The NBA may soon tweak its draft lottery again. Just do not expect a full teardown of the system.
Adam Silver said Friday that the league plans to implement changes to the lottery beginning next season in an effort to curb deliberate losing.
Silver made the comments at the annual Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, where he described himself as an “incrementalist” when it comes to altering the system, per The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov.
In other words, the league plans to adjust things. But perhaps not blow everything up at once.
“I think we’ve got to be careful about how huge a change we make at once,” Silver said. “I’m not ruling anything out. But it’s something more than just tinkering.”
One issue the league has focused on involves draft pick protections. Teams often attach protections when trading picks, allowing them to keep the selection if it lands within a certain range. That can create strange incentives.
Silver referred to them as “cliffs.”
The difference between finishing with the fifth-worst record or the sixth-worst record, for example, can determine whether a team keeps its pick. That alone can shape behavior down the stretch.
This season has only heightened those concerns. The 2026 draft class is considered unusually strong, headlined by prospects AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson and Cameron Boozer.
Silver called it something of a perfect storm.
“You have four players, maybe five, who are true game changers,” he said.
The league has already started cracking down. The Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 for holding out key players late in games, while the Indiana Pacers were docked $100,000 for fielding a depleted lineup.
So the message from the league office seems clear.
Tanking has always existed. But the NBA would prefer teams not make it quite so obvious.
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