Flattening the odds in the NBA's draft lottery, a change passed today by an overwhelming 28-1-1 vote of team owners, will not end tanking and may not reduce it much. The league knows that; they repeatedly characterized the proposal as "an incremental step" toward more potential tweaks, sources say. They are concerned about egregious tanking from teams that are already awful -- the sort of tanking that generates think pieces and angry tweets.
The reform seeks to accomplish that by cutting the odds that the worst teams win the best picks. Under the current system, the worst team has a 25 percent chance of nabbing the top pick.