Adam Silvers claims NBA greatly reduced incentives for tanking / News - Basketnews.com

Adam Silver claims that recent changes to the NBA rules reduced incentives for tanking and that tanking remains the best possible solution for teams to rebuild.

Credit: AP – Scanpix Credit AP – Scanpix

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver believes the changes in recent seasons greatly reduced the motive for the teams to tank.

"You're dealing with a 14% chance of getting the first pick," Silver told ESPN's Malika Andrews. "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]," Silver added.

Silver admitted that the current system has its flaws, but he remains certain that this is the way to go.

"It's one of these things where there's no perfect solution, but we still think a draft is a right way to rebuild your league over time," Silver claimed. "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 ESPN reported that Silver shared the idea of trying to implement a relegation system in the NBA as one possible solution to give teams an incentive to compete.

However, in an interview with Andrews, Silver clarified his stance.

"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.

"But obviously, that is how other leagues deal with situations like this, where they force teams to stay competitive because the consequences of finishing at the bottom of the league are dramatically detrimental to the health of the team.

But it's something as I was saying to the folks in Phoenix that we keep our eye on. We understand we are selling competition to our fans," Silver added.

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