The NBA is pursuing revisions to its draft lottery to dissuade teams from tanking and, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the league’s board of governors will vote on proposed changes later this month.
As it sits right now, the bottom three teams in the standings at the end of a season have a 25 per cent, 19.9 per cent and 15.6 per cent chance, respectively, of winning the right to the first-overall pick. The league proposal, which Wojnarowski reports was recommended by the NBA competition committee, would instead see the bottom three teams each hold 14 per cent odds. Odds for the other 11 non-playoffs teams would also be adjusted.
The vote is expected to take place Sept. 28 at a board of governors meeting in New York. If it passes—it needs a two-thirds majority to do so—the changes would come into effect prior to 2019 draft.
Another proposed change that will be voted on deals with resting healthy players.
“In the proposed resting legislation, [NBA commissioner Adam Silver] will have the discretionary ability to fine teams for resting players in several instances, including sitting multiple players outside of unusual circumstances in a single game, and healthy players in nationally televised ESPN, ABC and TNT games, league sources said,” Wojnarowski wrote.
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