anthony Edwards, Georgia
7. New Orleans Pelicans: 2019, Zion Williamson, Duke
8. Phoenix Suns: 2018, Deandre Ayton, Arizona
9. Philadelphia 76ers: 2017, Markelle Fultz, Washington
10. Cleveland Cavaliers: 2014, Andrew Wiggins, Kansas
11. Washington Wizards: 2010, John Wall, Kentucky
12. Los Angeles Clippers: 2009, Blake Griffin, Oklahoma
13. Chicago Bulls: 2008, Derrick Rose, Memphis
14. Portland Trail Blazers: 2007, Greg Oden, Ohio State
15. Toronto Raptors: 2006, Andrea Bargnani, Benetton Treviso (Italy
16. Milwaukee Bucks: 2005, Andrew Bogut, Utah
17. Houston Rockets: 2002, Yao Ming, Shanghai Sharks (China)
18. Brooklyn Nets: 2000, Kenyon Martin, Cincinnati*
19. Golden State Warriors: 1995, Joe Smith, Maryland
20. Charlotte Hornets: 1991, Larry Johnson, UNLV
21. Sacramento Kings: 1989, Pervis Ellison, Louisville
22. New York Knicks: 1985, Patrick Ewing, Georgetown
23. Los Angeles Lakers: 1982, James Worthy, North Carolina
24. Boston Celtics: 1950, Charlie Share, Bowling Green