NBA owners approve new 3-2-1 anti-tanking draft lottery reform

The NBA Board of Governors approved a new anti-tanking draft reform on Thursday that will expand the NBA Draft Lottery to 16 teams, flatten odds, and add other measures that completely revamp the lottery from the current system, per ESPN.

In what has been coined the “3-2-1” proposal, 16 teams will now make up the NBA Draft Lottery, with substantial changes coming to not only prevent the worst teams in the league from tanking, but incentivise them to play until the very end of the season.

After weeks of debate and refining the proposal at hand, the NBA Board of Governors voted to approve the new “3-2-1” lottery reform, which is exactly what it sounds like. A total of 37 lottery balls will be allocated to the 16 teams, with the bottom three teams in the league each receiving two balls, or a 5.4% chance.

Teams in the 4-10 range will each receive three balls (8.1% chance), the ninth- and tenth-place finishers in each conference will receive two balls (5.4% chance), and the loser of the 7-seed vs. 8-seed play-in game will each receive one ball in the lottery (2.7% chance).

Under this new revamped format, all 16 spots in the NBA Draft Lottery will be determined by the drawing, with the three teams at the bottom picking no later than 12th overall. There are also new stipulations on protecting picks that are to be traded.

However, the biggest caveat that comes with this new approved draft format revolves around the idea of trades and previous years being taken into account. The 2025 and 2026 NBA Drafts will be taken into account for positioning purposes on upcoming selections, as teams will not be allowed to receive the No. 1 overall pick two years in a row.

Essentially, this means that the Washington Wizards would not be allowed to receive the No. 1 pick in the 2027 NBA Draft since they won the lottery this year. Teams will also not be allowed to receive top-five pick in three consecutive years, which will now be backdated to 2025.

It is important to note that these new stipulations only apply to a team’s actual pick and not one acquired via trade. That means if the Wizards were to own another team’s first-round pick that becomes the first pick in the 2027 draft through this lottery format, they would be allowed to pick first.

Overall, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will have the final say in all tanking measures and he will be allowed to punish teams accused of abusing the new rules to try and improve their draft position/odds. This includes heft six-figure fines, as well as changing a team’s overall draft position as punishment for suspected tanking.

This is a developing story. More details will be reported by ClutchPoints shortly.

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