Winners and losers of the NBA’s new anti-tanking rules

The NBA on Thursday announced its new anti-tanking rules, which will expand the lottery from 14 to 16 teams, further flatten odds and penalize teams with the three worst records.

The new rules will be implemented for the 2027 draft and run through 2029. The league’s board of governors will determine in 2030 whether to keep the new rules or reform again.

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Teams that fail to make the playoffs or play-in tournament will each receive three lottery balls for next year’s drawing, except for the three teams with the worst records. They will instead get two lottery balls, as will the four play-in teams that fail to make the playoffs.

The eighth seed from each conference will also receive one lottery ball apiece.

Furthermore, no team’s pick can land No. 1 overall in successive drafts or top-five in three consecutive drafts, regardless of which team owns that pick. The San Antonio Spurs, for example, could not have picked Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper in three straight drafts, as they did, respectively, at Nos. 1, 4 and 2 in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The winners and losers of these new rules, then …

People attend the NBA basketball draft lottery in Chicago, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Winner: The viewing public

This may not totally end tanking, but it should put a serious dent in it.

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Franchises will not want to finish in what the NBA is calling “the relegation zone” (or with one of the three worst records in the league), and it should be fun watching those mostly young teams — and the Sacramento Kings, probably — trying to scrap their way out of it.

Might an organization tank its way out of a play-in tournament and into three lottery balls (instead of two)? Sure. But at least that won’t be happening with two months to go in the regular season. And you’d have to talk your players out of vying for their playoff bonuses.

What would really be a shame is if we see tanking in the play-in tournament. But, again, you’d have to talk a coach and his players (a team like this year’s Philadelphia 76ers) out of competing for a seventh seed —…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/winners-and-losers-of-the-nbas-new-anti-tanking-rules-165441225.html

Author : Ben Rohrbach

Publish date : 2026-05-29 16:54:00

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