Adam Silver Pushes 16-Team 3-2-1 Lottery For 2027
adam silver has put a new 16-team draft lottery plan in front of the NBA’s 30 general managers. The “3-2-1 lottery” would begin with the 2027 draft and shift how teams near the bottom of the standings are slotted.
The proposal goes to owners for a vote on May 28. It would expand the lottery from 14 teams to 16, add new limits on repeat lottery success and give the league wider tools to punish tanking.
3-2-1 lottery design
Under the proposal, teams that miss the playoffs and the play-in tournament but stay out of the relegation zone would each get three lottery balls. That group would still be in the drawing, but it would not get the same protection as the very bottom teams.
Teams with a bottom-three record would have two lottery balls and a floor of the No. 12 pick. The rest of the 13 lottery teams could fall as far as the No. 16 pick, while the Nos. 9 and 10 play-in seeds in each conference would receive two lottery balls each and the losers of the 7-8 play-in games would receive one lottery ball each.
Silver and tanking pressure
Silver said in March that fixing tanking was his top priority and that fundamental changes to the league’s draft system would be made to try to prevent it. He also said, “I do think ultimately this is a decision that needs to be made at the ownership level,” putting the decision squarely in the hands of the league’s governors.
The push tightened after a season in which the loaded 2026 draft class sharpened incentives at the bottom of the standings. The league has been meeting with its board of governors, competition committee and general managers over the past few weeks to narrow the proposal, and the latest framework carries majority support from teams.
Lottery limits through 2029
The reform goes beyond the number of teams in the drawing. No team would be able to win the top pick in consecutive years, and no team would be able to win three consecutive top-five picks. Teams also would not be able to protect picks in the 12 to 15 slots going forward.
The system would expire after the 2029 draft under a sunset provision, even though the NBA’s current collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2029-2030 season. That gives the league a short runway to test whether a broader lottery and stricter odds can change the incentives that have driven teams toward the bottom.
