Brooklyn is positioned to potentially land the top pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. But that now comes with new scrutiny across the NBA amid this newest proposal.
A new anti-tanking proposal from the NBA league office could have an impact on the Brooklyn Nets.
ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania reported the new proposal Friday morning, which involves a formal vote come May.
The franchise is currently holding the second-highest odds to land the top overall pick in the June draft. However, the term "tanking" has hovered above the league involving teams reportedly trying to purposely improve their draft positioning.
Already commissioner Adam Silver has fined the Indiana Pacers and Utah jazz before the all-star break for player participation violations, which falls into tanking and purposely losing for the benefit of moving higher in the draft.
Now a new proposal via Silver outlines the following modifications:
-- The 18 teams in draft lottery (seeds 7-15 in both the Western and Eastern conference) have flattened odds, with the bottom 10 teams having an 8% chance to land the top pick. Meanwhile, the remaining 20% odds distributed in decreasing order for 11 through 18 come with a lottery drawing for all 18 picks.
-- This also means that teams exiting out of the play-in postseason round are eligible to land in the lottery category.
-- Lottery teams would reach a minimum win total floor in each season, such as 25 wins. If a team falls short of that floor, it gets slotted to meet the floor.
Charania, though, adds how the above proposal is actually one of three Silver is helping present for a vote.
"In the second proposal, sources told Charania, 22 teams -- the bottom 10 teams that miss the play-in tournament, the eight that qualify for it and the four playoff teams that lose in the first round -- will all be included in the lottery, and will be ranked according to their record across two seasons," the ESPN report read.
There's also a third proposal involving the follow format:
-- The five worst teams in the league still hold a chance to land the top pick. Which is where the Nets come into play here. However, Brooklyn would remain in competition with the Sacramento Kings, Pacers, and other teams that produce one of the league's five-worst records.
League owners are expected to put these proposals into a vote. Which again could impact Brooklyn and its potential positioning in the draft.
Nets fans have clamored to see BYU star AJ Dybantsa in a Brooklyn uniform, or even Kansas star Darryn Peterson. Houston's Kingston Flemings is another linked as a Nets possibility. All three talents are officially eliminated from March Madness and now the league awaits their draft decision...including the Nets.
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