While it has been rumored and ballyhooed about for quite some time now, it appears some NBA lottery has officially passed starting with the 2018-19 NBA season according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The NBA's Board of Governors passed draft lottery reform today, league sources tell ESPN. New rules will start with 2019 Draft.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 28, 2017
The reform is put in place to discourage tanking and evens the playing for the No.1 pick for the top three teams, as well as increase odds for teams in the middle of the lottery to land the No. 1 pick.
Here is an ESPN graphic on how NBA Draft lottery odds change in 2019 pic.twitter.com/Jk8X7q0J3Z
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 28, 2017
Outside of the obvious change to give the top three teams an equal chance, in my opinion the most interesting change in this new format does so more to encourage teams on the playoff bubble to pursue the playoffs than it does to prevent some of the worse teams in the league from tanking for even more losses and lottery balls.
Essentially every team from No.2 to No. 11 sees their lottery odds increase, while No. 12, No. 13 and No. 14’s odds actually decrease a small amount.
This is a good start to curbing tanking in the NBA, but I would take it a step further and implement an end of season tournament for the worst 8 to 14 teams in order to determine the lottery selection order for that year’s draft, or at least to determine the top three or four picks.
Anyway you slice it this is an improvement though, kudos to the NBA.
