NBA to Reevaluate Draft Lottery System, Says Silver

On February 15, during the 2026 NBA All-Star Media Day, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated that tanking has been “worse this year than we have seen in recent years” and that he is considering “all possible remedies” to put a stop to it.

Silver noted that in discussions with general managers and other members of the league’s competition committee, the incentive structure of the lottery has created uncertainty over whether the worst teams are truly the worst-performing teams.

“If teams are manipulating their performance to get a higher draft position, even in the lottery, the question becomes… are they really the worst-performing team?” Silver said. “It’s not clear to me, for example, that the 30th-place team is measurably worse than the 22nd-place team, particularly if you have an incentive to underperform to get a better draft pick.”

“It’s a bit of a conundrum. As I said, the All-Star Game is 75 years old. The league is 80 years old. It’s time to revisit the issue and see if this is an outdated approach.”

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