The NBA competition committee has "recommended the league proposals on draft lottery reform and guidelines for the resting of players" to the BOG for final approval, according to sources cited by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. The proposed guidelines for resting players will "encourage teams to sit healthy players for home rather than away games, and discourage the practice during nationally televised games." The BOG will "vote on instituting the changes" at a meeting in N.Y. on Sept. 28. The plan to change the Draft Lottery will "need a three-quarters majority to pass into legislation," while the recommendation on resting players "needs a simple majority." Sources said that the NBA's proposed changes to the system would begin in '19 and include a "smoothing-out of odds among the league's worst teams." For example, the three worst teams currently have a 25%, 19.9% and 15.6% chance of winning the No. 1 overall pick, respectively. Sources said that under the new plan, those teams would each have a 14% chance, and the "odds for ensuing teams would drop incrementally by a percentage point or two" (ESPN.com, 9/16).
SILVER LINING: Wojnarowski wrote NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will be "aggressive in making sure he gets the simple majority of the owners' votes needed to fine teams for sitting healthy star players in national television games or multiple healthy starters in regular-season games, and for failing to make a star player sitting out visually accessible to fans on the bench." The resting rules have been "met with little resistance." Silver has "mostly sold it to owners as an economic issue" and has "warned that the NBA's future revenues and growth are directly tied to solving the resting issue" (ESPN.com, 9/15). YAHOO SPORTS' Ben Rohrbach noted critics will "surely argue that reform does little to de-incentivize tanking to a top-three spot, and the increased odds lower in the lottery could actually incentivize borderline playoff teams to drop out of contention." But by "coupling lottery reform with penalties for resting starters," Silver can "better manage the tanking problem" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/15).
