NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

Adam Silver threatens severe punishment for tanking NBA teams

Originally posted on Larry Brown Sports | By Grey Papke | Last updated Feb 14, 2026 4:56 PM ET

NBA commissioner Adam Silver suggested Saturday that the league has considered even greater punishment for teams that are determined to be tanking.

Silver was asked Saturday whether the league had considered taking draft picks away from tanking teams. His response indicated that it was at least being considered.

“There is talk of every possible remedy to change this behavior,” Silver told reporters.

Silver’s comments come less than a week after the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers were both fined for tanking. The Jazz were particularly upset about the punishment, but the team has not done a very good job of disguising its intentions in recent games.

The best way to punish teams would be to take away the incentive to tank, and that means docking draft picks. It is a significant punishment, however, for behavior that can be pretty hard to prove. Silver appears to be well aware that levying a fine against billionaire ownership groups is not exactly going to fix the problem.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on if he has considered taking away draft picks from tanking teams: "There is talk of every possible remedy to change this behavior."
— Mark Medina (@MarkG_Medina) February 14, 2026

“It’s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it,” Silver said regarding the NBA Draft Lottery, per The Athletic's Joe Vardon.

“I think part of the problem is that if you step back, the fundamental theory behind the draft is to help your worst-performing teams restock and be able to compete,” Silver said. “The issue is if teams are manipulating their performance in order to get higher draft picks, even in a lottery, then the question becomes, even if teams were rewarded for draft picks purely according to predicted odds of the lottery, are they really the worst performing teams?"

Silver has said in the past that even more radical proposals were at least considered to stop tanking. The league seems serious about trying to fix the issue now, but as is always the case, it will be much easier said than done.

This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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