A “heavy frontrunner” has emerged as the NBA considers its options to reduce tanking, league and team sources tell Sam Amick of The Athletic.
In March, the league presented three separate lottery reform concepts to its governors to address the problem. It appears option No. 1, which expands the draft lottery to 18 teams from the current 14, has received the best reception, according to Amick. The proposal would give each of the bottom 10 teams an 8% chance of landing the top overall pick, and the remaining 20% would be distributed among the other eight. It’s a significant change from the current system, which provides the three worst teams with a 14% chance at the No. 1 selection, with the odds steadily declining for the rest.
Several general managers that Amick contacted point out that option No. 1 could result in new problems that should be addressed before a vote is taken. There could be an outcry if one of the four lottery teams that reaches the playoffs winds up winning the top overall selection. Although the odds of that happening are slim, the huge jumps taken by Atlanta, Dallas and other teams in the last two lotteries show that it’s possible.
The next step in the process will take place on Tuesday with a league-wide meeting of GMs on Zoom. Draft reform won’t be the only topic of discussion, but it will be the main issue, Amick adds. He hears that commissioner Adam Silver is taking a “collaborative approach,” welcoming extensive feedback, with the league’s competition committee taking the lead and representatives from the players union also involved.
A vote on reform is expected at the next Board of Governors meeting in May, and at least 23 of the 30 teams must approve the proposal for it to be adopted. Silver stated in February that he hopes to have a new system in place by next season.
There’s more from Amick:
- Orlando’s playoff success may be complicating a few expected coaching moves. Amick notes that rumors about Jamahl Mosley being on the hot seat have been circulating since October, and they intensified when the Magic lost their final regular season game and their first play-in contest. Former Bulls head coach Billy Donovan and Bucks associate head coach Darvin Ham were seen as potential replacements, and Mosley was viewed as a possible candidate for the Pelicans. However, Orlando holds a 2-1 lead in its series with top-seeded Detroit, and Amick believes Mosley is worthy of a “second look” from Magic officials if he can get the team to at least the second round.
- Amick addresses a few other coaching situations, including Tiago Splitter‘s unique position with the Trail Blazers and Mike Brown‘s Finals-or-bust mandate with the Knicks. Amick also believes pressure has increased on the Sixers’ Nick Nurse and the Cavaliers’ Kenny Atkinson following Sunday’s playoff losses.
- The Lakers and Timberwolves have experienced terrible injury luck, with L.A. losing Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves before its series started and Minnesota seeing Donte DiVincenzo and Anthony Edwards both suffer significant injuries in Saturday’s game. Amick praises the foresight of the Lakers’ Rob Pelinka and the Wolves’ Tim Connelly for adding depth that gives their teams a chance to survive those losses. Pelinka signed Marcus Smart last summer following a buyout with Washington, then acquired Luke Kennard from Atlanta in February. Connelly made possibly the best deal at this year’s deadline, getting Ayo Dosunmu from Chicago in exchange for two little-used players and a package of second-round picks.
Adam Silver is going to screw up a draft lottery that he made worse in the first place. If they do this, there will be almost no way for bad teams to get better. The NBA league office is so tone deaf. They are ruining the game and can’t even see it. It’s the blind leading the blind, an Adam Silver is the ringleader.
How’s he responsible for teams tanking. Everyone plays and abuses the system. It’s the American way.
If the Warriors are smart, they will hire Tiago Splitter if Steve Kerr retires
if the Blazers are smart they’ll hire Splitter full time, baffles me that they’re considering a change.
Nurse probably survives. No coach will do better with this roster. I can see them just letting everyone go like Grimes, Tsunami, and just carrying on with some low cost FAs until Embiids contract is done. Why pay 2 coaches for the same result?
How about the league showing a live video stream of the draft lottery order taking place, before passing on judgment to its teams?
I’m shocked that NBA teams are tanking for better draft positions when the order is clearly being manipulated by the league.
Between the historically crooked draft, how much weight the historically crooked NBA referees still have on dictating game outcomes, and the horribly repetitive broadcast & arena experience (same halftime&timeout shows, same in-game announcer-inspired defense chants), combined with a ridiculous amount of stoppage time – which results in the most horrendous TV commercials featuring fast foods and FDA approved drugs, it’s clear that capitalism is why America is falling behind even in basketball.
P.S; For god sake just let the NBA fans enjoy the game by offering live stream experiences through the microphones on the court instead of having us put the broadcasters on mute and playing music.
First, if you want more tanking then go to that 18 team lottery route, with the ten worst getting 8% each. More teams will tank to get there.
Second, Silver says the fan base doesn’t want tanking. Wrong on two if three counts. 1) the fan base of a bad team with no playoff hopes definitely wants the team to tank. 2) the fan base of a playoff team playing a tanking team is happy cause it’s an easy win in the second half of the season helping their team placement ; 3) the only fan base not happy are the ones that have a close record with another playoff bound team and that other team is playing more tanking teams at the end of the season.
Yeah, it may not be a competitive game so maybe less fans are watching, but are fans going to watch more if their team or their opposing team wins 24 games instead of 16?
It’s pretty simple, heavy financial penalties for losing games. Not paltry fines that amount to half a game check, but significant financial incentive to win games. The %14 lottery is such a stupid idea. Now teams in the middle of conference will tank for playoffs plus lottery. Everyone refusing to address the elephant in the room…
If owners lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue for losing, they will try not to lose anymore.
More teams are going to tank. Also if I am a 7th seed with no chance I would get 2 play in games with revenue and try to tank for that chance at 1.
There will be holes in any proposal but we need to balance that against what we have currently which is a bad bad NBA product in the regular season
Tankings always occurred but its never been widely accepted by the fans (hell Id say fully embraced ) as it has today . Tanking has become more of a fan problem today than it is on the court
Everyone always looks at OKC and Sas as shining lights and forget the dozens of teams that tanking has led nowhere and only brought down the league. Putting by-laws in preventing a team like SAS getting 3 top 4 picks in 4 years is great for the league.
Lotta love for losers in here but not much pushback for how IN-ORGANIC OKC and SAS shot to the top and will remain there for a long while bc they actively lost games for years, games fans payed to see, games that watered down the league for years in hopes the Magic balls would bounce their way ….. Thats not organic, thats not a good product, thats not a good model, we dont need more and more fans pleading for losses on Xmas when there teams 6-10 in the W/L column…Id take relegation before I took more pro tanking for our beautiful game. I get poking holes in measures is a major function of message boards (and heathy) but lets focus on the positives a little here too
Most important part of lottery. Is for the bad teams to have access to top talent in lottery. Unfortunately teams abusing this process. Requires a strong enforcement policy. Imo you can’t do much more than what you have now. Next step is just policing it right, enforcement of policy. Teams found to be tanking on purpose. Should be penalized severely. Take away their first rd pick. Or future pick. Or at least move them down into 20s. If found to be tanking against by-laws. You can’t penalize teams that are truly bad and need those top picks.
You can put restrictions. Like you can’t be in top 5 more than two yrs in a row. Then you go outside top 10. This needs a long discussion. Not easily solved. You can’t punish truly bad teams.