NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is aggressively pushing to reform the draft lottery system which could take effect in the 2019 NBA Draft. The plan is to effectively prevent other teams from doing what the Philadelphia 76ers did in the past four years, #TusttheProcess or now commonly known as tanking.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Silver wants to discourage teams from selling out games by preventing healthy starters from playing. By guaranteeing lower win-loss record, they get the highest chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick.

During the last four NBA Drafts, the Sixers were able to pick within the Top 3.

In 2014, they picked Joel Embiid (3rd), and then they got Jahlil Okafor (3rd) the following year. The Sixers then got the overall top picks during the last two NBA Drafts with Ben Simmons and Markelle Fultz

De-incentivizing tanking

The changes will greatly affect the Draft Lottery between teams with the lowest win-loss record. The proposal is said to increase chances of all 14 non-playoff teams – a move for which NBA executives believe will effectively answer the tanking issue.

The current setup gives the three teams with the worst records higher chances of winning the No. 1 pick from the other eleven teams. The team with the lowest win-loss record gets 25 percent chance, the second gets 19.9 percent while the third gets 15.6 percent.

It also allows the team with the worst record to drop no lower than No. 4 in the draft.

But with the proposed changes to the draft lottery system, the team with the lowest record could drop up to fifth. A domino effect will also be implemented, thus, the second team with the worst record could fall to sixth, and the No. 3 team could drop to seven, and so on.

In addition, all three teams with the worst record will have the same percentage chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick during the draft lottery. The decrease in the gap of percentage as the ranking moves along will also be decreased. For example, the gap between the team with the worst record and the fifth would close the difference significantly, according to league sources.

No to successive Top 3 pick

Another suggested reform which will be subjected to the NBA Competition Committee would be to prevent any team from landing within the Top 3 in succession. In this way, teams who get one of the Top 3 picks in the next NBA Draft could only get no higher than No. 4 in 2019.

For example, if this rule was during the 2014 NBA Draft, the Sixers would still be able to pick Joel Embiid but not Jahlil Okafor. They would also be able to pick Ben Simmons but not Markelle Fultz.

These proposals are expected to land on the table of the NBA competition committee next week. If and when enacted, the changes will take effect as early as 2019.