Brian Windhorst May 8, 2026, 07:00 AM ET Close ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010 Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years Author of two books Year after year, the NBA draft lottery remains one of the highest-stakes, obsessed-over and even conspiracy-rich moments on the sports calendar. The 2026 edition is no different -- but the results could impact the NBA landscape for a generation. Those are the stakes as the ping-pong balls are drawn Sunday (3 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN). Look at the past six months: Despite varying levels of denials, a case could easily be made that there were as many as nine teams doing some level of tanking to improve their lottery odds . About a third of the league. Each team had its unique set of reasons for racing to the bottom, plus hopes and dreams as it looked at the list of impact prospects in this draft, including AJ Dybantsa , Darryn Peterson , Cameron Boozer , Darius Acuff Jr ., Caleb Wilson and others.…