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The NBA approved sweeping changes to the draft lottery on Thursday that will strip the teams with the worst records from receiving the best odds of winning the No. 1 pick, a person with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the league had not revealed the vote result publicly. ESPN reported the vote was 29-1, with Memphis casting the lone dissenting ballot.
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The changes were made in large part to crack down on tanking. A vote by the league’s Board of Governors made the plan official for the next three seasons. The “3-2-1 Lottery” proposal expands the event to 16 teams, flattens odds of winning the No. 1 pick and will try to deter teams from tanking by lowering lottery chances for teams that have the worst records.
They can still win the lottery, but they’ll have to buck odds to do so. The three worst teams will have 5.4% odds of winning, while teams that finish with the fourth- through 10th-worst records will all have 8.1% chances of winning.
The vote on Thursday fulfilled a promise from Commissioner Adam Silver, who vowed that the league — which has changed the lottery system about a half-dozen times in the last 40 or so years — would strongly address the tanking issue before next season.
Starting with next year’s lottery, the 16 participating teams will all get somewhere between one and three lottery balls — the 3-2-1 part — awarded in this manner:
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— The losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games in both conferences will get one lottery ball each.
— The No. 9 and No. 10 seeds going into the play-in tournament will get two lottery balls each.
— The remaining 10 teams that miss the playoffs and the play-in will all get three lottery balls — with the exception of the three worst teams in the standings. They will enter “draft relegation” and have one of their lottery balls taken away, which is the anti-tanking part of the plan.
Tanking was a huge — and from the league standpoint, regrettable — talking point this season. The Utah Jazz were fined $500,000 “for conduct detrimental to the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nbas-board-governors-passes-anti-193400009.html
Author : TIM REYNOLDS
Publish date : 2026-05-28 19:34:00
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