The San Antonio Spurs are owed up to four first-round draft picks in the coming seasons from other teams, and as Adam Silver looks to crack down on tanking, the Spurs could emerge as massive winners.
The San Antonio Spurs shamelessly and unabashedly tanked for Victor Wembanyama, trading away starters Derrick White, Dejounte Murray, and Jakob Poeltl in an effort to be as bad as possible. The Spurs didn't invent tanking, but they certainly picked the right time to do it, landing a generational player in their first true attempt.
Teams like the Utah Jazz, Brooklyn Nets, and Washington Wizards have been tanking for years, and none of them have landed a franchise-altering piece. However, until their efforts pay off, they will be stuck at the bottom of the standings.
The result is tough to watch. The tanking teams trot out lineup after lineup of no-names, has-beens, and two-way players, and viewership tanks. Adam Silver and the NBA's league office have made cracking down on tanking priority number one, and if Silver gets his way, the Spurs could be the primary benefactor.
Why Spurs Should Hope for Draft Reform
Silver's two solutions to tanking are simple: put more teams in the lottery, and give more teams a higher chance at top picks.
His rationale? If more teams have a real shot at a top pick, fewer teams will try to finish with the single worst record in the league. Right now, the 14 worst teams are all in the lottery, with the three worst teams all having a 14 percent chance at landing the top pick.
Silver aims to make some changes.
"18 teams would be part of the draft lottery (rather than the current 14), and the bottom 10 teams would all have an 8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick," outlined The Athletic's Sam Amick. "The remaining odds — 20 percent in all — would be divided among the remaining eight teams."
In the coming seasons, the Spurs are owed picks or have swap rights with the Boston Celtics, Minnesota Timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings, and Atlanta Hawks. While the Celtics and Wolves should be able to avoid the lottery for the next decade or more, the Hawks have been mediocre for the better part of ten years, and the Mavericks are still rebuilding.
Even if Dallas or Atlanta narrowly misses out on the playoffs, in the proposed format, the Spurs would have an eight percent chance at the top pick, instead of roughly a three percent chance.
We like those odds!
The Spurs will swap with the Hawks this year, and are owed their pick next year. The Spurs will get the most favorable of the Mavericks' or Wolves' pick in 2030, can swap with the Kings in 2031, and can swap with the Celtics in 2028.
As the Spurs try to contend and win titles, their former trade partners might find themselves near the bottom of the standings. If they do, then the Spurs would benefit from the proposed NBA Draft changes, perhaps more than any other team in the league.