NBA Reportedly Pursuing Vote on Draft Lottery Reform
Having failed to institute reform in the NBA draft lottery process before, the NBA is again addressing the topic and could have a solution approved prior to the start of the 2017-18 regular season, ESPN.com's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday.
According to Wojnarowski, the NBA's Competition Committee could send a formal recommendation to the Board of Governors next week in order to gain final approval. But it's unclear whether the new rules would go into effect with the 2018 draft or at a later date.
Wojnarowski wrote that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is a proponent of lowering the odds the NBA's worst teams have to gain the top draft picks. Rather than the team with the worst record having the best chance of getting the No. 1 overall pick, the three worst teams would have the same odds of landing the top selection.
There would also be a wider variance of possibilities in terms of picks:
"Presently, the NBA team with the worst record can drop no lower than No. 4 from No. 1, but the NBA's currently proposed legislation could allow that team to drop from first to fifth in the lottery, league sources said. This would include a domino effect through the lottery, where the second-worst record presently dropping no lower than fourth, could fall to sixth. Then, the No. 3 team could drop as far as seven, and on down, league sources said."
In addition, a team couldn't have a top-three selection in back-to-back years.
During an interview on Mike & Mike in April, Silver said he thought the lottery process needed to be addressed. He also spoke of his affinity for European soccer, where underperforming teams are relegated to lower leagues, while admitting that that approach will never come to the NBA.
The trend of tanking to get the best possible draft position has been especially prevalent in the Eastern Conference of late.
The Philadelphia 76ers have spent years as one of the NBA's worst teams, while three playoff teams from last year have essentially signaled a full-scale rebuild this past summer. The Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers traded away their best players, while the Atlanta Hawks dealt Dwight Howard and lost Paul Millsap to free agency.
For smaller-market teams unable to attract marquee free agents, tanking is a sensible approach to building a title contender, but it also increases the stratification in the NBA and creates a race to the bottom. Finishing between fifth and eighth in the conference standings is essentially the worst place a franchise can be, since the team is neither a true title contender nor a lottery team.
Whatever the NBA's approach, it would appear the league will formally address tanking in the near future.
