How the New NBA Draft Lottery Format Impacts Cleveland Cavaliers

It seems the Cleveland Cavaliers can continue building a championship-winning roster for years to come.

And it’s thanks to the Utah Jazz.

The Jazz own the most favorable of the Cavs draft picks, along with their own, and essentially, if Cleveland had a worse record than Utah, then the pick goes to the former.

However, this still benefits the Cavaliers, as instead of rebuilding through the NBA Draft, they will be able to build a team that can compete in the playoffs through until at least 2029, as the Jazz also owns the most favorable and second most favorable picks between Cleveland, Minnesota and Utah for that year as well.

The good news for the Cavs is they still owe the Jazz picks for the Donovan Mitchell trade through 2028. So they won't even be able to think about tanking until the new lottery rules are inevitably changed.
— Ben Axelrod (@BenAxelrod) May 28, 2026

It also means that unless something catastrophic happens to Cleveland, they won’t be in an awkward spot in terms of “tanking” when the Draft Lottery changes in 2027.

What is the new NBA Draft lottery system?

On Thursday, the NBA Board of Governors approved a new system designed to eliminate teams from prioritizing their position in the Draft over winning games.

“Each team participating in the Draft Lottery will receive three, two or one lottery ball for the drawing,” the official NBA statement said.

“Teams that do not qualify for the NBA Playoffs or NBA Play-In Tournament will receive three lottery balls each, except that – to provide an increased incentive to win – the teams with the three worst records will be “draft relegated” and lose one of their lottery balls. The No. 9 and No. 10 Play-In seeds in each conference will receive two lottery balls each, while the losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 Play-In games in each conference will receive one lottery ball each.”

This new system “expands the draft lottery from 14 to 16 teams, with a relegation zone in place where the bottom three teams are penalized with lessened chances for the No. 1 pick and flattened odds.

“The league will have expanded disciplinary authority to address tanking, including the ability to reduce teams’ lottery odds, modify teams’ draft positions and impose significant fines on offending teams,” the official NBA statement said.

To elaborate, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will have the power to fine teams suspected of tanking.

According to NBA insider Shams Charania, those penalties include fines of up to $10 million, a loss of draft picks, adjustments to a team’s draft position, and even as far as changes to lottery odds.

The new draft lottery system will be reviewed again after the 2029 NBA Draft before a decision is made on whether or not to keep it.

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