NBA rumors: Adam Silver will wield $10 million power if radical new lottery reform passes

One of the most talked-about topics of this NBA season was the league’s tanking epidemic, with teams shamelessly sitting their starters in an effort to win the NBA Draft lottery. The Washington Wizards ultimately saw their tanking pay off the most, earning the top pick, but the NBA is hoping to implement major changes moving forward.

Recently, a new proposed system was reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania, one that the NBA owners will vote on later this week, that would flatten lottery odds and introduce a whole range of new factors designed to minimize tanking around the league.

Now, Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic has reported on additional measures that commissioner Adam Silver would have at his disposal under the proposed system.

“Silver would gain a lot of latitude to punish tanking offenders under the proposed system. He would be able to fine a team up to $10 million, force them to forfeit or transfer draft picks, reduce lottery odds, change draft positions, or suspend team officials, according to league sources,” reported Vorkunov.

It would certainly be quite a bit of power in the hands of Silver, who has grown increasingly out of favor with the NBA fanbase over the last few years due to both the tanking issue, the league’s increasing reliance on sports gambling partnerships, its abrupt transition to airing its games on streaming services, and other controversies.

The new tanking rules, of course, would not fully solve this issue and would introduce a whole new set of additional concerns, with some theorizing that it could actually end up motivating more teams to tank.

However, perhaps the threat of $10 million fines, suspensions, and forfeited draft picks will be enough to curb that behavior moving forward.

The post NBA rumors: Adam Silver will wield $10 million power if radical new lottery reform passes appeared first on ClutchPoints.