New NBA Rumors on Anti-Tanking, Draft Lottery Rule Changes and 'Heavy Frontrunner' from Proposals

The NBA may be nearing a preferred course on how to address tanking, according to The Athletic's Sam Amick.

Amick reported Monday that "a heavy frontrunner has emerged among the three proposed solutions":

"Option No. 1, in which 18 teams would be part of the draft lottery (rather than the current 14) and the bottom 10 teams would all have an 8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick. The remaining odds — 20 percent in all — would be divided among the remaining eight teams. In the current system, the bottom three teams all have a 14 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick and the odds decline from there."

The league insider added that "Option No. 1 has all the momentum and appears likely to win out."

However, Amick said the support isn't unanimous.

A team could hypothetically make the playoffs and then win the draft lottery, which somewhat defeats the purpose of the draft itself. And unexpected outliers like that do happen.

The Atlanta Hawks got the No. 1 selection in 2024 despite having a three percent chance. Going much further back, the Cleveland Cavaliers entered the 2014 lottery with only a 1.7 percent chance of picking first overall, yet the lottery balls fell in their favor.

Commissioner Adam Silver has made it clear he feels tanking is a problem that requires attention.

"I do think ultimately this is a decision that needs to be made at the ownership level," he told reporters in March. "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."

This is something that may never truly be "solved," though.

Silver has had to publicly address concerns over tanking for at least nearly a decade. Here we are in 2026 and the NBA is once again weighing lottery reform as a way to incentivize teams to win games.

Short of abolishing the draft altogether, some franchises will be motivated to lose as many games as possible because getting a high draft pick is their only path to acquiring elite talent.

Regardless of how the NBA decides to change the lottery process, it might only be a few years until fans are arguing more needs to be done.