The NBA is aggressively pursuing draft lottery reform that would essentially disincentivize tanking within the league, according to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
The potential reform would discourage teams from tanking by lowering the odds on the NBA's worst teams to gain the top picks in the draft while also increasing the odds of better teams making a jump in the draft lottery standings, the report says. The passage of such legislation could be implemented as early as the 2017-18 season, but a vote at the competition committee's next meeting to send it to a formal recommendation to the Board of Governors is required first.
Currently, the draft lottery consists of the NBA's 14 non-playoff teams, with the pick order being determined in a lottery-style ping-pong ball selection process. In the current format, the worse a team is, the higher percentage chance the team has of winning the lottery and, thus, earning a higher draft pick.
Should the motion be voted into a formal recommendation and passed, the proposed reform would be phased in over time, and there's no indication the 2018 draft would be subject to the new legislation, Wojnarowski reports.
