NBA’s Board Of Governors Approves ‘3-2-1’ Lottery Reform Plan

3:04 pm: The NBA has officially confirmed that its Board of Governors approved the new draft lottery system. The league also put out a pair of infographics (via Twitter) outlining the basic rule changes and detailing the pick odds for each team under the new format.

2:26 pm: New anti-tanking rules have been approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors, according to Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that the league’s “3-2-1” draft lottery reform proposal will move forward as expected and will take effect beginning in 2027.

The highlights of the plan are as follows:

• The lottery will expand from 14 to 16 teams, and all 16 picks will be drawn via the lottery.
• The bottom three teams by record will receive two lottery balls apiece (5.4% odds at the No. 1 overall pick) and could fall as low as 12th overall in the draft.
• The other seven non-playoff and non-play-in teams (fourth-worst through 10th-worst) will receive three lottery balls apiece (8.1% odds at the No. 1 pick).
• The teams who finish the regular season ranked ninth and 10th in each conference will receive two lottery balls apiece.
• The losers of the No. 7 vs. 8 play-in games will receive one lottery ball apiece (2.7% odds at the No. 1 pick).
• Teams will be prohibited from protecting traded picks in the 12-15 range.
• Teams will be prohibited from winning the No. 1 pick in back-to-back years and from winning top-five picks in three consecutive years.
• The first 16 picks in the second round will be the reverse of the first 16 picks in the first round.
• The format changes will apply to the next three drafts and has a sunset provision, giving the NBA and its teams a chance to scrap it or reform it in 2029.
• The league office will have increased latitude to impose penalties on teams believed to be tanking, including reducing that team’s lottery odds or modifying its draft position.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver repeatedly vowed in recent months to address the issue of tanking, which was especially prevalent during the 2025/26 season ahead of a loaded draft. Silver said in early March that “substantial changes” would be coming in an effort to deter tanking, then stated at a press conference later in the month, “We are going to fix it … full stop.”

After initially presenting three separate anti-tanking proposals to the Board of Governors two months ago, the NBA combined various elements of those proposals and made some tweaks, introducing the “3-2-1” plan last month. The name stems from the fact that each team of the 16 teams receives one, two, or three lottery balls.

It has been common in recent years for non-playoff teams to stop putting their best roster on the floor during the second half of the season in an effort to lose enough to secure the most favorable draft pick possible. The goal of this plan is to disincentivize that behavior. The NBA’s very worst teams will no longer have the best odds at the No. 1 overall pick and are no longer assured of a safe draft “floor,” since even the worst team in the league could fall as far as No. 12 in the draft lottery.

According to Charania (Twitter link), Thursday’s Board of Governors vote was 29-1 in favor of the plan, with the Grizzlies registering the lone dissenting vote. It’s safe to assume Memphis’ dissatisfaction with the proposal is related to the way the league is handling the restriction on teams getting top-five picks in three consecutive years.

According to a recent report from Kevin O’Connor, that restriction will retroactively include the 2025 and 2026 drafts and will apply to a team’s pick even after it’s traded. That means that Utah’s first-rounder in 2027 can’t land in the top five after the Jazz got the No. 5 pick in 2025 and No. 2 in 2026.

The Grizzlies currently control Utah’s 2027 first-rounder – technically the most favorable of the Jazz, Timberwolves, and Cavaliers picks – as a result of the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade, so if it’s drawn in the top five of next year’s lottery and is more favorable than the Minnesota and Cleveland first-rounders, it would be moved to No. 6.