The NBA is no stranger to controversy. Fresh off a gambling scandal, the league is now turning its attention to tanking, specifically exploring ways to combat it. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on the latest
developments:
According to Charania, the league has proposed several potential changes to rules regarding draft pick protections, the draft lottery, and other approaches. The main focus seems to be on teams that have shut down players early or sat them for games in an attempt to improve their draft position. Charania provides the following concrete examples:
- Limiting pick protections to either the top four or 14th and higher, eliminating the “problematic” mid-lottery protections
- Preventing a team from drafting in the top four in consecutive years
- Locking in lottery positions after March 1
In theory, these rules would discourage non-playoff teams from sitting their starters during the season and give them an incentive to keep competing.
Charania emphasized that the rules are not meant to penalize rebuilding teams that use their players normally, but rather to target teams that deliberately manipulate the standings late in the season to secure a high draft pick or fall within protected pick ranges.
Here’s where it gets pretty funny: In addition to the ideas proposed to combat tanking, the league office presented the Board of Governors with several examples of protected picks potentially impacting recent seasons.
The first example is the Dallas Mavericks. In 2023, they benched Kyrie Irving and Luka Dončić, resulting in two losses. While the Mavericks were fined for this, they still retained their pick.
The next example involves the Philadelphia 76ers, specifically last year. The Sixers lost 29 of their final 37 games, finishing fifth-worst and entering the lottery. As you know, they didn’t just keep their pick — they moved up to third overall, selecting VJ Edgecombe.
Another example is the Utah Jazz, probably the most blatant case. Last March, the Jazz were fined $100,000 for holding Lauri Markkanen out of multiple games. This season, they owe a top-8 protected pick to the Thunder, a situation Charania says many around the league are closely monitoring.
The Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz are certainly guilty to some extent when it comes to resting players. What’s fascinating, though, is seeing the Sixers continually lumped in with this group. Last season, their roster was decimated by real injuries. Joel Embiid rarely saw the court, and Paul George played only half the season before being shut down due to multiple nagging issues.
The only potential “manipulation” could have involved Tyrese Maxey, who was dealing with a sprained finger and a lower back strain down the stretch. If the NBA is using this as an example and essentially calling it fake, it’s a pretty funny report to put out. Maxey first sprained his finger in February and re-aggravated it in early March. It clearly affected his game — over his final seven games, he shot a dismal 32.4% from the field and just 20.9% from three.
Reports at the time suggested Maxey was aiming to return at the very end of the season, but by then, the Sixers’ season was effectively over. In early April, Maxey re-injured his finger while ramping up, which caused increased pain and swelling — effectively ending his season.
The NBA last updated its draft lottery rules in 2019, giving the three worst teams in the regular season equal 14% odds of landing the first overall pick and a 52.1% chance of finishing in the top four. Since those updates, three teams have jumped from outside the top five in odds to land a top pick. The two most recent examples are the Atlanta Hawks (10th) in 2024 and the Dallas Mavericks (11th) in 2025.
It remains to be seen if the proposed rules will come to fruition, but if they do, they could have ramifications for the Sixers’ future picks. This could include the Clippers’ assets the team owns, though it’s likely the rules would only apply to teams’ own selections and picks that haven’t been traded yet. We’ll just have to wait and see.
The previous lottery updates sparked plenty of controversy, and if these changes are implemented, it will be no different. This is definitely a story to watch in the coming months.
