NBA Announces New Lottery Proposal To Stop Tanking

The NBA is moving ever-closer to implementing a new draft lottery system that will discourage—or, it hopes, completely prevent—tanking going forward.

The newest proposal would essentially tell teams: Don’t tank to the bottom or your lottery odds will take a hit.

The most notable change in the system proposed today is that it would contain a “draft relegation” zone that gives teams with the three worst records less opportunity for the No. 1 pick than the fourth- to 10th-worst teams.

BREAKING: The NBA has announced a new Draft ‘3-2-1’ proposal to avoid tanking:

▪️16 teams in lottery with flattened odds
▪️Relegation zone for bottom three teams; fewer lottery balls for No. 1 pick
▪️Teams 4-10 in lottery get 3 balls each
▪️Relegation area (1-3) receive 2… pic.twitter.com/4hgwxYj5Ui
— Courtside Buzz (@CourtsideBuzzX) April 28, 2026

The proposed new system would have 16 teams in the lottery, up from the current 14 teams. The bottom three finishers in the overall standings—the "relegation area"—would get only two lottery balls each and have 5.4% odds of winning the No. 1 pick. Meanwhile, teams with the 4th to 10th worst records would get better odds, with three lottery balls each and an 8.1% chance of winning.

Additionally, the 9th and 10th Play-In seeds would get two lottery balls—so no real need to tank out of the playoffs—and even the loser of the 7th/8th seed Play-In game would get one ball.

This is just the latest iteration of the NBA's attempt to reformulate things to avoid tanking. As for now though, no new Draft lottery proposal has been finalized.

They will continue to discuss it all in advance of the May 28th Board of Governors meeting. There, they will vote on the new anti-tanking policy and put it into place.