Adam Silver signaled that the National Basketball Association is preparing “substantial changes” to its anti-tanking policies beginning with the 2026-27 season, offering the clearest indication yet that the league office intends to reshape how draft incentives work.
Speaking Friday at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, Silver said the league has been consulting with all 30 teams, the board of governors, and the competition committee after the All-Star break to explore ways to reduce incentives for teams to intentionally lose games late in the season.
“We are going to make substantial changes for next year,” Silver said, according to reporting from The Athletic. While he stopped short of announcing a finalized plan, Silver suggested the league could consider more dramatic steps.
Those steps may include potentially separating draft positioning from final regular-season records – a move that would drastically alter how the lottery system currently works.
The league is already discussing Silver’s proposals
The commissioner characterized himself as an “incrementalist,” indicating the league may instead pursue a series of adjustments rather than one sweeping overhaul.
Several proposals are already under discussion across league committees and front offices, including:
- Modifying how draft pick protections work in trades
- Freezing lottery odds at a specific point in the season, preventing teams from improving their draft position late by losing games
- Eliminating the possibility of receiving a top-four lottery pick in consecutive years
- Allocating lottery odds using a two-year performance window instead of a single season
- Flattening lottery odds across teams to reduce incentives for finishing with the league’s worst record
- Potentially separating draft positioning from final standings altogether, a concept Silver acknowledged would be a major change
The goal of Silver’s new rules
The league’s push comes amid growing concern about “tanking,” where teams prioritize draft positioning over short-term competitiveness. Silver emphasized that the NBA does not want to punish legitimate rebuilding strategies, such as giving young players extended minutes late in the season.
Instead, the league’s focus is on discouraging situations where teams sit multiple healthy players or effectively concede games to improve their lottery odds.
Exactly which changes will be implemented remains unclear, but Silver’s comments suggest the NBA is preparing to introduce its most significant anti-tanking reforms in years before the start of the 2026-27 campaign.
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