Knicks' Updated NBA Draft Picks After Wizards' 1st-Round Pick Protected from Losing Record
The Washington Wizards will avoid handing over their 2026 first-round pick to the New York Knicks.
The Wizards fell to 17-62 with a Tuesday night loss to the Chicago Bulls that guaranteed them a bottom-three finish in the standings and a top-seven draft pick regardless of lottery results, per The Athletic's Josh Robbins.
That means the Wizards will no longer owe the Knicks their top-eight protected 2026 first-rounder.
The Knicks will instead receive the Wizards' second-round picks in 2026 and 2027, per Robbins.
New York will be left with just one first-round pick over next two years, although the franchise could have five second-round picks over that same span.
Here's a run-down of the Knicks' future draft picks, courtesy of RealGM.
New York Knicks future draft picks
Round 1
2026: 1 (Own)
2027: 0 (to Brooklyn)
2028: 1 (Conditional on swap with Brooklyn)
2029: 0 (to Brooklyn)
2030: 1 (Own)
2031: 0 (to Brooklyn)
2032: 1 (Own)
Round 2
2026: 2 (One conditional)
2027: 3 (One conditional)
2028: 2 (One conditional)
2029: 0 (to either Detroit or Chicago)
2030: 0 (to Atlanta via Portland)
2031: 0 (to Chicago via Charlotte)
2032: 1 (Own)
The Wizard's top-eight protected 2026 first-rounder was initially sent to the Houston Rockets as part of the Russell Westbrook and John Wall trade in 2020.
The Rockets then sent the pick other the Oklahoma City Thunder as part of a Chris Paul trade in 2019.
Three years later, the Thunder traded the selection as part of a trio of protected first-rounders sent to the Knicks in exchange for the No. 11 pick of the 2022 draft.
This isn't the first time the Knicks have missed out on a protected first-round pick from a tanking team. The Dallas Mavericks were fined $750,000 in 2023 after sitting key players as part of an effort to keep a top-10 protected selection they owed to the Knicks as part of the 2019 Kristaps Porziņģis trade.
