In an interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews on “NBA Today,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that he believes the changes the league has made to its system in recent seasons, from flattening the lottery odds to adding the play-in tournament, have greatly reduced the incentives for teams to tank for high-profile prospects, including French phenom Victor Wembanyama.
“You’re dealing with a 14% chance of getting the first pick,” Silver said. “I recognize at the end of the day analytics are what they are and it’s not about superstition. A 14% chance is better than a 1% chance or a no percent chance. But even in terms of straightforward odds, it doesn’t benefit a team to be the absolute worst team in the league, and even if you’re one of the poor-performing teams, you’re still dealing with a 14% chance [of winning the lottery.
“It’s one of these things where there’s no perfect solution, but we still think a draft is the right way to rebuild your league over time. We still think it makes sense among partner teams, where a decision was made where the worst-performing teams are able to restock with the prospects of the best players coming in. So we haven’t come up with a better system.”
Last week, Silver spoke to employees of the Phoenix Suns in the wake of the findings of the investigation into the conduct over the past two decades of team owner Robert Sarver and his eventual decision to sell his stakes in both the Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. ESPN’s Baxter Holmes reported, as part of that conversation, that Silver said the idea of relegation has been previously discussed by the NBA as one possible solution to give teams an incentive to compete.
But as part of his interview Monday afternoon, Silver said there is no realistic way for that system to be put in place in the NBA.
“I can’t say I was deadly serious about relegation, because we don’t have the same system as European soccer and it would make no sense to send an NBA team to the G League or a G League team to the NBA,” Silver said.