After the Utah Jazz received a fine from the NBA recently for perceived 'tanking' efforts, it looks like the league is taking things to the next level and talking about additional penalties and major changes to the way the lottery and draft are handled in the future.
To that end, there were rumored discussions in January 2026 by the NBA Competition Committee on how to curb the tankathons:
Multiple sources with knowledge of Thursday's GM meeting as well as a late January Competition Committee meeting told ESPN that the following concepts have been discussed to curb tanking:
•First-round picks can be protected only top-4 or top-14+
•Lottery odds freeze at the… https://t.