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NBA’s new lottery system strips worst teams of top draft odds, but may reward calculated mediocrity

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On Thursday, the NBA Board of Governors approved a plan designed to dramatically reshape the draft lottery in hopes of combating the league’s tanking problem.

Teams aren’t intentionally losing because they enjoy being bad. They do it because the system rewards it. The question is whether the NBA’s latest overhaul actually fixes the issue.

With a decisive 29-1 vote, and the Memphis Grizzlies casting the lone dissenting vote, the league approved its new 3-2-1 lottery structure.

The revamped system expands the lottery field to 16 teams and strips the league’s three worst teams of the most favorable draft odds.

NBA TRIES FIXING TANK JOBS WITH CONFUSING ‘3-2-1’ LOTTERY SCHEME NOBODY ASKED FOR

After years of criticism over tanking, Commissioner Adam Silver introduced his most aggressive effort yet to discourage franchises from bottoming out.

Under the new format, the NBA will significantly reduce the odds of the No. 1 pick for the league’s three worst teams.

Meanwhile, teams finishing with the fourth- through 10th-worst records will receive improved odds.

Under the revised structure, the ninth- and 10th-worst teams will carry the same 5.4% chance at the top overall pick as the NBA’s true bottom-feeders.

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Additional safeguards also prevent franchises from winning the No. 1 pick in consecutive seasons or landing a top-five selection in three straight drafts.

On paper, the changes appear to strengthen competitive integrity. In reality, they may simply redirect the incentives.

Instead of rewarding the league’s worst teams, the new system heavily favors franchises finishing in the middle of the lottery standings.

The 3-2-1 model discourages full-scale teardowns, but creates a new incentive for teams stuck near the play-in line. A larger group of mediocre teams now has reason to engineer late-season slides. The goal shifts from racing to the bottom to quietly drifting out of the postseason picture and into better lottery position.

Teams hovering near the playoff bubble will quickly recognize that falling from the eighth seed to the ninth could materially improve their odds of landing a franchise-changing player.

The Play-in tournament only complicates the math.

Under the new rules, the loser of the opening matchup between the seventh and eighth seeds receives lottery eligibility and a 2.7% chance at the top pick, while the winner locks itself into a late first-round selection.

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That remains the central flaw in the NBA’s approach to tanking.

The league continues trying to regulate behavior without addressing the economic reality driving it.

Intentional losing persists because the draft remains the NBA’s most reliable pipeline for superstar acquisition, particularly for small-market franchises that rarely attract elite free agents.

The new format will likely eliminate some of the more blatant tank jobs, the 15-win rosters built around G League call-ups before Christmas, satisfying broadcast partners and fans tired of unwatchable late-season basketball.

But it may also replace bottom-tier tanking with a league-wide jockeying match for positioning in March and April.

The race to the bottom may be slowing down.

The race to the middle is probably just getting started.

Send us your thoughts: [email protected] / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela 

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Eighth Virginia Prosecutor Announces He Won’t Enforce Gun Ban

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‘we believe they are Unconstitutional on their face’
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Editor Daily Rundown: Will He Or Won’t He? Trump Weighs Possible Deal To End Iran War

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BREAKING THURSDAY… TRUMP SIZES UP AN IRAN DEAL… AXIOS: Scoop: U.S. and Iran reach deal but need Trump’s final approval, officials say
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Super Bowl champion Joe Theismann says the NFL’s is losing tradition to streaming-era scheduling

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Super Bowl champion Joe Theismann said the NFL has left tradition behind.

The NFL has expanded their primetime schedule to holidays and playing games overseas, meaning they are playing more games outside of the traditional Sunday afternoon timeslot. Theismann pointed out the drastic differences in how the games are broadcast.

“They’ve drifted away (from tradition). I mean, when you look at all the different streaming services and all the different networks, it used to be ABC, NBC, and CBS, but that doesn’t exist anymore. There only used to be those TV channels where you could watch things other than sports only existed then,” Theismann told Fox News Digital in a recent interview.

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“Now, we’re in a time and a place where the opportunity for the owners to make lots of money from different entities, from YouTube, from Amazon, from Peacock.”

Theismann said fans used to look forward to Sundays, but now there are games seemingly all the time.

“Sunday is something you would look forward to sitting down to because you really didn’t have an option. Now you have options on Monday night, Thursday night, Wednesday night, God only knows, Tuesday night,  Saturday evening. If you’re a fan of the NFL, you’re going to find the game,” Theismann said.

The opening game of the 2026 season will be on Wednesday this season, with the second game being played in Melbourne, Australia, on a Thursday. The NFL introduced a Thanksgiving Eve game this year, adding another Wednesday game to the schedule.

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There will also be NFL games on Friday this year, as the league has gone forth with its fourth annual Black Friday game. The NFL also has three games scheduled on Christmas Day, which is a Friday.

Once the college football regular season ends in mid-December, there will also be Saturday games.

Theismann did say the NFL now has gotten fans easier access to watch more games, which he considers a good thing.

“It gives you a chance to find the game that you want to watch now. You don’t have to read about it the next day. So, in one regard it’s grown the NFL and the other side of it, yeah, would we all like things to be a little bit like they used to be? Maybe. But I believe in the progressive as a progressive individual, but life is changing. You have to adapt and change with it,” Theismann said.

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This will be the 37th American Century Championship, and Joe Theismann has played in 36 of them. He said he used to be a 2-handicap, but is now a nine, as he doesn’t hit the ball as far. He will look to turn back the clock when he plays in the tournament from July 10-12 at Edgewood Golf Course in Lake Tahoe.

He said the American Century Championship is the lone thing that you really want to participate in.

“The American Century Championship has evolved to one of those things that, if you love golf at all, and you happen to be in that quote-unquote celebrity world, it’s the thing you really want to participate in. You get to measure your game. You get to pull back the curtain on so many wonderful people, and you get to see those that you watch on TV because I’m a fan of everything. But now you get a chance to see them up close and personal, and you get a chance to meet them and get to know them, and it’s exciting,” Theismann said.

The 76-year-old said he gets to visit people on the range. He mentioned Jerry Rice, Tony Romo and Miles Teller as people he has had conversations with, calling himself a “fanboy” of Teller’s.

Theismann said “Top Gun: Maverick” is his favorite movie of all time.

The tournament has raised more than $8 million for regional and national charities. American Century Investments donates 40% of its profits to the Stowers Institute for Medical Research and activates fundraising at the tournament to drive direct donations to Stowers each year. Theismann credited CEO Jonathan Thomas for the tournament’s charitable work.

Theismann credited CEO Jonathan Thomas for the tournament’s charitable work.

The tournament will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock.

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