NBA discusses new measures to curb tanking! Tournament to compete for high draft picks; lottery odds calculated over two years

On February 13th Beijing time, reporter Shams addressed the league’s approach to limiting tanking during a program.

Shams mentioned that this subject is being talked about more and more across the NBA: owners, league officials, team executives, and the players’ association are all trying to find solutions to stop tanking.

“As early as November and December, after the betting controversy at the beginning of the season, this issue started to escalate. The league proposed three plans at the start of the year: restricting draft pick protections, banning teams from landing a top-four pick in two consecutive years, and locking lottery positions after March 1st. I understand there have been more meetings recently. A few weeks ago, the competition committee held a conference call where owners, executives, and players discussed additional proposals.”

Shams revealed that three new ideas have emerged: having teams near the lottery zone compete in a tournament for higher picks; teams reaching the conference semifinals cannot get a top-four pick the following year; and lottery odds would be based on combined records over two years instead of just one. “These ideas are still under discussion. They plan to finalize a proposal by the offseason and possibly implement it as soon as next season.”

In recent years, tanking has been a persistent issue in the NBA. Not long ago, the Utah Jazz officially announced that Jaren Jackson Jr. will undergo surgery to remove a localized pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) growth in his left knee. This growth was discovered during a post-trade MRI examination.

Reporter Haynes commented that Jaren Jackson Jr. might miss the rest of the season because of this. Siegel shared the news and wrote: “Alright, that’s definitely a less obvious but effective way to tank with peace of mind.”