The NBA proposed three anti-tanking draft concepts – flattened 18-team lottery odds, a 22-team lottery using a 2-year win floor, and a "5 by 5" top-pick lottery with a minimum win floor – to be refined before a May vote.
The NBA presented three comprehensive anti-tanking concepts to its Board of Governors on Wednesday, with modifications expected to each before a formal vote in May, accoridng to Shams Charania of ESPN.
3 anti-tanking concepts:
18 teams in draft lottery (seeds 7-15 in each conference) – flattened odds, with bottom 10 teams having an 8% chance, the remaining 20% odds distributed in decreasing order for 11 through 18, and a lottery drawing for all 18 picks.
22 teams in lottery using 2-year record (seeds 7-15, plus the four playoff first round exits in both conferences). Lottery teams would reach a minimum win total floor in each season, such as 25 wins.
If a team falls short of the floor, it gets slotted to meet the floor. The top 4 are drawn as part of the lottery, as is currently the case.
18 teams in a "5 by 5" lottery – bottom 5 teams have equal odds for the top pick, with a lottery formed for picks 1-5. The bottom 5 teams have a floor of 10; those that fall out of the top 5 are sorted in a separate drawing.
These build on 2019 lottery changes that capped top-pick odds at 14% and February 2026 proposals like limited pick protections, aiming to curb intentional losses by broadening lottery participation to deter mid-tier tanking.
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