New York, May 27, 2026 — The NBA’s Board of Governors is expected to pass sweeping draft-lottery changes on Thursday, installing a “3-2-1 lottery” format for the 2026-27 season aimed at reducing late-season tanking and encouraging greater competition.
Why the change is coming
Commissioner Adam Silver signaled in March that revamping incentives was urgent. “It seemed unanimous in the room that we needed to make a change and we needed to make a change for next season,” he told owners at the spring meeting. “Incentives need to be fixed. We will fix them.”
Main features of the new system
• Sixteen teams will enter the lottery, including every club that misses the playoffs as well as the loser of the 7-8 play-in game.
• Odds are distributed on a “3-2-1” scale, designed to push bottom-feeders to win enough games to avoid the worst three records.
• A franchise cannot win the lottery in consecutive years and cannot select inside the top five three drafts in a row.
Pros highlighted by league officials
Fewer extreme tank jobs. A broader lottery pool, coupled with reduced odds for the bottom three teams, is expected to discourage collapses like the Washington Wizards’ 27 losses in their final 28 games that sealed a 17-65 record, or the Memphis Grizzlies’ 5-28 finish that mirrored Philadelphia’s 2024-25 plunge.
Play-in clubs keep pushing. By giving the 9- and 10-seeds and the 7-8 loser lottery access, more teams have reason to pursue wins deep into April.
Greater roster-building creativity. Executives believe a less predictable draft order will force fresh strategies, contrasting with the long rebuilds that produced the current Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs.
Live televised drawing. The league plans to air the selection of ping-pong balls, ending decades of closed-door procedures.
Cons raised by critics
Limits on repeat winners. Preventing back-to-back lottery victories or three straight top-five picks, rules aimed at avoiding a San Antonio-style haul of the No. 1 pick in 2023, No. 4 in 2024 and No. 2 in 2025, may punish unlucky teams stuck in weak draft classes.
Volatile value of traded picks. Future selections already dealt for 2027-29 could shift dramatically in worth. Memphis, for example, obtained Utah’s future first rounder in the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade, but Utah’s recent top-five finishes bar that pick from landing in the top five next season.
Lower floor for the league’s worst. If the three bottom clubs miss out in the drawing, they can slide to picks 10 through 12, sparking debate over whether the drop is excessive.
More revisions likely. A sunset clause requires the format to be reviewed before the 2030 draft, hinting that additional tweaks — potentially a “draft credits” concept — may follow.
The Board’s vote is considered a formality, and teams are preparing scouting, trading and free-agency plans with the new guidelines in mind. The league believes the overhaul will make late-season games more meaningful; opponents argue the midstream shift adds uncertainty. Either way, the 2026-27 campaign will inaugurate the NBA’s most radical draft-lottery structure in four decades.
Source: ESPN.com
