A proposal to change the current lottery system for the NBA Draft in order to discourage teams from deliberately losing games was rejected Wednesday at the league's Board of Governors meeting.
The revised plan was agreed to by 17 of the 30 owners, but a change in bylaws requires a 75 percent approval rate to pass.
That means the current arrangement, in which the team with the worst record receives a 25 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick and is guaranteed no worse than selecting fourth, will remain in place for the time being.
The present structure for the lottery came under criticism this past season when several teams, most notably the Philadelphia 76ers, constructed rosters consisting predominantly of lesser talented and experienced players in order to increase their odds of receiving a better pick.
Those tactics led to offseason discussions about modifying the current lottery that would give better teams a greater possibility of obtaining a top-three choice and increasing the likelihood of ones that engaged in "tanking" to fall lower in the draft.
One scenario had the team with the worst record able to fall as low as No. 7 in the draft. Another gave the bottom four teams equal odds at landing the top pick and the fifth-worst team a percentage only slightly lower than those behind it.
"I think in essence, the owners were concerned about unintended consequences," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said following the meeting. "I think we all recognize that we need to find the right balance between creating the appropriate incentives on one hand for teams to of course win, and on the other hand allowing what is appropriate rebuilding and a draft to work as it should, in which the worst performing teams get the highest picks in the draft.
"I don't necessarily disagree with the way it works now. I'd say from a personal standpoint, what I'm most concerned about is the perception out there right now. Frankly the pressure on a lot of our teams, even from their very fans, to somehow underperform because it's in some people's view the most efficient and quickest way to get better, so I think that's a corrosive perception out there."
The strategy of losing often times hasn't worked out for teams in the lottery anyway. Since it was instituted in 1985, only four teams that finished with the worst record have won the lottery, and none have since the Orlando Magic in 2004.
Cleveland received the No. 1 pick in this year's draft despite having a mere 1.7 percent chance of finishing first in the lottery.
[SportsNetwork.com]
