NBA commissioner Adam Silver confirmed on Stephen A. Smith's radio show Wednesday that the NBA has landed on a proposal to present to the league's board of governors later this month to revamp the draft lottery in an attempt to curb tanking.
"What we've essentially done, and we have a proposal that we're going to be bringing to our team owners at the end of May, and that is to create essentially a system of flat odds, so that you have no particular incentive to be bad," Silver said. "There's even something we're calling draft relegation, that if you're one of the bottom three teams in the league, you'll actually have worse odds than teams that sort of are four through up until teams make the playoffs.
"We're still playing a little bit with the system there."
The system -- the "3-2-1" system that ESPN first reported a couple of weeks ago -- would give the three worst teams a lower percentage chance of winning the lottery than the teams picking from fourth to 10th in an effort to curb the need for clubs to be as bad as possible to increase their chances of landing a high pick.
All four teams that jumped up in the lottery this year -- the Washington Wizards, Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls -- went out of their way to try to improve their draft position in the closing weeks of the season.
Silver also reaffirmed that the NBA would have the ability to discipline teams for overt tanking beyond what they have been able to do in the past. The league fined the Jazz $500,000 for "conduct detrimental to the league" earlier this season.
"And also ultimately additional authority for the league office that if we do see that type of behavior where there's a sense that teams aren't going all out to win, that we can actually take away draft lottery balls, we can change the order of the draft," Silver said. "Teams have to know it's not just about paying a financial fine, which they may think is worth it in order to get a top pick, but that it'll directly impact their ability to get a top draft pick."
League officials have told ESPN in recent days that the expectation was this proposal would be the one that is ultimately passed by the league this month. While some have wondered whether anything actually needs to change, there's also a near universal belief that something was going to be passed to change the system in light of how the past couple of drafts went.
The NBA has also reiterated this will be in place only through the 2029 season, when the new collective bargaining agreement will be in place, and that addressing tanking could be part of those negotiations as a result.
"The system that we're going to be putting in front of our teams will be in effect for three years," Silver said. "What we're telling our teams is, the term people use is it will 'sunset.' In other words, this is going to be a new flat-odd system. It'll be in place for three years and will give us time for additional study to see whether there are other creative ways to better distribute players.
"And it'll also give us an opportunity to see how our teams respond to the system, because one thing I've learned, whether it's new provisions in the collective bargaining agreement, new provisions in the draft lottery, which as you know we've changed many times over the years, the teams are incredibly innovative and creative at coming up with ways to work the system."
