NBA changed the lottery rules. Some teams still stink

The NBA can change the incentives. It can change the lottery. It can make losing on purpose a less attractive business plan.

It cannot make a bad basketball team good just by asking it to try.

That’s the early takeaway from Stephen Noh’s look at the league’s anti-tanking reforms for Sporting News. The expectation was that fewer teams deliberately chasing losses would produce more competitive basketball.

Through roughly the first tenth of the season, the standings haven’t cooperated.

Noh notes that six teams have just one victory, compared with three at this point last year. There have also been more blowouts of 15 and 20 points.

The Bulls, Jazz, Bucks and Kings are all 1-7. Chicago’s minus-17.6 net rating is considerably worse than the league-worst minus-11.6 the Wizards carried at the same point last season.

Turns out, some teams don’t need to tank. They can lose perfectly well with everyone giving an honest effort.

That doesn’t mean the reforms have failed. As Noh points out, their real value could emerge later, when teams might otherwise sit healthy players or pull productive starters from competitive games.

There’s a meaningful difference between discouraging that behavior and expecting a poorly constructed roster to suddenly defend somebody.

There are encouraging examples, too. Noh highlights the Grizzlies’ 6-2 start and improvements from the Mavericks, Wizards and Pelicans. Better health, developing young players and useful additions have helped those teams.

That’s how improvement generally happens. A revised lottery formula can encourage better decisions, but it won’t make those decisions for a front office.

The NBA has reason to address intentional losing. Fans deserve teams that are trying.

They just shouldn’t confuse trying to win with being equipped to do it. Some teams still stink. The lottery rules didn’t put those rosters together.

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