At his annual media availability at NBA All-Star Weekend, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that “tanking is as worse than it’s ever been in recent memory”. Silver also said that the league is focused on what they can do to stop tanking, and that the NBA isn’t taking anything off the table.
Silver said that the recent fines given the Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz were handed out to put all teams on notice. Silver was asked if the NBA could eventually take draft picks away from teams if they continued tanking and was clear in his answer saying, “There is talk about every possible remedy to stop this behavior.”
The NBA commissioner said that he wants to be careful to make sure that bad teams have a chance to improve through the draft. However, Silver feels that manipulating results by other teams may be keeping truly bad teams from getting the best picks. Silver said that lottery reform is on the table as it’s “time for the league to take a fresh look at everything.”