Adam Silver’s message over the past few weeks has been crystal clear: the NBA commissioner is sick of tanking in the NBA. From fines to now proposing serious penalties impacting draft capital, Silver is quickly moving to halt teams throwing in the towel early.
Tanking, of course, has been a tradition since time immemorial in the league. Things have gotten pretty blatant this year, however, with a supposedly stacked 2026 NBA Draft class waiting in the wings.
Shams Charania of ESPN reports that Silver informed all 30 league GMs that, as soon as next season, the NBA will look to create several far more stringent penalties to prevent the kind of blatant tanking that seems to be bugging Silver and various team owners so much this year.
Some of these proposals are fun and don’t seem too radical. Others seem unnecessarily punitive.
Per Charania, these are the big bullet points being bandied about:
First-round draft picks would be limited to only top-four or top-14-plus protections Teams’ lottery odds would be frozen before the end of a season — perhaps at the trade deadline or a bit beyond A team might not be permitted to select in the top four across two straight seasons and/or after finishing among the three worst records in back-to-back years The season after qualifying for a Conference Finals, teams wouldn’t be allowed to select in the top four of the draft A team’s lottery odds might be determined by combined two-year records All 20 play-in teams might be looped into the lottery, not just the bottom 16 who miss the playoffs Odds for all lottery teams could be fully flattenedThe most ridiculous of these pitches is the idea that Conference Finals teams can’t get top draft selections the next season.
Bobby Marks of ESPN notes that, among the 210 future first-round picks on the table for these new rules in 2027 and beyond, 97 percent of those picks would fall under the rules’ fresh restrictions already.
Remember, after the Bulls’ final Michael Jordan-era championship in 1998, they won 13 games in the lockout-shortened 1999 season and stumbled into the Elton Brand pick at the top of the draft. LeBron James’ surprise free agent departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010 helped the club land the rights to No. 1 pick Kyrie Irving in 2011, who eventually lured James back in 2014. And this past season, the Indiana Pacers were potentially a Tyrese Haliburton Achilles away from winning their first NBA title. Now, sans Haliburton or Myles Turner, they’re in line for some lottery luck.
Plenty of extenuating circumstances can lead to a dip in fortunes for good teams. Why should they be punished extra?
(Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images)NBA Owners Weigh In
Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban recently proposed a fantasy basketball-type system for adding rookies: the top lottery teams would have the most allocated salary money for their pick, and could use that money to sign however many draft-eligible prospects as they can muster. It’s not a terrible idea in principle, anyway.
Phoenix Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia, brother to future Chicago White Sox majority owner Justin, called out tanking in a recent X rant.
This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers. Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. And the talk about this as a “strategy” is ridiculous.
If you are a bad team, you get a good pick. That makes sense. But purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace and impacts the integrity of whole league.
This is much worse than any prop bet scandal. This is throwing games strategically. Horrible for fans that pay to watch and cheer on their team. And horrible for all the real teams that are competing for playoff spots.
Awful behavior that Adam Silver and the NBA will need to stop with massive changes, and I have complete confidence that with his leadership, he will fix it. Those of us in a position of influence need to speak out… the only “strategy” is doing right by fans, players, and the NBA community.
Note: Mat’s Suns don’t have their own first-round draft picks until 2032. So, effectively, he can’t tank.
© Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn ImagesWill Any of These Proposed Changes Help the Bulls?
Our Chicago Bulls seem to, for once, be skipping the play-in tournament entirely en route to their inevitable lottery finish. They might actually draft within the top 10 for once!
Flattened lottery odds and the idea of all play-in teams getting some shot at a top-four pick would yield the exact kind of luck this frustrating franchise could use right now.
The proposed restriction on repeat top-four picks feels excessive. Maybe the league could prevent teams from landing back-to-back No. 1 picks, but even then, that’s an incredibly rare occurrence. How often, also, is a draft’s best player actually its No. 1 selection?
Arturas Karnisovas needs some lottery luck to add no-brainer superstars in the draft. Savvy teams will figure out clever ways to game even a new, tougher lottery setup eventually. But in the short term, sloppy front offices will benefit, too.
© Reuters via Imagn ImagesIs Tanking Even the NBA’s Biggest Problem Right Now?
Cynically, this all feels like a bit of a distraction from the real issues at hand. The NBA regular season has been growing increasingly frustrating.
With three national broadcast media partners instead of two, it’s becoming tougher and tougher for fans to even find games (hint: go to NBA.com). Star players seem to sit out more frequently than in decades past, perhaps in response to a faster-paced game that has yielded scary soft tissue injuries everywhere. New game restrictions for end-of-year honors have begun curbing some of the player absences.
The handcheck rule has softened defenses so much that flopping has become part of life for most elite stars. The regular season is clearly at least 10 games too long.
Oh, and major figures in the sport have been ensnared in massive gambling and sponsorship scandals that could threaten the very integrity of the league.
Adam Silver may not ever fully allow defense back into the game during the regular season (it’s back for the playoffs), and he will absolutely never reduce the tally of regular season games. And sports betting isn’t going anywhere. So he’s attacking tanking, which in this writer’s estimation feels like a far more innocuous problem.
Hence then, the article about nba talks bold tanking reforms will they help the bulls was published today ( ) and is available on Bleacher Nation ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( NBA Talks Bold Tanking Reforms — Will They Help the Bulls? )
Also on site :
- Free Fire MAX Redeem Codes Today February 22 Indian Server Bring Free Rewards
- Jalen Green’s miraculous 2OT buzzer-beater lifts Suns past more injuries
- ACC Women’s Asia Cup Rising Stars 2026 India A vs Bangladesh A Final: Date, Schedule, Timing, Streaming and More