NBA Anti-Tanking Proposal Update: Plans to Expand Penalty Authority, Players Union Recommends Three-Pronged Approach

On March 28 Beijing time, the NBA previously submitted three anti-tanking proposals, planning to reform the draft lottery rules to curb team tanking. According to follow-up reports by The Athletic reporter Walden, in addition, the NBA also hopes to expand its penalty authority to punish teams that manipulate player eligibility and adjust rotation lineups in order to deliberately lose games.

In February this year, the Jazz were fined $500,000 by the NBA for "conduct detrimental to the league's image" after continuously resting star forwards Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. during the fourth quarter of games.

Walden stated that according to the proposed policy adjustments, the NBA would have the authority to increase such fines to millions of dollars, and could also move the involved team's draft picks to the end of the lottery, the end of the first round, or even directly revoke draft rights.

The NBA is considering selecting one of three lottery reform proposals to implement at this week's board meeting, but the league clearly also realizes that these measures alone cannot completely eliminate tanking. Sources indicate that the league plans to introduce stricter tanking penalties simultaneously with adjusting the lottery rules.

A league source told The Athletic: "Without stricter penalties, all kinds of outrageous maneuvers will still occur. It's necessary to implement sufficiently severe measures so that teams genuinely reconsider before tanking. Once a team attempts tanking and gets caught, other teams must also see the consequences of the penalty and understand that doing so is not worth it."

The details of this proposal are currently incomplete, but the NBA is likely to reference its player resting policy in formulating anti-tanking rules: specifying clear terms and progressively increasing penalties for repeatedly violating teams. That means the anti-tanking policy is likely to start with fines and escalate to draft pick depreciation or even revocation.

The NBA Board of Governors is scheduled to hold another meeting in May to discuss and vote on this issue.

Additionally, according to reports by noted journalist Jake Fischer, the players union has also proposed a three-pronged response plan. The specific suggestions are as follows:

1. Flatten the Lottery Odds for Draft Selection

The league previously submitted three lottery reform proposals to the NBA Board of Governors, and the players union generally supports the first one. This proposal intends to expand the lottery participating teams to 18—including four teams that made the play-in tournament but failed to advance to the playoffs—and give the 10 teams with the worst records equal odds of winning the top pick.

However, according to Fischer, the players union has proposed modifications to this plan: the 10 bottom-ranked teams would no longer each enjoy 8% odds for the top pick; the union hopes to reduce this probability to 7%. Meanwhile, teams ranked 11th to 18th in the lottery would no longer use decreasing probabilities but instead have uniform odds (including a 3.75% chance for the top pick).

2. Strictly Enforce Targeted Tanking Penalties

Earlier today, news indicated that the NBA hopes to expand its penalty authority to punish teams that deliberately manipulate player availability and adjust rotations to intentionally lose games. Fischer stated that the players union supports this, and NBPA core members are pushing to add penalty clauses to severely punish blatant tanking behavior.

Fischer confirmed that extreme penalties under discussion include: moving the involved team's draft picks to the end of the lottery, the end of the first round, or even directly revoking draft rights; additionally, reducing a team's lottery odds is also listed as a potential penalty method. Previous reports mentioned that the league also discussed imposing multi-million dollar fines as an anti-tanking measure.

3. Use Economic Means to Reward Wins and Punish Losses

The most novel aspect mentioned in Fischer's report on the players union proposal is one previously never disclosed: suggesting that teams with better regular season records receive a larger share of the NBA's national television broadcast revenue.

This model borrows from the Premier League: last season, top clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal received far higher broadcast revenue shares than bottom-ranked Southampton.

Such reforms would have a far more profound impact than adjusting draft lottery rules and conflict with the NBA's existing revenue sharing rules, so the league has not yet expressed support for this. Compared to the first two proposals, the likelihood of this plan being implemented is lower.