Fix It, Full Stop: Adam Silver's Anti-Tanking Crusade Could Reshape How Every NBA Team Is Built

Why This Year Is Different

The NBA has tried to curb tanking before. The 2019 lottery reform gave the three worst teams equal 14% odds at the top pick — down from the old system where the worst team had a 25% chance. It helped, but not enough. Teams adjusted. If the bottom three share the same odds, just make sure you're in the bottom three. [3] What's different now is the combination of a historic draft class and a league that's hemorrhaging credibility. Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia called tanking "much worse than any prop bet scandal." That's a strong statement. When franchise owners are publicly comparing their own league's competitive integrity problem to gambling corruption, Silver can't shrug it off. [2] There's also the business case. Empty arenas. Low ratings. Disengaged local markets. Every season a team actively loses, it's not just embarrassing — it costs money across the entire enterprise. Silver has always framed tanking as a competitive basketball problem, but the economics make the argument just as forcefully.

We will fix it. Full stop.

— Commissioner Adam Silver, March 25, 2026

What Happens to Teams Mid-Rebuild?

The legitimate concern here — and it's a fair one — is that some teams actually are rebuilding. The Detroit Pistons spent years in genuine freefall before assembling the core that now has them atop the Eastern Conference. They needed high picks to do it. Was that tanking? Depends on who you ask. Silver has tried to draw this distinction carefully. "There's a difference between a team that's rebuilding and a team that's gaming the system," he said. Under the proposed reforms, a multi-year tanker like the Pistons might actually benefit from the two-year record weighting — sustained losing would still be rewarded, just not gaming the system for a single season. [1] But the proposals would fundamentally change incentive structures for teams like the Wizards and Nets right now. If your odds don't meaningfully improve by finishing 3rd from the bottom versus 10th from the bottom, why bother with the embarrassment? You might as well try to win, develop young players in real game situations, and give your fan base something to watch. That's the theory, anyway.

The Flagg Effect (and What Comes After)

Let's be real about what's happening here. Cooper Flagg is the accelerant, not the cause. The tanking problem has been building for years — since Sam Hinkie's "Process" in Philadelphia gave the practice a philosophical framework and a fanbase that cheered for losses. The league has been playing catch-up ever since. But Flagg arriving in a draft class that also has legitimate franchise players at positions 2 through 10 makes this year's race for the bottom more brazen than usual. It's not just about getting first — it's about making sure you're in the lottery at all. That's why some proposals include play-in teams. Teams fighting to get INTO the play-in might have an incentive to lose late if they know there's a lottery ticket waiting. Close that door, too. [2] The irony is that once these rules pass, they'll apply to the very draft class that caused them. The franchise that lands Flagg will have done so under whatever new system Silver implements. Every pick in the 2026 draft — the one that finally broke the league's patience — will be determined by new rules designed to prevent what everyone was doing to get there. [3]

A Quick Word About My Team

The Jets have never been good enough at losing to actually tank properly. We finished 3-14 in 2020 with Trevor Lawrence RIGHT THERE and somehow fumbled it. We've been bad for 55 years through sheer chaotic incompetence, not strategic futility. If the NBA thinks tanking is hard to do well — try doing it accidentally for five decades with a fanbase that still shows up. I'm fine with these rule changes. Great, even. The NBA should be a league where winning matters every night. If your front office can't build a contender without fishing for ping-pong balls six years in a row, maybe your front office should be the thing that changes.

Bottom Line

Adam Silver is going to get this done. The owners want it. The timing is right. The Flagg draft class has made the problem so visible that ignoring it any longer would be its own scandal. The open question isn't whether the system changes — it's how radical the change gets. An 18-team lottery with flat odds is a meaningful reform. A two-year record system with first-round playoff losers included is a fundamental restructuring of how the NBA rewards losing. Either way, the franchises sitting at 17 wins in late March are going to look a lot dumber next year. And that might be exactly the point. [1]