The Ringer NBA Show Has the NBA Found the Solution to Tanking? | Real Ones
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Mar 27, 2026 They unpack the league’s new anti-tanking draft proposals and whether flattening lottery odds will actually change team behavior. They dig into the public standoff between Giannis and his team and why the union stepped in. Short takes on CBA incentives, roster-building pressures, and a quick scouting note and shoutouts close out the conversation.
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Expanded Lottery And Flattened Odds Won't Simple Fix Tanking
- The NBA's anti-tanking proposals mostly extend the lottery to more teams and flatten odds to disincentivize intentional losing.
- Howard Beck warns these changes add complexity, create new loopholes, and may shift rather than solve tanking incentives.
Include Play-In Teams To Reduce Late Season Tanking
- Proposals expand lottery eligibility to play-in and early playoff teams so making the playoffs no longer means losing draft leverage.
- The idea: let middling teams stay competitive while still having a shot at top picks, reducing incentive to bench or tank late-season.
Flattened Odds Could Penalize Small Market Rebuilds
- Flattening odds hurts truly weak franchises because it reduces the chance they land franchise-changing talent.
- Logan Murdock adds the deeper problem: the CBA's hard salary cap makes non-draft routes to improvement prohibitively difficult.