05/28/26 02:44:00
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05/28 14:42 CDT NBA's board of governors passes anti-tanking changes to draft
lottery process, AP source says
NBA's board of governors passes anti-tanking changes to draft lottery process,
AP source says
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
The NBA approved sweeping changes to the draft lottery on Thursday that will
strip the teams with the worst records from receiving the best odds of winning
the No. 1 pick, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated
Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the league had not
revealed the vote result publicly. ESPN reported the vote was 29-1, with
Memphis casting the lone dissenting ballot.
The changes were made in large part to crack down on tanking. A vote by the
league's Board of Governors made the plan official for the next three seasons.
The "3-2-1 Lottery" proposal expands the event to 16 teams, flattens odds of
winning the No. 1 pick and will try to deter teams from tanking by lowering
lottery chances for teams that have the worst records.
They can still win the lottery, but they'll have to buck odds to do so. The
three worst teams will have 5.4% odds of winning, while teams that finish with
the fourth- through 10th-worst records will all have 8.1% chances of winning.
The vote on Thursday fulfilled a promise from Commissioner Adam Silver, who
vowed that the league --- which has changed the lottery system about a
half-dozen times in the last 40 or so years --- would strongly address the
tanking issue before next season.
Starting with next year's lottery, the 16 participating teams will all get
somewhere between one and three lottery balls --- the 3-2-1 part --- awarded in
this manner:
--- The losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games in both conferences will
get one lottery ball each.
--- The No. 9 and No. 10 seeds going into the play-in tournament will get two
lottery balls each.
--- The remaining 10 teams that miss the playoffs and the play-in will all get
three lottery balls --- with the exception of the three worst teams in the
standings. They will enter "draft relegation" and have one of their lottery
balls taken away, which is the anti-tanking part of the plan.
Tanking was a huge --- and from the league standpoint, regrettable --- talking
point this season. The Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 "for conduct detrimental
to the league" over the way two top players were held out of the fourth quarter
of a pair of games, one of which the Jazz actually won. The Jazz had reason to
limit their win total this season; too many victories would have meant risking
a chance to have a top-eight pick in next month's draft, a pick that Utah wound
up securing.
Utah was among five teams --- draft lottery winner Washington, Indiana, Memphis
and Brooklyn were the others --- that had winning percentages below .180 after
the All-Star break. There had never been a season where so many teams lost so
regularly after the break, until now.
Under the new plan, the teams that finish with the three worst records cannot
fall below the No. 12 pick. But the best odds of winning No. 1 would go to the
other seven teams that miss the play-in and the playoffs.
The No. 9 and No. 10 play-in seeds would also have a 5.4% chance of winning the
lottery, and the losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games would both have a
2.7% chance.
There are other caveats within the new plan, including that no team can win
back-to-back No. 1 picks and that the NBA will now have "expanded disciplinary
authority" to address tanking --- with potential moves including lowering
teams' lottery odds or even changing draft positions.
The new rules will be in effect through 2029. The Board of Governors will have
to vote again, at some point, to either extend the new plan or come up with a
different one before the 2030 lottery.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
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