NBA Plans Anti-Tanking Rules

- The NBA's Competition Committee has discussed several potential rule changes to combat tanking, including freezing lottery odds at the trade deadline, preventing teams from picking in the top four in consecutive years, and allocating lottery odds based on a team's record over two seasons instead of one. - In a recent meeting with all 30 of the league's general managers, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was described as "forceful" in his messaging about the need to solve the tanking problem. - Recent examples of behavior the league wants to curb include the Dallas Mavericks sitting key players in 2023, despite having a chance to make the postseason, a move that resulted in a $750,000 fine. The Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers also received fines in the current season for resting healthy players. - The league last adjusted the draft lottery odds in 2019 to discourage tanking by flattening the odds for the top picks. Under the current system, the three teams with the worst records each have an equal 14% chance of receiving the number one pick. - One of the more aggressive proposals would prevent teams from selecting in the top four of the draft the year after making the conference finals. - Some team executives, like Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia, have publicly spoken out against tanking, with Ishbia stating it is "much worse than any prop bet scandal." - The practice of tanking has a long history in the NBA, with one of the earliest examples being the 1983-84 Houston Rockets, who were accused of intentionally losing to secure the first overall pick, which they used to draft Hakeem Olajuwon. This led to the NBA implementing a draft lottery system in 1985.