The NBA’s Board of Governors passed legislation on draft lottery reform Thursday, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The lottery changes, which will kick into effect for the 2019 draft, are shown in this chart:
Here is an ESPN graphic on how NBA Draft lottery odds change in 2019 pic.twitter.com/Jk8X7q0J3Z
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 28, 2017
The lottery reform, meant to de-incentivize tanking, needed a three-fourths majority vote to pass. It passed 28-1-1, with the Thunder voting “no” and the Mavericks abstaining, reports Wojnarowski.
Also on Thursday, the board passed legislation regarding healthy players resting during the regular season. With these changes, Commissioner Adam Silver has the power to fine teams for resting players in various situations, including resting multiple players for an irregular reason, and healthy players resting in games televised on ESPN, ABC or TNT.
When teams do decide to rest players, they will be encouraged to do so during home games rather than away games, says Wojnarowski. Star players sitting out games will be expected to “be on the bench during games and encouraged to be accessible to fans for interaction before the game.”
The 2017-18 schedule is free of back-to-back games around the dates of nationally televised games.
Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey hilariously tweeted out the following to his protegé Sam Hinkie, who started “The Process” in Philadelphia:
@samhinkie tanking is solved
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) September 28, 2017
