Overview
- Speaking at the Sloan conference, Adam Silver said reforms will take effect next season and stressed an incremental approach after floating the extreme idea of divorcing draft order from team records.
- Options under active review include freezing lottery odds at a set date, using a two-year record window, flattening odds, tightening pick protections, expanding lottery eligibility, and banning consecutive top-four picks.
- The league has engaged the Board of Governors, the Competition Committee and all 30 general managers, and specific rules still require drafting and approval.
- Enforcement has already escalated this season, with the Jazz fined $500,000 for conduct detrimental to the league and the Pacers fined $100,000 under the player participation policy.
- Silver described a "perfect storm" driving tanking incentives, citing a widely perceived elite 2026 draft class and projections of weaker subsequent drafts.