Adam Silver's Comment on Why NBA Lottery Odds Were Changed Makes No Sense

In an attempt to due away with the tanking culture that has been present in the NBA of late, commissioner Adam Silver made a change to the NBA Draft Lottery. The alteration made it so the worst team from the regular season no longer has the best odds of landing the No. 1 overall selection.

Instead, the odds were more evenly distributed among the 14 teams who did not make the playoffs.

Silver claims that the new rule change is an incentive for fans to stop rooting for their team to lose games.

The system worked as planned in 2019 when the New Orleans Pelicans secured the first overall pick and the rights to select Zion Williamson despite the team's 6% odds to do so. Knicks fans across the globe were crushed when their season-long campaign for Zion Williamson was brought to a painful end.

But is this new change actually good for the NBA? The short answer is: Not really.

Although bottom-seeded teams are less incentivized to lose games in this system than the one prior, teams that are just out of the playoff picture now have a better shot of getting a higher-pick.

This is bad because it disrupts the equal distribution of talent across the league. Teams that are good enough to finish ninth or 10th in their respective conference already have strong pieces on their roster, and are in less deprived of top-level talent than teams like the Knicks or the Cavaliers.

Yet, these teams are faced with a decision: Make the playoffs and probably lose in the first round, or sacrifice a spot in the playoffs for a chance at a high-quality prospect.

Some organizations will inevitably choose the latter.

Entering the lottery, Cleveland, New York, and Phoenix all had a 14% chance at the top pick, but yet none of these organizations were even able to get a top-two selection.

The changes made by the league perpetuate losing for the less-talented franchises. Now, more middle-of-the-pack teams will have to strongly consider whether a first-round exit in the playoffs is worth missing out on a chance at snagging a top rookie. In most cases, the answer will be a resounding "no."

While the changes were established to mitigate tanking in the league, they have had somewhat of a reverse effect, as now more teams will consider exchanging a potential eighth seed for a shot at a top-five pick.