"The concept of the lottery, with its recently flattened odds and the tweaks sure to come after this summer, is that by partially decoupling draft order from win-loss records, the league can discourage tanking. This is always going to be an imperfect solution as long as the two are connected at all: The incentives are too powerful, especially when one player can change the fortunes of a franchise so dramatically."
"If the NBA were to openly rig the lottery, however, different virtues (other than proficiency at destroying one's on-court product) could be rewarded. No longer could the worst teams in the NBA ensure better draft picks by losing a ton, nor would they jump through any of the strange hoops possibly being set up for them next year."
While the NBA likely does not rig its draft lottery, the league should consider doing so openly to combat tanking. The current lottery system attempts to discourage tanking by partially decoupling draft order from win-loss records, but this remains ineffective because the incentives to lose are too powerful when a single player can transform a franchise's trajectory. An openly rigged lottery could reward different virtues beyond on-court incompetence, eliminating the advantage worst teams gain from losing games and removing perverse incentives that drive teams to intentionally perform poorly.
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