Even when the NBA levied fines against the team, Commissioner Adam Silver admitted that tanking is worse this season than in years past. Reportedly, 10 teams are tanking the 2025-26 season to boost their draft lottery odds and reset their future. Multiple ideas since then have come out to curb this issue.

“To me, fixing the lottery, it’s pretty easy, you have to just disincentivize tanking,” stated ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne on the Rich Eisen Show. “You have to incentivize competition. So I think Adam already gave you a hint in what he said. ‘I’m not so sure the bottom eight teams are actually the worst teams because there’s such an incentive to tank.’ Teams are doing overt behaviors to lose. So that the teams at the very bottom aren’t necessarily the worst teams.”

She further added that the potential plan could be to further flatten the lottery odds. Instead of the five bottom teams, eight teams can have the same odds. In fact, Shelburne also suggested that, apart from the eight playoff teams in each conference, the remaining 14 teams could be the lottery teams.

Now, the three worst teams each hold a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick, down from 25% before 2019. Moreover, their top 4 odds cap at 52.1% instead of the earlier 75%. Meanwhile, the 10th-worst team owns only a 3% shot at No. 1. That’s why, on All-Star weekend, Adam Silver even expressed the outside perspective that is hurting the league.

“When any economist comes and looks at our system, they always point out that we have the incentives backwards,” Silver said. “It’s not what the fans want at the end of the day.” The league has already taken action this season, fining the Jazz $500,000 for pulling key players late in competitive games. The Pacers also paid $100,000 for violating the player participation policy. Shelburne said that this approach is not “gonna work.”

Although the 2019 reform aimed to deter extreme tanking by flattening the top odds and preventing the absolute worst team from dominating the No. 1 pick, it inadvertently encouraged a broader ‘race to the bottom.’

Now, more teams (often the bottom 6-10 in standings) aggressively compete for those still-valuable top-four slots, as even mid-lottery positions offer meaningful upside without much extra penalty for slightly better records. This has led to persistent incentives to lose, as seen in recent seasons when multiple teams have exhibited overt behavior to drop further.

Even Silver acknowledged that those moves alone will not solve the issue. “It will lead to very unhealthy relationships between us and our teams,” he said.

Adam Silver’s warning to solve the tanking problem

“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior.” However, Silver also acknowledged the deeper issue. “It’s so clear that the incentives are misaligned,” he said. To address this situation beyond just imposing fines, Silver believes the NBA is discussing several solutions. League officials have reportedly discussed roughly 10 potential solutions.

The Commissioner reportedly planned to organize a tournament among lottery teams to determine the draft order. But the worst is stripping draft picks. If the draft is removed altogether, it would turn rookies into free agents.

“Not just those fines, but to my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior, and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice,” Silver added.

High draft picks remain extraordinarily valuable because they deliver generational talent on extremely cost-controlled rookie-scale contracts (often 4 years, team-friendly), allowing teams to build around a star without immediate salary cap strain.

A single top selection can transform a franchise for a decade – for instance, Victor Wembanyama’s arrival instantly elevated the Spurs from rebuilding to playoff contention and future contender status.

In a league where free agency favors big markets and superteams, small-market or struggling teams see tanking as the most reliable path to acquiring a difference-maker, outweighing short-term fan dissatisfaction or fines.

While the NBA is looking forward to possible league expansion, the primary concern remains tanking.