NBA’s 3 Ideas to Fix Wild 2026 Tanking Revealed: Which Is Most Likely To Be Ratified?
· Yahoo Sports
A new report reveals the three ideas the NBA has to ensure the wild tanking we’ve seen in 2026 never happens again.
Visit afnews.co.za for more information.
Tanking to get more ping pong balls in the NBA Draft is nothing new. However, this season has been worse than ever before. Some clubs traded star players to get draft assets, weaken their roster, and boost the chances of more losses in the final weeks of the season. But other teams undertook unusual strategies in the final two months of the regular season.
Franchises like the Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers, and Utah Jazz added All-Star-level players to their rosters before the NBA trade deadline. However, instead of using them to make a late run at a play-in spot, they have either sat them due to questionable injuries, or, in the case of the Jazz, sat them during crunch time to ensure more losses.
It has frustrated many around the league, as close to a dozen teams have used different tactics to try to land a premium pick in what will be an absolutely stacked draft class in June. It is a new priority for the league, and a new report from ESPN’s Shams Charania revealed three different ideas officials plan to present to the NBA Board of Governors next week.
NBA’s ideas to address wild tanking in 2026
Dale Zanine-Imagn ImagesThe first pitch would see 18 teams in the draft lottery (seeds 7-15 in each conference). It would include flattened odds and give the bottom 10 teams an 8% chance to get the No. 1 pick, and then the remaining 20% odds distributed in decreasing order for the team with the 11th worst record through the 18th. All 18 teams would be part of the lottery show during the playoffs.
In idea two, 22 teams would be in the lottery, and would be based on team records over the previous two seasons (seeds 7-15, plus the four playoff first round exits in both conferences). Lottery teams would have a minimum win total floor in each season, and if a team falls short of the floor, it gets slotted to meet the floor.
The final idea has 18 teams in a “5 by 5” lottery. The bottom five teams have equal odds for the top pick, with the lottery formed for picks 1-5. Bottom five teams have a floor at 10, then those that fall out of the top 5 get sorted in a separate drawing.
Which idea has the best chance of being ratified?
Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn ImagesThe three different ideas to fix the big issues with tanking in the NBA are all intriguing. However, the pitch that includes the records from the last two seasons may have broad appeal. If a team has shown consistent issues being competitive, those clubs getting a top prospect is sort of the whole point of the current draft setup.
Furthermore, basing it on the records for the last two seasons would also stop good teams that have a surprisingly bad year from tanking their way into a young star who can immediately turn their programs around. Think the San Antonio Spurs with Tim Duncan in 1997, or to a lesser extent, the Dallas Mavericks landing Cooper Flagg in 2025.
This idea would make sure the franchises that badly need help to get it, and create more parity by blocking top teams from quickly reloading from a sudden down year.
Related Headlines