The NBA has approved significant anti-tanking measures. Will they work? Tim Bontemps examines the good, the bad and the head-scratching changes coming to the draft lottery.
The NBA has approved significant anti-tanking measures.
Tim Bontemps examines the good, the bad and the head-scratching changes coming to the draft lottery.
Tim BontempsMay 28, 2026, 03:20 PM ETCloseTim Bontemps is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com who covers the league and what's impacting it on and off the court, including trade deadline intel, expansion and his MVP Straw Polls. You can find Tim alongside Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective podcast.
Tim BontempsMay 28, 2026, 03:20 PM ET
Adam Silver made it clear that changes were coming to the NBA draft lottery.
"It seemed unanimous in the room that we needed to make a change and we needed to make a change for next season," Silver, the NBA's commissioner since 2014, said at the league's board of governors meeting in March.
"Incentives need to be fixed. We will fix them."
The league has landed on a solution. On Thursday, the NBA's Board of Governors passed new anti-tanking rules -- by a 29-1 vote -- that expand the draft lottery from 14 to 16 teams, flatten odds even further and a create a relegation zone that penalizes the bottom three teams with lessened chances for the No. 1 pick, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania.
The "3-2-1 lottery," a fairly revolutionary overhaul of the draft system, is designed to immediately curb the league's annual race to the bottom and incentivize more teams to compete late in the season.
Here's a rundown of the pros and cons of the new lottery format, and what they could mean for the future of the draft lottery and NBA roster and asset management.
Averytin News NBA update.