NBA Reportedly to Make Anti-Tanking Rule Changes Before 2026-27 Season, Possible Strategies Revealed

The NBA is considering a number of rule changes to curb the practice of tanking for better lottery odds, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

Per that report, the NBA is considering the following:

• Only allowing first-rounders to have top-four or top-14+ protections.
• Freezing lottery odds at the trade deadline or later date.
• Blocking teams from selecting in the top four in consecutive years, or after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
• Preventing teams from having a top-four pick a year after reaching the Conference Finals.
• Moving lottery odds to records over a two-year period, rather than only from the previous season.
• Play-In Tournament teams are also included in the lottery.
• Further flattening lottery odds for all teams.

Changes wouldn't come as a major surprise after commisioner Adam Silver publicly addressed the tanking issue during All-Star Weekend.

"In the old days, it was just sort of an understanding among partners in terms of behavior," he told reporters while discussing the topic. "I think what we're seeing is modern analytics where it's so clear that the incentives are misaligned. ... Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we've seen in recent memory? Yes, is my view. Which was what led to those fines, and not just those fines but to my statement that we're going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams' behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice."

The NBA fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000 last week for benching healthy players.

While many fans are against blatant tanking, it's a complicated discussion. With only 10 players on the court at a time, the chance to draft a superstar is a franchise-altering proposition given how much impact one player can have on a game. Victor Wembanyama, for instance, almost instantly transformed the San Antonio Spurs.

And historically, small-market teams aren't appealing to the sport's top superstars during free agency, with the bigger coastal markets tending to attract the majority of those names. So instead, many teams believe that giving themselves the best possible lottery chances during a rebuild is the superior approach when trying to land a superstar and achieve long-term contention.

The downside is that the lottery system doesn't guarantee landing such a player and encourages the dark art of tanking practices later in the season. From the NBA's perspective, rebuilding teams finding clever ways to sit their best players means a diminished product for fans.

"It's part of my job to remind everybody. ... I understand what your short-term interests may be, but we'd better not lose sight of our fans here," Silver noted. "We'd better not lose sight of the people who support this league day in and day out."