NBA commissioner Adam Silver revealed the league considered implementing a relegation system mimicking European football to discourage teams from losing games.
The NBA league office has put teams on notice as they attempt to monitor potential tanking ahead of the 2023 draft. Silver has spoken a number of times on the league’s efforts to minimise tanking as teams may want to improve their draft lottery position to better place themselves in the running for projected first pick Victor Wembanyama.
Tanking is when teams purposely lose in the short term, usually over a season, to obtain higher picks in the NBA Draft which will ultimately help them pick the best young talents who will lead them to long-term success. Silver has made a number of changes to try and combat tanking, including altering the odds in the lottery.
In 2019, the NBA changed the draft lottery system and flattened the odds so no team has more than a 14% chance of securing the No. 1 pick. Previously, the team with the worst record had a 25% chance, the second-worst had a 19.9% chance, and the third-worst had a 15.6% chance - but Silver appears desperate to dissuade as many teams away from the practice of tanking as much as possible.
Silver suggested the NBA has considered a potential relegation system seen across European football as a way to penalise the worst teams in the league and ultimately encourage winning on the court. Under such a system, the NBA would demote the worst one or two teams to the G League at the end of the system.
However, the commissioner - who has been in his role since 2014 - conceded the practice would ‘destabilise’ the NBA’s business model and suggested there was no realistic way for it to be established within league. He also questioned how competitive two teams coming up from the G League, a minor league designed to develop players, would be when facing NBA opponents.
“I can't say I was deadly serious about relegation, because we don't have the same system as European soccer and it would make no sense to send an NBA team to the G League or a G League team to the NBA,” Silver told ESPN on Monday. “But obviously that is how other leagues deal with situations like this where they force teams to stay competitive because the consequences of finishing at the bottom of the league are dramatically detrimental to the health of the team.
“But it's something as I was saying to the folks in Phoenix that we keep our eye on. We understand we are selling competition to our fans.”
The 2022/23 NBA season is underway and there has been plenty of reports suggesting teams rebuilding teams that are not in championship contention are set to tank their campaign in order to place themselves in pole position to acquire French phenom Wembanyama. Wembanyama is the hottest prospect in the 2023 draft class and he could well be the most promising young player since LeBron James entered the NBA 20 years prior in 2003.
He stands 7’4” tall to go with an 8’ wingspan paired with the shooting ability of a point guard. It makes him the surefire number one pick and teams are reportedly going to battle for the chance to pick him in the NBA draft lottery. Wembanyama’s size makes him a fearsome shot-blocker and rim protector while he is essentially unstoppable as a perimeter shooter - and any franchise would welcome the 18-year-old with open arms.
