The NBA has reportedly presented three anti-tanking concepts to team owners. Additionally, teams found to be tanking could face severe penalties.
Just last week, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced his intent to definitively end tanking and implement «more extreme measures than the incremental changes of recent years.» Now, three potential proposals have been unveiled.
Silver presented these three concepts to franchises last Wednesday in New York. They are now subject to discussion before team owners vote on further action in May.
If Silver and the NBA determine that a team is intentionally losing, severe penalties could be imposed in the future.
Adam Silver: Playoff Teams Soon to Have Lottery Chances?
All three reform proposals aim to include playoff teams in the draft lottery, a departure from the current system where only the 14 non-playoff franchises receive a spot. Here are the NBA’s three ideas:
- Proposal 1: 18 franchises would participate in the lottery: the ten teams that missed the playoffs across both conferences, and the eight Play-In teams. The former would each receive an 8 percent chance at the No. 1 pick, while the latter would each get 2.5 percent.
- Proposal 2: The same teams as in Proposal 1 would participate. The five worst-performing teams would have the highest chances at the No. 1 pick, with probabilities decreasing continuously thereafter. This proposal involves first drawing the Top 5 picks, followed by a separate drawing for the remaining 13 picks. Should one of the five worst teams not secure a Top 5 pick, it could fall back to no worse than tenth place in the second drawing.
- Proposal 3: 22 franchises would participate in the lottery – the aforementioned 18 plus the four first-round playoff losers from both conferences. These teams would be assigned chances at the No. 1 pick based on their combined record over the past two years, with the worst teams receiving the highest probabilities. Franchises would need to achieve an (undisclosed) minimum number of wins; if they fell below this minimum in either of the past two seasons, the minimum would be applied to their record for that respective season.
NBA: Potential Draft Reforms Not Radical Enough? Severe Penalties Threaten
The NBA’s proposals have drawn criticism from many sides. Critics, for instance, remarked that the concepts were too complicated for the general public, or simply dismissed them as ‘0 for 3’.
While the potential measures diverge from the current system, they do not represent as radical a change as some options discussed in recent weeks and months. These included, for example, a reverse lottery where successful teams are favored, or even the complete abolition of the draft.
However, the lottery reform itself is not the end of the NBA’s anti-tanking offensive. Potential penalties for tanking teams could include the complete forfeiture of draft picks, being moved to the end of the draft order, or multi-million dollar fines.