The Pacers Lottery Pick May Disappear with Adam Silver's Idea

The NBA really wants parity like the NFL. They want a product that allows franchises in both small and large markets to compete. They also want the same 24/7, 365-days-a-year news cycle that fuels the NFL.

The issue for the NBA, as Adam Silver sees it, is a lack of competitiveness throughout the regular season. According to NBC News, Silver wondered out loud whether the moral code of professional sports had been crossed.

Adam Silver and his advisors would “seriously consider” abolishing the rookie draft and turning rookies in free agents if it is the only way to stop tanking, per @joevardon

(https://t.co/4heoXdM0NL) pic.twitter.com/qXNP8KfXXp
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) February 15, 2026

It has been reported that Silver and his team are considering eliminating the NBA Draft if necessary to stop tanking.

When I first heard this, I dismissed it because of how ridiculous the idea sounded. The more I thought about it, the more flaws I found. It eventually occurred to me that this is one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard.

What Is Tanking?

Tanking in the NBA can take many forms. The most obvious is sitting key players to intentionally lose games.

Another method is trading away star players for draft picks. This makes your team worse on the court but sets you up for future success.

This is something that is almost impossible to stop. There are very likely no teams that openly throw games on purpose through the players on the floor.

How We Got Here

CJ McCollum goes in depth on the NBA's new CBA and the impact of the second apron on teams decision making, recommend listening to the entire thing pic.twitter.com/Gxg5ezBkXH
— TheOldManAndTheThree (@OldManAndThree) July 25, 2025

In 2023, the NBA ratified a new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the NBA Players Association. This agreement is a major reason the league is in its current position.

It added a restrictive second apron for teams that exceed the salary cap by 134%. Teams above the second apron face sign-and-trade limitations and draft-pick penalties if they remain there consistently.

This move was designed to take power back from players who were collectively deciding where they wanted to go in free agency. Think of the Miami Heat’s “Big Three” with LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh.

The league wanted balance. They wanted small-market teams to have the same chance at star players as big franchises. What they didn’t account for were the unintended consequences.

Consequences

One major consequence of this punitive CBA is that the only realistic way to build a superteam is now through the draft.

The Oklahoma City Thunder cracked this code in a major way. They broke up a winning team and sold off the pieces.

General manager Sam Presti traded Paul George and Russell Westbrook. Those trades netted seven first-round picks and four pick swaps and brought in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Presti later flipped Chris Paul into a 2022 first-round pick. The Thunder selected Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams in 2022 and built from there.

This became the blueprint for the rest of the league.

This season is the perfect storm for tanking. You have injured stars out for the year and young teams not ready to win.

You also have what may be the deepest draft class in NBA history. With free agency no longer being reliable, teams have every incentive to lose.

The NBA took away the free-agent path to success.

Why Eliminating the Draft Is a Bad Idea

Eliminating the draft is a bad idea from almost every angle. The first issue is what happens to teams that already have massive draft capital.

Does the league just say, “Sorry for your luck”? Do they compensate them somehow?

How is that fair to teams that followed the rules and didn’t tank excessively?

This model has already been tried in the NFL. Before rookie salary slots, players negotiated their own deals.

If they didn’t like their contracts, they held out. Teams overpaid out of desperation.

The Oakland Raiders are the prime example. In 2007, they gave JaMarcus Russell roughly $68 million over six years and cut him three years later.

That deal played a major role in the NFL creating slotted rookie salaries.

What Silver is proposing is essentially a return to that system. Struggling NBA franchises would overpay for unproven talent.

Unlike the NFL, NBA contracts rarely have meaningful escape clauses. If a player is bad, you are stuck paying him.

Imagine if the Cleveland Cavaliers had given Anthony Bennett $60 million after selecting him first in 2013. In today’s cap environment, that would have been devastating.

It wouldn’t improve parity. It would destroy it.

Free Agency Chaos

If rookies become free agents, who gets first crack at them? Is it just a free-for-all?

If so, big-market teams would dominate immediately. You would be handing power right back to the players.

Why would a superstar prospect choose a small market when larger markets offer more money and exposure?

Why wouldn’t they pick a contender instead of a rebuilding team?

Parity would become obsolete.

Accountability Matters

This is largely a mess of the league’s own making. The attempt to rein in player power backfired.

That has to be acknowledged and fixed. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

The responsibility falls on Silver and his staff to find a solution that doesn’t break the game.

The Pacers Example

The Indiana Pacers have had a miserable season without superstar Tyrese Haliburton, who suffered a torn Achilles in last season’s NBA Finals. The Pacers have played hard, but the harmony just isn’t the same without their maestro directing Rick Carlisle’s high-octane offense.

They are last in the Eastern Conference and squarely in the crosshairs of Silver’s bad idea. If the NBA draft is eliminated, so is the chance at a lottery pick in 2026.

That would be a major blow to the Pacers’ chances of emerging as a contender next season. It isn’t fair to NBA general managers or NBA fans.

Drop a comment on social media @digitaladel. Let me know how you feel about Silver’s plans.