Evaluating the NBA’s Anti-Tank Fixes; Could they Help?

On Thursday, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that Adam Silver spoke to the NBA’s General Managers about anti-tanking rule changes that could take place next season.

Commissioner Adam Silver informed the league's 30 general managers on Thursday that the NBA plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season, sources tell ESPN. Stakeholders have intensified dialogue about combatting tanking.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 19, 2026

The depth of the 2026 NBA Draft class is set to cause a record number of teams join the tank race this season, and fines have already gone out to a few teams.

Now, the league is looking to crack down on tanking, with several proposed concepts per a follow-up tweet from Charani. Below, we’ll look at those and assess whether they could help to curb tanking:

First-round picks can be protected only top-4 or top-14-plus

We’ll start with the best of the bunch and almost assuredly a future rule, which allows teams to only protect picks only one through four or in the lottery.

Right now, protections can be made at any pick, giving teams more specific aiming points record-wise. For example, the Utah Jazz’s pick is currently protected top-eight, meaning they’ll be pushing especially hard to finish with the best odds possible.

Only being able to protect picks top-four and past the lottery would likely lead to less pick trades in general, with teams being a little more stingy with their future selections.

Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date

In this scenario, the lottery odds lock at the trade deadline, opposed to the end of the season.

This feels untenable, as it doesn’t necessarily curb tanking, but rather puts it under the microscope in the front half of the season. Few teams set out to tank from the season opener, but this would effectively enact that for many.

No longer allowing a team to pick top 4 in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-3 finishes

This proposed rule comes from a good place, allowing parity near the top of the draft, but ultimately doesn’t combat the true issue, which is teams tanking for multiple seasons and extended stretches.

The NBA’s goal shouldn’t be to curb tanking entirely — but rather limit the duration of it. This sets out to do just that by shuffling new teams into the top four each year, but does more harm than good.

The goal should be for the truly worst teams in the league to get the top pick, and this could rip that away. Say the Kings finish with the league’s worst record this season and grab No. 4 pick. Next season, if they are again naturally the worst team in the league, they’re automatically penalized by this rule and awarded the fifth pick or worse.

This could lead to bad teams staying bad for an even longer stretch, while the more middling teams continue to be favored as they have been.

Teams can’t pick top-4 the year after making conference finals

This rule feels aimed directly at the Pacers, who made the Finals last year, but are among the league’s worst teams this season.

Indiana’s roster looks vastly different, and it feels odd to punish a team that had no real bearing on this season’s product.

Ultimately, this isn’t a rule that would likely come into effect often.

Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records

Perhaps the most interesting of the proposed rules at first glance, this takes team’s two-year records into account instead of the 82-game sample.

This could deter some of the more middling teams from tanking seeing as it’s harder to do with more games, but could also push teams to plan to lose over the course of multiple seasons, opposed to just one.

It ultimately feels like too big a change to a system that doesn’t need it following a deep draft.

Lottery extended to include all play-in teams

This is dependent on how the odds work. Should they flatten further, it would encourage the better of the NBA’s middle class to dip down, while only prodding a few select teams to win games.

Flatten odds for all lottery teams

This is the opposite of the needed fix, seeing as this situation has largely been brought on by the flattening of the odds. Teams like Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans and more have benefited at the draft simply by being in lottery range, and this would incentivize even more teams to finish in the bottom half the league.