'Tanking', the action of losing on purpose to get better chances in the future (better draft odds in the case of the NBA) has extended, and the basketball league wants to end it for obvious reasons: it undermines the competition and the values of sport, as well as reducing spectacle and drawing spectators away from the TV.
To end this, NBA is working on a reform of the NBA draft that will discourage losing, although without completely missing the point of the draft: allowing the worse teams of the league to get good prospects so that they can improve in the future. Only that, instead of being proportional (the worst you are, the better chances you get in the draft), this system would encourage teams to be "less bad" than others to have better odds in the draft.
This new plan, seen by ESPN, includes several aspects, including increasing the lottery from 14 to 16 teams, and penalising the three worst teams of the league.
The bottom three teams of the regular season (the teams with more losses), as well as the ninth and tenth seeds in each conference (even if they qualify for the play-ins) would have 5.4% chances in the lottery.
The rest of the teams at the bottom of the standings (those that were worse than the ninth and tenth and failed to enter into play-ins, but were better than the bottom three) will get 8.1% chances in the draw.
This plan would start to be used in 2027, if the 30 franchise owners agree on a vote. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said that they "should have a system where you hate to lose. It shouldn't be a badge of honor. Losing should be uncomfortable".
