The NBA’s New Anti-Tanking Rules, Explained

The NBA is trying to leave its era of tanking in the past.

Last spring, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced reforms to the annual draft lottery aimed to incentivize bottom-dwelling teams to prioritize winning down the stretch of the 82-game regular season. For years, NBA teams had blatantly tanked in an effort to increase their lottery odds and build out their roster with highly drafted players.

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The 76ers were built on tanking in their “Trust the Process” philosophy drawn up by Sam Hinkie. Many teams followed suit. The last few months of the season were often a race to the bottom. The more losses teams piled up, the more lottery balls they’d acquire, and the better chance they’d have to land the No. 1 pick and (hopefully) a franchise-changing star.

But this year, it’ll look different.

Here’s how it works: The 2027 draft lottery will include 16 teams, starting with the 10 teams that don’t make the play-in tournament or playoffs. It also features the four teams that finish with the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds in their conference’s play-in-tournament, and the two losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in tournament game.

Each team in the draft lottery is awarded one, two or three lottery balls. But here’s the twist: The teams who finish with the three worst records get two lottery balls instead of three. The seven teams that miss the playoffs and play-in tournament but don’t finish in the bottom three collect three lottery balls. Two lottery balls are given to the four No. 9 and No. 10 play-in tournament seeds, and one lottery ball apiece is handed over to the losers of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in games.

That’s a mouthful. Here’s how it looks:

PICK	FINISH	LOTTERY BALLS
1	Worst record	2
2	2nd-worst record	2
3	3rd-worst record	2
4	4th-worst record	3
5	5th-worst record	3
6	6th-worst record	3
7	7th-worst record	3
8	8th-worst record	3
9	9th-worst record	3
10	10th-worst record	3
11	No. 9 play-in seed	2
12	No. 9 play-in seed	2
13	No. 10 play-in seed	2
14	No. 10 play-in seed	2
15	No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game loser	1
16	No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game loser	1

On Thursday morning—just over two weeks into the 2026–27 regular season—here’s how the draft lottery order looks and how many lottery balls would be awarded to those teams:

PICK	TEAM (RECORD)	LOTTERY BALLS
1	Clippers (1–7; to OKC)	2
2	Bulls (1-7)	2
3	Jazz (1-7)	2
4	Bucks (1-7; to NO)	3
5	Kings (1-7)	3
6	Suns (1-5; to HOU)	3
7	Nets (2-6; to HOU)	3
8	Magic (2-5)	3
9	Pacers (3-6)	3
10	Mavericks (4-4; to CHA)	3
11	Hornets (3-6)	2
12	Heat (3-5)	2
13	Pelicans (4-4; to ATL)	2
14	Nuggets (4-3; to OKC)	2
15	Wizards (4-4)	1
16	Warriors (5-3)	1

There are currently five 1–7 teams in the NBA. Under this new system, the bottom-dwelling Clippers, Bulls, Jazz, Bucks and Kings will be fighting to win games and stay out of the bottom three to claim that extra third lottery ball.

The Warriors have a better record than four other teams (all in the East) but are projected to be the loser of the No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in tournament game as the current No. 8 seed in the West.

The “3-2-1” system will be in effect for the next three draft lotteries: 2027, ’28 and ’29—before the NBA determines the rules for 2030 and beyond based on how these next three years go.

But wait, there’s more …

As if the new lottery system isn’t complicated enough, there’s more to remember.

The teams with the three worst records (who receive two lottery balls) can slide no further than the No. 12 pick.
No team can win the No. 1 pick in consecutive drafts
No team can win a top-three pick in three consecutive drafts
Additionally, if a team is caught tanking, the NBA has the power to reduce their lottery odds and change their draft position.

How do other professional sports leagues handle tanking and their draft order?

The NFL is the only “big five” league in the United States (NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB and NHL) to not have some sort of annual draft lottery. The NFL team who finished a season with the worst record gets the No. 1 pick in the spring. If there’s a tie between two or more teams, the better pick goes to the team with the weaker strength of schedule.

In MLB, the 18 non-playoff teams all have a chance to snag one of the top-six picks. However, a team can’t pick in the top six for three straight years. Sorry, Rockies.

Historically, the WNBA held a draft lottery to decide the top five picks among the five worst teams, but it’s expanding to the top seven picks in 2027 light of the incoming expansion teams. This year, the Comets (formerly the Sun) and the Tempo are tied with the best odds to land the No. 1 pick at 32.9%.

The first two WNBA picks will be decided by lottery balls. The No. 3 pick will be awarded to the remaining team with the worst cumulative winning percentage over the past two WNBA seasons, followed by the No. 4, No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7 picks following the same process.

The NHL holds a lottery to decide the first 16 picks of its annual draft. In 2026, the team with the worst record (Canucks) had an 18.5% chance to land the first pick but slid to third. Vancouver was leapfrogged by the Maple Leafs (8.5% chance at No. 1 pick) and Sharks (5% chance).

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