If you’ve been watching the NBA lately, you might have noticed a lot of talk about tanking. This happens when teams deliberately lose games to improve their chances of scoring high draft picks. With a promising draft class in 2026, many teams at the bottom of the standings have resorted to this tactic, resting star players and putting weaker athletes on the court.
While tanking isn’t new, it reached a peak this season, prompting action from the league. According to a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania, the NBA is considering a new draft lottery system to curtail this trend.
The proposed system, called the “3-2-1” lottery, aims to change how teams earn the right to draft players. Currently, 14 teams participate in the draft lottery. The new plan would expand this to 16, allowing all non-playoff teams—and even the two lowest playoff seeds—to have a shot at higher draft positions.
Under this plan, the worst three teams would receive the fewest benefits, getting only two lottery balls each. Meanwhile, teams ranked fourth to tenth will get three, and playoff teams that just missed out will get one. This shift aims to make it harder for the worst teams to remain at the top of the draft.
One of the key goals is to discourage different types of tanking. First, the structural tanking seen at the start of the season, where teams build weak rosters, and second, the end-of-season tanking, like when the Washington Wizards rested their top players. By changing the incentives, the NBA hopes to keep teams competitive until the very end of the season.
However, critics argue that as long as there’s a link between a team’s record and their draft position, tanking will continue in some form. Superstar players are invaluable in the league, making any strategy aimed at getting them worthwhile, especially for teams that can’t attract big-name free agents.
The proposed changes might even encourage teams close to the playoff cutoff to intentionally lose their play-in games to improve their draft odds. This would create a different kind of problem, where teams previously thought to be contenders are incentivized to lose.
Tanking also raises questions about team integrity. While it may lead to more entertaining games, fans of struggling teams often want them to lose for a better shot at future stars. This raises the question: is it really so bad for a team to accept a challenging season?
In discussions about these changes, experts emphasize the need for balance. Historical patterns show that without strong regulations, an imbalance can emerge that affects the league’s overall competitiveness.
In light of these discussions and proposed changes, it seems that the conversation around tanking is far from over. As fans and analysts keep watching, the NBA will continue to navigate this delicate and complex issue.
For more details on the latest NBA draft updates and overall team performance statistics, you can visit sources like ESPN.
