One of the major story-lines surrounding the league over the past few seasons has been the process of the NBA draft lottery. The lottery’s method of benefiting losing teams has led to several teams, namely the Philadelphia 76ers, take advantage of it. Teams would rather lose to secure high draft picks rather than be a mediocre team. There are plenty of arguments for and against changing how the lottery works.
During the offseason, there was talk about changing the lottery process. A proposal to somewhat even out lottery odds in order to discourage tanking was voted upon and surprisingly did not pass. Now more than ever, it seems like there will not be any changes for a while. According to Zach Lowe of ESPN, there will not even be any discussions regarding it for the near future:
There has been almost no buzz about lottery reform since, and league officials have said there likely won’t be until the next session of collective bargaining in 2016 or 2017.
There is an opt-out for the current collective bargaining agreement in 2016 and if it is used, lottery reform could be one of the main talking points in the new agreement. If there is no opt-out, the league will likely wait another year to discuss lottery reform. With no real solutions present, it is unclear when or if any changes will be made.
