Overview
- Owners received the revised '3-2-1' proposal this week with a Board of Governors vote set for May 28 and league officials framing the change as a multi-year trial through 2029.
- The plan would expand the lottery to 16 teams and use 37 balls to flatten top‑pick odds so the bottom three teams get two balls (5.4 percent) and teams 4–10 get three balls (8.1 percent) with all top 16 slots drawn.
- New guardrails would bar any team from winning the No. 1 pick in back-to-back drafts and from landing in the top five three years in a row, with the rules looking back to the 2025 and 2026 lotteries.
- The proposal ties those streak limits to the original team that produced a pick rather than to the pick’s holder on lottery night, and it says any pick drawn into a disallowed slot would be moved down to the first permitted position.
- League officials would give the commissioner broader authority to alter odds or change pick positions to punish tanking, a change that could retroactively devalue many unprotected picks and prompt pushback from front offices.