Nekias Duncan and Steve Jones Jr. discuss the options that the league is reportedly considering to prevent teams from tanking in the future and if they would actually be effective. Check out the full conversation on “The Dunker Spot and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
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Video Transcript
Adam Silver informed all 30 GMs that anti-tanking rule changes are coming as soon as next year.
Among the ideas that have been discussed, per Sham’s report, first round picks can only be protected top four or top 14 plus.
I would imagine the plus means, like, if there is any kind of changing to who’s invited into the draft lottery that extends to play-in teams, then you’d be looking at, like, 16 or 18 instead of the four.
Either way, you’re looking at top four protections or just lottery protections.
That’s something that’s been discussed.
Would you like that sh- shift if they make that one?
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No.
Okay.
next one, lottery odds being frozen at the trade deadline or a later date to try to curb some of the late season, “we’re not playing these guys”- Oh- … et cetera, et cetera.
Yeah, a mystery date where the season ends.
That’s a brilliant idea.
Won’t definitely cannibalize the start of the year.
Two thumbs up on that one.
Okay, let’s see how Steve feels about that one.
All right, no longer allowing a team to pick top four in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom three finishes.
You can keep going.
Okay, fair enough.
teams can’t pick top four the year after making the conference finals.
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Like, that very much feels like a, a Dallas Mavericks/Indiana Pacers bit, which I, I understand the spirit of that change if it happens.
It is just kind of funny that the two examples that we’ve seen recently is, like, the Mavericks come off the finals, they trade Luka Doni, and then jump in the lottery to get Cooper Flagg.
Like, I don’t know if you can really predict that kind of thing.
And with the Indiana Pacers, their best player tore his Achilles, and they’ve dealt with an ungodly amount of injuries.
Like, the great Caitlin Cooper has been talking about this pretty much all year long, also just had, like, a great thread about this yesterday.
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Where it’s like, why are we punishing a situation like the Pacers, where, like, they haven’t tried to lose?
They lost Tyrese.
They lose Myles Turner in free agency.
We had a portion of the season very early on where literally their entire guard rotation was out at the same time.
Like, they shouldn’t be punished for that.
But I also understand the logic of, “Well, we can’t have the one-year dip to where a team that was just in the finals adds a top-three prospect, potentially.”
And that top Which means that top-three prospect isn’t going to a legitimate bad team.
Like, I get it.
I don’t like that.
I understand the logic, but I don’t like that one.
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lottery odds allocated based on two-year records, like, that feels very WNBA-coded.
That’s a similar system that they have there.
Like, I would hear that one out at the very least.
Lottery extended to include all play-in teams, which again, gets into that top 14 plus in terms of the pick protections, if that is a thing that happens.
And flattening the odds for all lottery teams.
I get it.
I think part of the reason why we’re having this level of tanking, aside from, like, this draft class projects to be incredibly good, is because the odds are flattened.
And I think, what, this is, what, two or three straight years where the team with the worst record in the league has just kind of slid to fourth or fifth in the lottery, ’cause the teams jumping with the lottery odds already kind of being flattened at the top.
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Like, if you flatten that even more, that gets kind of hazy.
Again, I understand the logic of doing that, but I don’t know if I love that one either.
Like, does I guess, does literally anything on this list intrigue you at all for potential- No … maybe not a fix, but to ease things up?
Okay.
It doesn’t.
Fair enough, so, so we will see if anything- Some teams, some teams are just, some teams are just bad.
Yeah.
And then you try and be good again.
Like, we’re looking at a season where Detroit has turned things around.
You remember where they were at.
San Antonio turned things around.
They had lottery luck- Mm-hmm … and he was not supposed to be here.
We’ve done this before.
Uh- … we, I don’t- I can’t believe we’re still here in 2026.
That’s all I’m gonna say.