On Tuesday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the NBA has sent an anti-tanking proposal to the 30 general managers. The highlights of this proposal include having 16 lottery teams instead of 14, penalizing bottom-three teams with worse lottery odds, and flattening the odds for every other lottery team.
Now that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has unveiled a clear-cut scheme to discourage teams from tanking in the coming years, fans have breathed a major sigh of relief. On social media, netizens praised the league for their anti-tanking plans.
“This will make the season more watchable down the stretch. No more resting stars or shutting it down in March. Hope it passes.”
“Finally! A real reason for bottom teams to actually TRY and win games. The ‘relegation zone’ penalty for lottery balls is a game changer. No more rewarding failure!”
“Expanding the lottery to 16 teams AND penalizing the bottom 3? That’s a massive swing at anti-tanking. It basically forces teams to stay competitive even if they aren’t title contenders”
“relegation zone in the NBA draft lottery is actually genius. punish teams for being historically bad on purpose instead of rewarding them. the tanking era needed to die and this might finally kill it”
“Finally punishing tanking instead of rewarding it this might be the first reform in years that actually makes losing on purpose look stupid”
“Smart anti-tanking tweak. Hope it actually works this time.”
According to Charania, the NBA’s proposal stipulates that “no team would be able to win the top pick in consecutive years.” In addition, teams wouldn’t be allowed to have a top-5 pick in three consecutive seasons.
If these changes are implemented, NBA teams will have to drastically alter their methods of roster construction, as losing games on purpose would lose its incentive.
“This Won’t Fix Anything”: Podcaster Slams New NBA Anti-Tanking Proposal
Meanwhile, a Minnesota Timberwolves beat reporter and podcaster has voiced out his displeasure towards the anti-tanking proposal.
Ryan Eichten, who co-hosts “Two Words: Wolves Pod,” tweeted a scathing takedown of the proposal on Tuesday.
“So tired of all the tanking talk. Doing this during the Playoffs is insane. This won’t fix anything. It’ll just shift who is tanking, which will make it worse cause it invites potential playoff teams to tank. This combined with ignoring the actual problem of player injuries makes it really difficult to have any confidence in NBA leadership.”
This latest proposal from the league will certainly invite more discourse before the NBA Board of Governors takes it up during their May 28 meeting.
