The NBA's Board of Governors have reportedly passed draft lottery reform which aims to prevent teams from tanking by creating equal odds for the worst three teams to land the number one overall pick.
Currently, the worst team in the NBA has a 25% chance of getting the number one pick, while the next-worst team's chance drops to 19.9%, and so on. Under the new rule, each of the three worst teams in the league will have a 14% chance of securing the top pick and a 40% chance of receiving a top-3 pick.
The team with the worst record in the league will still be guaranteed a top-5 pick, but the second worst team's odds of securing a Top-5 selection will drop from the current 100% to 80%. Additionally, the team with the third worst record will have a 67% chance of being in the top-5, as opposed to the 96% chance they're currently given.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the new rules will go into effect for the 2019 NBA Draft. Check out the graphic below, which details the approved draft lottery reform vs. the current model.
Adrian Wojnarowski also reports that the league approved a proposal allowing NBA commissioner Adam Silver to fine teams for resting multiple players in a single game, or healthy players in a nationally televised game.
The NBA has already made an effort to prevent teams from resting star players during marquee games, including the following changes to the 2017-18 schedule.
• Eliminating stretches of four games in five days and 18 games in 30 days.
• Reduction of five games in seven nights to just 40 instances across (1.3 per team), down from last year when it was on the schedule 90 times (three per team).
• Reduction in number of back-to-backs to 14.9 per team, down from 16.3 per team. In all, 40 back-to-backs have been eliminated from last season.
• Reduction of single-game road trips by 17 percent.
• Reduction in single-game road trips over 2,000 miles by 67 percent; there are only 11 of them on schedule.
