Tanking has become one of the most discussed issues around the NBA this season. During this week’s Board of Governors meeting, the NBA introduced three potential anti-tanking rules to consider.
ESPN’s Shams Charania outlined the rules on social media.
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1. 18 teams in the draft lottery. Under this rule, the bottom 10 teams would each have an 8% chance, with the remaining 20% odds distributed in decreasing order for the eight teams in the play-in seeds. A lottery would then be drawn for all 18 picks.
2. 22 teams in the lottery (All of the same teams as the previous rule, adding the four teams eliminated in the first round of the playoffs). Lottery odds would be determined by team records over two seasons. The top four would then be drawn as part of the lottery, per Charania.
3. 18 teams in a similar a lottery as the first proposal, but the bottom five teams have equal odds for the top pick, with the lottery formed for picks 1-5. Those five teams would have a “floor” of the 10th pick, meaning they would all be guaranteed a top-10 pick.
All of these are just proposals, but they are set to be explored in more detail and even possibly voted on by the league in May. The rather complex proposals prompted mixed reactions from NBA fans and media members online.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says there’s no simple solution to the tanking problem, but that the league fully intends to solve it anyways.
“I do think ultimately this is a decision that needs to be made at the ownership level,” Silver said. “It has business implications, has basketball implications, has integrity implications for the league. So it’s one that we take very seriously, and we are going to fix it. Full stop.”
There Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers have already received fines earlier this season for player management decisions that the league described as “overt tanking behavior.”
With another elite draft class on the way, there may be no better time than now for the NBA to truly address its tanking issue.
James Parker is a sports writer for Ball Exclusives, follow him on X @TheJames_Parker
