For NBA fans whose teams aren't currently in the playoff picture, the NBA draft lottery is all they have to look forward to. Unfortunately, the NBA's recently proposed draft reform could permanently change the lottery for the worse.
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, per ESPN sources.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 27, 2026
1. 18 teams in draft lottery (seeds 7-15 in each conference) – flattened odds, with bottom 10…
All of these changes are far too elaborate and, I would argue, unnecessary. Instead of the NBA keeping it simple and making minor tweaks that could prevent tanking or, at least, minimize it, they are taking a scorched-earth approach.
That never actually solves the problem. The goal of the draft lottery is to help underperforming teams get better.
While decent teams are actually tanking now, minor tweaks could solve both issues.
Adam Silver is making a huge NBA Draft mistake
The league could flatten the draft odds for the 10 worst teams in the NBA. That would give each team an equal chance of landing a top-four pick.
It would also disincentivize bad teams from outtanking each other for a lottery position.
Another tweak could be to install a "win minimum," which would force bad teams to win at least 25 games to qualify for the lottery. If they can't, then they would see their pick automatically drop to 11th.
Meanwhile, in that scenario, a team in the 11 to 18 range of the draft could randomly be selected to move up into the top 10.
The NBA is going to make it harder for bad teams to improve
If you're a fan of a small-market team such as the Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies, or Indiana Pacers, you should be very concerned about what the NBA is trying to do.
Many of the proposed draft reforms would actually make it harder to build through the draft, not easier. Preventing a team from selecting the top four in consecutive draft years makes sense in theory, but it could also hurt rebuilds.
What happens if a team receives a top pick in a bad draft? That means they'd be shut out of landing a top four pick in a much better draft.
As a result, we could see bad teams remain bad for longer, with fewer chances of drafting stars. This would disproportionately affect small market teams that aren't able to attract big-name players in free agency.
That could become even worse with the addition of new teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.
If the NBA really wants to curb tanking, they can make smaller tweaks. Doing so would prevent the league from unfairly penalizing small-market teams and ruining the NBA Draft lottery.