The NBA and its stakeholders have started talks on finding new solutions to prevent tanking

[Coach Ellis]

I think there’s been a lot of good ideas thrown out there, but I think the main thing is to incentivize teams to win and to remove incentives for teams to lose.

My solution would be a combination of several things I’ve seen others suggest.

Any team that misses the playoffs gets a top 10 pick, but they have equal odds for all 10 picks in the lottery. You are not eligible for the lottery if you make it to the play-in games or post season. If you move up into the top 3 picks, you are no longer eligible to participate in the lottery for the next two seasons and are awarded the next highest pick after all of the lottery teams have been assigned their picks. The four play-in teams that don’t advance to the playoffs are awarded picks 11-14.

This would allow the NBA to televise the lottery live - starting with the lowest pick and moving their way up. You know which teams are in the lottery and everyone has the same odds for every single pick. If you have 10 teams in the lottery, do pick #10, then pick #9 and so on. . . with the odds getting better for each team remaining until the last two have a 50/50 shot at #1.

You either make the playoffs, or you get a top 10 pick with equal odds to move up to #1. Pick protections should be limited to two options - top 3 or unprotected. No more lottery protection and if you fail to make the playoffs, you’re more likely to lose the pick than to keep it.

Also, I’d like to see the league implement two strategies to help incentivize teams to win more games - even if they don’t make the playoffs. #1 - the bottom 5 teams are ineligible to earn extra tax money that is spent by tax-paying teams. That money is split evenly between all of the other non-tax paying teams that are not bottom 5 in terms of record. #2 - the league creates a players bonus fund that rewards non-playoff teams players based on total wins, wins vs. division and conference opponents, and even NBA cup wins (why not?) and is distributed more to lower-earning players who get extended playing time. Give the players on these non-playoff teams even more reason to win games and be competitive. Make it a race to the top instead of a race to the bottom.

 

[slc]

I think there’s been a lot of good ideas thrown out there, but I think the main thing is to incentivize teams to win and to remove incentives for teams to lose.

My solution would be a combination of several things I’ve seen others suggest.

Any team that misses the playoffs gets a top 10 pick, but they have equal odds for all 10 picks in the lottery. You are not eligible for the lottery if you make it to the play-in games or post season. If you move up into the top 3 picks, you are no longer eligible to participate in the lottery for the next two seasons and are awarded the next highest pick after all of the lottery teams have been assigned their picks. The four play-in teams that don’t advance to the playoffs are awarded picks 11-14.

This would allow the NBA to televise the lottery live - starting with the lowest pick and moving their way up. You know which teams are in the lottery and everyone has the same odds for every single pick. If you have 10 teams in the lottery, do pick #10, then pick #9 and so on. . . with the odds getting better for each team remaining until the last two have a 50/50 shot at #1.

You either make the playoffs, or you get a top 10 pick with equal odds to move up to #1. Pick protections should be limited to two options - top 3 or unprotected. No more lottery protection and if you fail to make the playoffs, you’re more likely to lose the pick than to keep it.

Also, I’d like to see the league implement two strategies to help incentivize teams to win more games - even if they don’t make the playoffs. #1 - the bottom 5 teams are ineligible to earn extra tax money that is spent by tax-paying teams. That money is split evenly between all of the other non-tax paying teams that are not bottom 5 in terms of record. #2 - the league creates a players bonus fund that rewards non-playoff teams players based on total wins, wins vs. division and conference opponents, and even NBA cup wins (why not?) and is distributed more to lower-earning players who get extended playing time. Give the players on these non-playoff teams even more reason to win games and be competitive. Make it a race to the top instead of a race to the bottom.

All these ideas sound great but the brilliant NBA sports minds will find some way to make the tanking dilemma even worse
They have fouled up every other way to make the game watchable and enjoyable

 

[framer]

All these ideas sound great but the brilliant NBA sports minds will find some way to make the tanking dilemma even worse
They have fouled up every other way to make the game watchable and enjoyable

Once you realize that every change in a way a league does business is not meant to make things fair but to make money for the league, things become much clearer. There is not a sports league in the world preoccupied by team or player equity.

 

[LogGrad98]

I think they should do a weighted rolling 3-year win-loss record to determine top pick odds for the draft, so the teams that really are struggling have the best chances. They should combine this with no more than 1 top-3 pick and 2 top-5 picks in any 3-year period. So if you get #1 one year then you can't get another top-3 pick for the next 3 years. If you get #2 one year then #4 the next then no more top-5 picks allowed in the next 3 years. Something like that. This means teams either need to really commit to the tank, for like a decade, or they work much harder to build around their top picks to get better. Much more likely they'll work harder to get better than commit to losing for a decade. Something along these lines would help at least and keep teams like the Spurs from stocking up on top-3 picks for 4 years in a row.