The NBA is prepared to address the rash of mid-season tanking among franchises anticipating a quick fix for their institutional woes via the NBA Draft. The current draft system, a weighted lottery among all 14 teams who do not make the playoffs, gives incentives for losing: greater odds of high picks for teams with worse records. This has led to a raft of accusations of “tanking”—intentionally losing games—against teams who appear to be underperforming.
[ESPN is reporting](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47979919/nba-set-enact-anti-tanking-rules-next-season-sources-say) that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has informed General Managers of all 30 franchises that anti-tanking measures will go into effect next season. Currently the league fines teams who rest star players without clear indication of injuries, but financial penalties are hard to enforce and don’t appear to be actually deterring decision-makers anyway.
The ESPN article suggests that, per league sources, the following measures may be considered:
The article also describes the commissioner’s message as “forceful”. We’ll see what develops over the coming months.