NBA’s 3 Ideas to Fix Wild 2026 Tanking Revealed: Which Is Most Likely To Be Ratified?

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images A new report reveals the three ideas the NBA has to ensure the wild tanking we’ve seen in 2026 never happens again. Tanking to get more ping pong balls in the NBA Draft is nothing new. However, this season has been worse than ever before.

Some clubs traded star players to get draft assets, weaken their roster, and boost the chances of more losses in the final weeks of the season. But other teams undertook unusual strategies in the final two months of the regular season. Franchises like the Washington Wizards , Indiana Pacers , and Utah Jazz added All-Star-level players to their rosters before the NBA trade deadline.

However, instead of using them to make a late run at a play-in spot, they have either sat them due to questionable injuries, or, in the case of the Jazz, sat them during crunch time to ensure more losses. It has frustrated many around the league, as close to a dozen teams have used different tactics to try to land a premium pick in what will be an absolutely stacked draft class in June. It is a new priority for the league, and a new report from ESPN’s Shams Charania revealed three different ideas officials plan to present to the NBA Board of Governors next week.

NBA’s ideas to address wild tanking in 2026 Dale Zanine-Imagn Images The first pitch would see 18 teams in the draft lottery (seeds 7-15 in each conference). It would include flattened odds and give the bottom 10 teams an 8% chance to get the No. 1 pick, and then the remaining 20% odds distributed in decreasing order for the team with the 11th worst record through the 18th.