The NBA BOG on Thursday "voted to pass legislation on draft lottery reform and guidelines for the resting of healthy players in the regular season," according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. The NBA Draft lottery reform "passed with a 28-1-1 vote," with the Thunder voting against and the Mavericks abstaining. The lottery reform changes "will be instituted" for the '19 Draft. Lottery reform is "designed to discourage teams from tanking to pursue the best possible odds to select highest in the draft order." NBA Commissioner Adam Silver hopes the new rules will "dissuade teams from trying to finish with the worst record in the league to put themselves in position to land the top pick." Silver said lottery reform was "important because there was a perception in many of our communities that the best path to rebuilding their teams was to race to the bottom" (ESPN.com, 9/28). NBA.com's Steve Aschburner noted the worst team could wind up with the fifth pick and the league’s "18th best has a greater chance of ending up first." The teams with the three worst records each will have a 14% chance of landing the No. 1 pick (NBA.com, 9/28). Silver "acknowledged this isn't a perfect solution but answers a perception problem while providing substance to the reform." He said, "There was too great an incentive to embark on that strategy" (USA TODAY, 9/29). YAHOO SPORTS' Ben Rohrbach wrote how much these changes will "actually prevent tanking remains up for debate." There is still "incentive to drop to the bottom three in the standings, and increased odds later in the lottery could lead teams that might otherwise compete for a seventh or eighth seed in the playoffs to drop into the lottery" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/28).
NO REST FOR THE WEARY: Silver said that teams would be "prohibited from resting healthy players in high-profile, nationally televised games." In N.Y., Scott Cacciola reports any "violation of that new policy would result in a fine of at least $100,000." In addition, teams will be "discouraged from resting multiple players in the same game or from resting any healthy players on the road" (N.Y. TIMES, 9/29). In Cleveland, Joe Vardon writes the Cavaliers "sparked a league-wide controversy last season by resting multiple stars from the games on at least three occasions, including one on national TV, though several franchises rested key players from such games" (Cleveland PLAIN DEALER, 9/29).
