NBA lottery changes could be on the way.
Amid renewed angst about tanking across the league, the NBA presented three reforms to its draft lottery to the board of governors on Wednesday, ESPN's Shams Charania reported on Friday.
The changes are expected to reach a formal vote in May, Charania added.
The NBA presented three concepts:
• An 18-team draft lottery (including seeds 7-15 in each conference) with flattened odds where each of the bottom 10 would have 8 per cent chances of winning the No. 1 pick and each of the 18 selections would be drawn.
• A 22-team lottery using two-year records (including seeds 7-15 and first-round playoff losers) and each team in the lottery must have a minimum of 25 wins in each season. Only the top four picks would be drawn.
• A five-by-five lottery featuring 18 teams, with the worst five franchises receiving equal odds and a draw for each of the top five picks.
The report comes after NBA commissioner Adam Silver insisted Wednesday that the league will change its draft process and address its tanking problem before the start of next season.
The league's board of governors discussed tanking — the issue of teams trying not to win in order to enhance their odds of landing the best possible draft pick — at its two-day meeting that ended Wednesday. No votes were taken and no fingers were pointed at any specific teams, Silver said.
“We are going to fix it,” Silver said. “Full stop.”
Silver said the league has been working on the most recent tanking issues for months — and noted that the NBA has addressed the problem countless times over the years, including with several changes to the draft and lottery process.
“I would say it seemed unanimous in the room that we needed to make a change, and we need to make a change for next season," Silver said at a news conference, wrapping up the two-day session with owners. "Exactly what that change is, we’re continuing to work on. ... I think there’s also unanimous agreement that we need to make this change in advance of the draft and free agency this year, so all the teams understand the rules of the road going into next year.”
Utah was fined $500,000 for sitting some of its best players late in games earlier this season, including one the Jazz actually won. Three teams — Sacramento, Indiana and Washington — have had losing streaks of 16 games this season, and other teams like Brooklyn have not been shy about saying they're looking at the future more than the present.
--with files from The Associated Press
