The first round of the NBA playoffs features a number of tight, undecided series, yet the biggest storyline surrounding the league isn’t about them at all, with Adam Silver drumming up a new NBA lottery proposal to combat tanking.

Here is how it would look:

Here’s how the new lottery odds will look:

(h/t @LevAkabas ) pic.twitter.com/RlDzwc3Fz2

— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 29, 2026

The proposal on the table would flatten lottery odds and introduce a “relegation zone” for the bottom three teams — giving them the same odds as a play-in loser.

That idea has sparked plenty of debate, especially around fairness. There’s a valid concern about truly bad teams getting stuck, with fewer pathways to climb out of the bottom. There’s also the fear that fringe playoff teams could decide it’s better to pivot late and chase lottery odds instead of pushing for the postseason.

Those points matter, and Adam Silver and the league office will have to weigh them carefully. But it’s hard to argue the current system is working after what just played out.

This past season saw widespread manipulation — teams resting starters nightly, pulling key players late in games, and in some cases barely pretending to compete. That’s not just bad optics, it undermines the product entirely. A flattened system with a relegation-style element would go a long way toward eliminating those incentives.

The relegation zone, in particular, adds something the NBA has never really had at the bottom: stakes. Suddenly, a late-April matchup between Brooklyn Nets vs. Washington Wizards carries as much weight as two teams facing off at the top of the standings. That’s a win for the league.

As for playoff-caliber teams intentionally tanking late? That feels overstated. Well-run organizations don’t operate that way, and karma always has a funny way of playing out.

For the Atlanta Hawks, this kind of change could quietly be beneficial. They don’t project as a team that’s going to bottom out anytime soon, but they do hold future draft capital — including the New Orleans/Milwaukee pick in 2027 (worst of the two, top-four protected).

Under a flattened system, the chances of both those teams landing in the top four — and keeping the pick — would drop significantly, even if they struggled. That makes it far more likely the pick conveys, potentially setting Atlanta up with back-to-back top-10 selections.

There is not going to be a perfect formula to combat tanking. Basketball is unlike any sport, where one player can change the trajectory of an entire franchise for the next 15-20 years. However, whether you like the NBA’s proposed solution or not, we can all agree what happened this past season was an absolute abomination, and changes must be made.

—

(Photo by Aaron Baker/Icon Sportswire)