NBA General Manager Dishes on NBA Draft Lottery Reform

The NBA Draft Lottery has officially been overhauled.

For months, there were various reports that the league was looking to reform tanking, the colloquial term for losing games on purpose. The efforts were spearheaded by NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who was outspoken in wanting to curb tanking as a whole.

The draft lottery was targeted as the primary beneficiary for losing teams, and as of late-May, the league will now have an entirely new system.

The newest lottery system has been deemed the “3-2-1 lottery,” with teams having the chance to grab one, two or three lottery balls, which will each represent a 2.7% chance at the top pick. It’s a big departure from previous systems, as the odds have now been flattened again, and for the first time ever there will be a penalty for losing games.

The league as a whole voted 29-1 to pass the new rules, with the Memphis Grizzlies standing alone as the sole vote against. Silver himself has been happy with the changes.

While it was passed overwhelmingly, little has been heard from decision-makers on the new changes.

Monday, NBA Draft on SI sat in on Thunder General Manager Sam Presti’s end-of-season presser, getting one of the top decision-makers in the league’s thoughts on the new lottery changes.

“I understand there's a tension, bottom line,” Presti said. “Between how you can get the teams that need the help the best available players because, no matter how you slice it, 20 to 25 of the 30 teams rely on the draft to build a sustainable team because it's not just access to the players, but it's also the ability to retain the players in a lot of places that's very hard to do.

“So [Silver’s] feeling — and I support him 100 percent — is that the methodology to get there, because there's such an increase the last few years in trying to position to get those higher draft picks, it was taking away from the games themselves, taking away from a product. And he made a very clear argument in my mind about the business ramifications of what we were dealing with. So I think the solution is good in the short term for sure.”

Presti touched on what could have been at the core of the changes, which is the potential long-term harm of teams losing games on purpose. From a decision-maker standpoint, it’s likely still a net positive to attempt to cut out those practices, even if it means short-term negatives for some select teams in a far more luck-based lottery.

The relegation zone could lead to lesser odds for truly bad teams, causing a snowball effect if they're unable to add more talent year after year.

Additionally, Presti interestingly touched on the fact there could soon be more major changes to the lottery system and the draft in general.

“The best part about it to me is that it sunsets in three years. So we're not boxed into relying on such a luck-driven solution. Hopefully we can get to a point where we have a system that isn't tied to record entirely. But that will take some time to work that through.”

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