NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed on Stephen A. Smith’s radio show Wednesday that the league has landed on a proposal to present to the board of governors at the end of May to revamp the draft lottery in an effort to curb tanking, the report says.
The proposal would create a system of flat odds designed to remove an incentive to be the worst team, Silver said. The plan includes a concept described as ‘draft relegation’ under which the bottom three teams would carry worse chances of winning the lottery than teams picking from fourth through 10th, per the report.
The changes are being referred to as the ‘3-2-1’ system, which ESPN first reported a couple of weeks ago, the report says. Under that structure the three worst teams would receive a lower percentage chance of landing the top pick than the teams immediately above them, with the goal of reducing the perceived benefit of losing late in the season.
The report notes that all four teams that jumped up in this year’s lottery — the Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls — pushed late in the season to improve their draft position. Silver also reaffirmed that the league intends to retain broader disciplinary options for overt tanking than it has used previously, the report says.
Earlier this season the Jazz were fined $500,000 for what the league called conduct detrimental to the league. Silver said the league could go further than fines and has the ability to remove draft lottery balls or change draft order if teams appear not to be attempting to win, per the report.
League officials have told ESPN in recent days that they expect this proposal will be the one passed this month, and the NBA has reiterated that the change would remain in place only through the 2029 season when a new collective bargaining agreement would take effect. Silver said the system would be in place for three years to allow time for study and to observe how teams adapt.
