NBA tanking has rarely been as rampant as it is in 2026, and the league is seeking to end the practice once and for all.
Commissioner Adam Silver gathered representatives from the 30 NBA teams for a call about the issue Thursday, one that consisted of “throwing s— against the wall,” a high-level team executive told Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix.
What was reportedly billed as an ideation session that allowed the teams to share feedback on the situation wasn’t meant to come up with a solution. That will ultimately be left up to the NBA’s competition committee. However, the meeting also gave Silver the chance to make a stern statement to every team—perhaps even the kind that his predecessor David Stern would deliver, one executive told The Athletic.
According to the report, Silver’s message could be boiled down to: “This is not who we are going to be as a league.”
The NBA is still in the process of collecting potential models to disincentivize tanking, but speaking to general manager Sean Marks of the 15–40 Nets, Silver made it very clear that the goal is a model that will have every team looking to win every night out.
“I would just say, Sean, you could assume for next season your only incentive will be to win games,” Silver said, per The Athletic.
Seven Anti-Tanking Measures Under Consideration
Following Thursday’s meeting, ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania reported on seven potential anti-tanking rule changes currently being evaluated:
- First-round picks can be protected only top-four or top-14-plus
- Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date
- No longer allowing a team to pick top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-three finishes
- Teams can’t pick top-four the year after making conference finals
- Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records
- Lottery extended to include all play-in teams
- Flatten odds for all lottery teams
Adjusting draft pick protections appears to be the most direct potential change, one that wouldn’t create significant ripple effects but could lessen the number of teams openly tanking. Expanding the lottery to include play-in teams could also have a similar effect—allowing teams to compete for playoff positioning without completely abandoning their chances of securing a top pick.
These proposals don’t appear to be the sweeping changes Silver alluded to in his reported conversation with Marks—though that discussion occurred in a private setting.
What is certain is that the NBA’s draft lottery process will be revised before the 2026–27 season. The extent of that revision remains to be seen.
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