The NBA officially has a new draft lottery system.
On Thursday, the league’s owners approved the “3-2-1” system that will begin with the 2027 draft. Owners voted 29–1 in favor of the new approach, ESPN reported, with Grizzlies owner Robert Pera being the lone dissenter. The new approach further flattens the lottery odds in an attempt to curb tanking after commissioner Adam Silver said this season’s actions went too far.
“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory?” Silver said in February. “Yes, is my view.”
The new system expands the lottery from 14 to 16 teams, giving two more franchises the chance to land the No. 1 pick each offseason. It also adds a “relegation zone” that would give the three bottom teams record-wise worse lottery odds than the teams directly above them in the standings.
The “3-2-1 lottery” name stems from the number of lottery balls each group will receive in the new system. Teams that miss the playoffs and play-in tournament (but don’t finish with a bottom-three record) will each receive three lottery balls. The bottom three teams—the “relegation zone”—will get just two lottery balls, but their picks will be no lower than 12th.
