NBA commissioner Adam Silver informed general managers Thursday that the league plans to make rule changes to curb tanking ahead of the 2026-27 season, league sources confirmed to The Athletic.
Silver conveyed the league’s intentions in a previously planned meeting with the NBA’s 30 lead executives.
League sources said some of the proposals being discussed include lottery odds being allocated based on two-year records, flattened and/or frozen by the trade deadline or another in-season date. There is also discussion of extending the lottery to include the eight Play-In Tournament teams.
Several other changes are also being considered. Among them:
• Limitations on first-round pick protections;
• Teams not being allowed to pick in the top four a year after making the conference finals;
• Teams being prohibited from selecting in the top four in consecutive years;
• Teams being prohibited from selecting in the top four after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
ESPN was first to report news of the league’s plans.
This isn’t the first time the league has taken measures to disincentivize tanking, with the most recent change coming when the lottery odds were flattened in 2019, with teams with the league’s three-worst records having a 14 percent chance to win the No. 1 pick. But the conversation about possible solutions was rekindled, in earnest, heading into the All-Star break.
As The Athletic’s Joe Vardon reported Saturday, one of the 10 potential solutions that was discussed in meetings among league officials last week was “the outright abolition of the rookie draft.” The willingness to discuss such extreme measures was as clear a sign as any that the NBA was taking this problem very seriously — again.
According to one source with knowledge of the meeting, Duke legend and current NBA adviser Mike Krzyzewski praised the general managers on the call for “acknowledging the issue and attacking it.” Krzyzewski, who was named a league adviser in May 2023, is typically involved in the NBA’s general manager meetings and competition committee meetings.
There was, according to the source, a consensus on the call that this issue threatens the integrity and long-term viability of the league. And when Silver emphasized the importance of finding a solution, there was an acknowledgement that a change to the current system is needed.
As one general manager on the call put it in regards to tanking, “We’re all to blame.” Another GM said the tanking discussion took up the majority of the meeting — more than an hour — with other planned topics pushed to accommodate.
Silver said Saturday at NBA All-Star Weekend in Inglewood, Calif., that “every possible remedy to stop” tanking is under consideration by the league. Last week, the Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000 for perceived tanking and violating the league’s player participation policy with what league officials called “conduct detrimental to the league.” But Silver noted that such fines regularly would “lead to very unhealthy relationships between us and our teams.”
Of the NBA Draft Lottery, in which the non-playoff teams have an opportunity to win the No. 1 pick in a particular year’s draft, Silver said, “it’s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it.”
— The Athletic’s Joe Vardon contributed.