NBA Rule Change Concepts for Draft Lottery, Anti-Tanking Reportedly Revealed Ahead of May Vote

The NBA reportedly presented three NBA draft lottery-related proposals to the Board of Governors this week in its effort to curb tanking.

According to ESPN's Shams Charania, the Board of Governors will vote on the proposals in May, although each one of them are expected to be modified before then:

Per Charania, the three proposals are as follows:

• 18-team lottery, bottom 10 teams each have an 8 percent chance at top pick, remaining 20 percent assigned to 11 through 18 in decreasing order, lottery drawing for all 18 picks
• 22-team lottery based on 2-year records, four first-round playoff exits in each conference included, lottery teams must reach a minimum win total floor, or else they get slotted to meet floor, top 4 drawn in lottery
• 18-team 5x5 lottery, bottom five teams have equal odds, those who fall outside the top five in lottery have a floor of No. 10 and get slotted in a separate lottery

There is a significant divide between the haves and have-nots in the NBA currently, as 14 teams have at least 40 wins, while eight teams have 48 or more losses.

Five teams have a winning percentage under .300, and it is fair to wonder if they feel incentivized to lose games in an effort to land one of several blue-chip players in the 2026 NBA draft, including AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, Caleb Wilson and Darius Acuff Jr.

Under the current draft lottery rules, the 14 teams that don't reach the playoffs are included. The teams with the three worst records have a 14 percent chance to win the lottery, and the odds decrease incrementally from there.

Each of the three new proposals presented by the NBA would include playoff teams in the lottery, meaning a team could potentially reach the postseason and still end up with the No. 1 overall pick.

Two of the proposals would feature all non-playoff teams and all teams that participate in the postseason play-in tournament in the lottery. The lottery proposal involving 22 teams would also include all teams that lose in the first round of the playoffs.

The 22-team proposal is the most unique of the bunch since it would take two seasons of record data into account rather than one, which is currently how the WNBA weights its lottery, per ESPN.

That proposal involves a win total floor as well, placing less emphasis on what a team's final record actually is.

If the win total floor is 25 and a team wins only 15 games, they will still be treated as a 25-win teams for purposes of the lottery, meaning 10 of their losses essentially won't count.

The elimination of tanking has been a hot-button issue for several years, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver made it clear this week that the league intended to take measures to prevent it.

Speaking to reporters after the NBA Board of Governors meetings in New York City, Silver said, "I do think ultimately this is a decision that needs to be made at the ownership level. It has business implications, has basketball implications, has integrity implications for the league. So, it's one that we take very seriously, and we are going to fix it. Full stop."

Any change wouldn't take effect until next season at the earliest, meaning there will be a mad dash down the stretch this season as cellar-dwelling teams look to secure the best odds at winning the lottery.

As of now, the Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets and Washington Wizards are the bottom three teams and would each have a 14 percent chance to win the lottery if the season ended today, but the Sacramento Kings are just one game better than the Wizards.