During All-Star Weekend, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said, "We're going to be scrutinizing everything we see going forward" regarding teams tanking, and that the league would be looking at "every possible remedy."
During a Thursday phone call with all 30 general managers, an adamant Silver said tanking needs to be curtailed for the integrity of the game and laid out potential remedies, according to multiple reports. According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, some of the potential moves discussed by Silver included:
• Freezing the lottery odds at an earlier, specific date (hypothetically, All-Star weekend), so teams don't have a motivation to play poorly during the season's stretch run.
• Limiting draft protections to 1-4 or lottery (top 14), eliminating what Utah and Washington are doing this season where they are working to protect top-eight protected picks.
• Not allowing teams to pick in the top four in consecutive years.
• Including all the play-in teams in the lottery.
• Flattening the lottery odds so every team has the same chance.
All of those "solutions" would create new challenges. Freeze the lottery odds at the All-Star break and teams will start tanking earlier, in the heart of the season. Taking away teams' ability to pick in the top four in consecutive years takes a key team-building tool for smaller markets — it's how San Antonio got so good right now.
Even Silver's owners are not all on the same page.
Mat Ishbia of the Suns said tanking was for losers.
This is ridiculous! Tanking is losing behavior done by losers. Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. And the talk about this as a “strategy” is ridiculous.
— Mat Ishbia (@Mishbia15) February 19, 2026
If you are a bad team, you get a… https://t.co/VoUx3YEdB5
Mark Cuban said the NBA should embrace tanking.
Why the NBA should embrace tanking -
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) February 17, 2026
The NBA has kate been misguided thinking that fans want to see their teams compete every night with a chance to win. It’s never been that way that way.
When I got into the nba, they thought they were in the basketball business. They…
In the end, there may be no solution because landing a high pick and getting a player such as Cade Cunningham, Anthony Edwards, Cooper Flagg or Victor Wembanyama (to name just the recent examples) changes the fortunes and value of a franchise. Teams are going to do what it takes to give themselves the best chance to win. Flatten the lottery odds and the league has to accept the risk that a good team — and if the pick was traded, maybe the league's best team — could end up with the No. 1 pick. Teams are trying to sell their fan base either on winning ("we are contenders/very good right now, so come watch us") or on hope for the future. Reduce the bad teams' lottery odds, and you reduce that hope.
There is no easy answer. But Silver is determined to do something.