Los Angeles
The NBA is moving to protect the spirit of competition by launching a formal attack on “tanking.” With team owners reviewing three groundbreaking proposals this week, the league aims to stop franchises from losing games on purpose to snag elite prospects in what experts call a historic 2026 draft class.
Commissioner Adam Silver has made his stance clear: the league must fix a system that currently rewards failure. “We are going to fix it,” Silver noted, acknowledging that the line between a “legitimate rebuild” and “deliberate losing” has become dangerously thin.
One major proposal suggests expanding the draft lottery to 18 teams, including those in the Play-In Tournament. By giving the bottom ten teams equal odds for the top pick, the league hopes to destroy the incentive to finish last. A second, even more radical idea involves a “two-year win total” system. This would rank teams based on their performance over two seasons, preventing a single bad year from being rewarded with a franchise-altering player.
The third concept, the “five-by-five” double lottery, ensures the five worst teams share identical odds, protecting them from falling too far in the draft while removing the “race to the bottom.”
While critics argue that a single superstar like Victor Wembanyama or Cooper Flagg is worth any amount of losing, the NBA is determined to restore fan trust. A final vote on these complex changes is expected this May.
