The NBA is proposing a new '3-2-1' lottery system to combat tanking by flattening draft odds. This plan would penalize the worst teams and is set for a potential vote on May 28, 2024.
Key points
NBA proposes a '3-2-1' lottery system to combat tanking
Draft lottery expanded from 14 to 16 teams
Teams with worst records will have reduced chances for top picks
Proposal includes safeguards against consecutive lottery wins
Vote on the proposal scheduled for May 28, 2024
NBASan Antonio Spurs
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🚨 HEADLINES
⚾️ **Phils make a change:** The Phillies fired manager Rob Thomson after a 9-19 start, tied with the Mets for the worst in baseball. Bench coach Don Mattingly will take over as interim manager alongside his son, Preston, who is the team's GM. Former Red Sox skipper Alex Cora was reportedly offered the position but declined.
🏈 **Steelers tag Rodgers:** Aaron Rodgers still hasn't decided whether he's playing in the NFL this fall, but if he does it will likely be with Pittsburgh after the Steelers placed the right-of-first-refusal tender on him, a rare tag that allows them to match any offer he receives this offseason.
🏀 **Jones pleads guilty:** Damon Jones became the first defendant to plead guilty after the FBI's gambling probe that led to more than 30 arrests. The former NBA player and assistant coach admitted to selling insider information to sports bettors and participating in a poker scheme backed by the Mafia.
⚽️ **PSG 5, Bayern 4:** PSG and Bayern Munich's highly-anticipated Champions League semifinal clash did not disappoint, as the reigning champs outlasted the German giants in a nine-goal slugfest ahead of next week's second leg in Munich.
🏀 **Exec of the Year:** Celtics president Brad Stevens has been named the NBA's Executive of the Year after Boston earned the No. 2 seed despite missing for most of the season. Stevens also won the award in 2024, making him the 12th executive with multiple wins.
*See what else is trending on .*
Q&A
What is the NBA's new '3-2-1' lottery proposal?
The '3-2-1' lottery proposal aims to expand the draft lottery to 16 teams and adjust the odds to discourage tanking by giving fewer chances to the teams with the worst records.
How will the new lottery odds affect teams with the worst records?
Under the new system, teams with the three worst records will have a 5.4% chance at the top pick, significantly lower than the current maximum of 14%.
When will the new lottery system take effect if approved?
If approved, the new lottery system is set to take effect starting with the 2027 NBA Draft.
What safeguards are included in the NBA's lottery proposal?
The proposal includes safeguards such as preventing teams from winning the lottery in back-to-back seasons and limiting top-five picks to not more than three consecutive seasons.
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After the most tanking-filled season in NBA history, the league seems to have settled on a plan to fight the scourge of racing to the bottom of the standings.
**The "3-2-1" lottery:** The crux of the proposal is to expand the draft lottery from 14 to 16 teams and give each team either one, two or three ping-pong balls, significantly flattening the odds of landing the No. 1 pick and penalizing the teams with the worst records.
**8.1% chance at the top pick:** The teams with the 4th through 10th worst records (those who missed the play-in) would each get three ping-pong balls, giving them an 8.1% chance of winning the lottery. That's down from a maximum of 14% in the current system.
**5.4% chance:** The teams with the three worst records, as well as all four teams who play in the 9 vs. 10 play-in games, would get two ping-pong balls for a 5.4% chance.
**2.7% chance:** The two losing teams in each 7 vs. 8 play-in game would get just one ping-pong ball for a 2.7% chance. The winners of the 7-8 play-in would not be in the lottery.
**The relegation zone:** Reiterating the middle bullet above, this system implements what the league is calling "draft relegation," wherein the bottom three teams *do not have the best odds of landing the top pick.*
That should incentivize non-playoff teams to stay competitive late in the season, and would make the NBA the first of North America's "Big Four" leagues to officially penalize its worst teams in the standings.
Other safeguards in the proposal include forbidding teams from winning the lottery in back-to-back seasons or winning a top-five pick in three consecutive seasons.
**Of note:** That latter provision would have impacted a number of current playoff rosters, most notably in San Antonio where the Spurs would not have been able to draft all three of Victor Wembanyama (No. 1 in 2023), Stephon Castle (No. 4 in 2024) and Dylan Harper (No. 2 in 2025).
**Looking ahead:** This framework reportedly has support from a majority of teams, though minor modifications could be made before an owners vote on May 28. If approved, it would take effect starting with the 2027 NBA Draft.
🏀🏒 POSTSEASON ROUNDUP
(Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
(Ronald Cortes/Getty Images)
**San Antonio, Texas —** The Spurs dominated early and held on late for a 114-95 series-clinching victory over the Trail Blazers, sending San Antonio to the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
*What's next: Awaiting the Spurs in the conference semifinals are either the Timberwolves (up 3-2) or Nuggets, two teams who held rare winning records over San Antonio this season. Denver went 3-1 against them; Minnesota went 2-1.*
(Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
(Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images)
**Boston, Massachusetts —** Joel Embiid (33 pts), Tyrese Maxey (25-10-5) and the 76ers kept their season alive with a 113-97 comeback win over the Celtics to send the series back to Philadelphia down 3-2.
*Meanwhile, in New York: The Knicks bludgeoned the Hawks, 126-97, to take a 3-2 lead behind 39 points from Jalen Brunson and double-doubles from Karl-Anthony Towns (16-14) and OG Anunoby (17-10).*
(Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)
(Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)
**Buffalo, New York —** The Bruins staved off elimination against the Sabres with a 2-1 victory on David Pastrňák's gorgeous overtime game-winner, sending the series back to Boston for Game 6.
*More NHL playoffs: The Oilers beat the Ducks, 4-1, in Edmonton to force Game 6; The Wild beat the Stars, 4-2, in Dallas and will now have a chance to clinch at home.*
⚾️ MLB POWER RANKINGS
(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports)
(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports)
With May just around the corner, a few teams have separated themselves as clear contenders atop our latest power rankings, while others have plummeted into shocking pits of struggle that won’t be easy to dig themselves out from.
**Top 5:** Here’s the cream of the crop, courtesy of Yahoo Sports’ Jordan Shusterman.
**Dodgers (20-10):** Los Angeles leads the majors in most offensive statistics thanks to Shohei Ohtani and Co. The starting rotation also ranks among the league's best thanks to, well, Shohei Ohtani and Co.
**Braves (21-9):** Drake Baldwin is one of the best catchers in baseball, Ozzie Albies is enjoying a bounce-back season, Michael Harris II is on fire and Matt Olson looks like the elite 2023 version of himself. Once Ronald Acuña Jr. heats up, watch out.
**Yankees (20-10):** As with the Dodgers, there's dominance on all sides of the ball in the Bronx. Aaron Judge and Ben Rice are pacing the offense, while Max Fried and budding ace Cam Schlittler lead a dynamite rotation that will only get stronger once Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón return in the next month or so.
**Padres (19-10):** San Diego's pitching has powered its hot start. While all-world closer Mason Miller gets most of the attention, it's been a full team effort as the staff ranks near the top in several key metrics including whiff rate, chase rate and more.
**Cubs (18-12):** Chicago's defense not only leads the majors in most metrics, but also routinely passes the eye test with Pete Crow-Armstrong dazzling in center, Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson manning the middle, Alex Bregman locking down the hot corner and Ian Happ pushing for his fifth consecutive Gold Glove in left field.
**6-10:** Reds (19-10), Pirates (16-14), Rays (18-11), Tigers (15-15), Diamondbacks (15-13)
(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports)
(Bruno Rouby/Yahoo Sports)
**Dive in:** Full rankings
🐎 HOW ALGORITHMS CHANGED HORSE BETTING
For the casual bettor, wagers are placed at a track window. But behind the scenes, large bets are being made electronically. (Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
For the casual bettor, wagers are placed at a track window. But behind the scenes, large bets are being made electronically. (Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Ahead of Saturday's Kentucky Derby, we dive into the world of horse betting syndicates, where algorithms are changing the game — and maybe ruining it.
**Dan Wolken, Yahoo Sports:**
*The sixth race at Del Mar on a random Saturday last July should not have been memorable in any way. Running for an $81,000 purse, a 4-year-old Thoroughbred named Nanci Griffith won the one-mile race and paid $14.80 to win on a $2 bet.*
*But for many of those who backed the winner, the payout was a massive disappointment. As the gate opened, the tote board showed Nanci Griffith's odds at 18-1. When she crossed the wire, however, the odds had changed to 6-1, meaning those who held winning tickets collected less than half of what they might have expected at post time.*
*Unlike sports wagering, where a bettor is playing against a bookmaker and locks in their odds at the time of the bet, American horse racing has long been based on a parimutuel system where the bettors are wagering against each other.*
*Once all the money goes into a pool, the racetrack takes a fixed percentage off the top and what's left is divided up among the winning bets. As a result, the odds shown to the public on TV or computer screens are constantly shifting based on what percentage of total money is being bet on each horse.*
*Gambling decisions at the racetrack, however, are often based on perceived value. Someone may be willing to bet on a horse at 7-1 but might think differently if the odds were 2-1.*
*While odds changes are part of the game, someone who makes a bet 10 or 15 minutes before a race would typically not expect the final odds to be dramatically different from what they were at the time of the wager.*
*That wasn't the case at Del Mar last July. Such a big drop in the blink of an eye — the result of a massive bet on Nanci Griffith right before the gate opened — was one of the more notable examples of a topic that has roiled horse racing and its most loyal gamblers in recent years.*
*Known in horse racing circles as CAWs — or Computer-Assisted Wagering syndicates — these well-funded groups of professional gamblers have built algorithms to model horse races, track public betting patterns and make large wagers when they identify an inefficiency.*
*Thanks both to technology and the special privileges some racetracks have given them, the CAWs are able to upload tranches of bets directly into the wagering pool at lightning speeds — far faster than any regular player could do it on a phone app or at a racetrack window.*
*The ability to do it at the very last moment — sometimes significantly changing the odds for people who already made their bets — has become both the subject of a class-action federal lawsuit and a source of frustration for some high-profile voices who believe it has created too much inequity between the CAWs and the common fan.*
**Keep reading.**
📺 WATCHLIST: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29
Can Cade Cunningham and the Pistons extend the series? (Brian Sevald/NBAE via Getty Images)
Can Cade Cunningham and the Pistons extend the series? (Brian Sevald/NBAE via Getty Images)
**🏀 NBA Playoffs**
The Magic (up 3-1) look to complete a stunning series victory over the top-seeded Pistons in Detroit *(7pm ET, Prime)*, and the Lakers (up 3-1) look to eliminate the Rockets in Los Angeles *(10pm, ESPN)*. Plus: The Cavaliers (tied 2-2) host the Raptors in a critical Game 5 *(7:30pm, ESPN)*.
**Pistons on the brink:** Detroit is just the third 60-win team in NBA history to go down 3-1 in its opening playoff series. Each of the previous two (2007 Mavericks, 2011 Spurs) won Game 5 but lost the series in six.
**🏒 NHL Playoffs**
The Penguins, who've won two straight since going down 3-0, hit the road against the Flyers *(7:30pm, TNT)* as they try to force a Game 7. Plus: The Lightning (tied 2-2) host the Canadiens *(7pm, ESPN2)* and the Golden Knights (tied 2-2) host the Mammoth *(10pm, TNT).*
**See-saw affair:** The Lightning and Canadiens have alternated one-goal wins all series, with three of the four games requiring overtime. If the trend holds, Montreal will win by a goal tonight (possibly in OT) to take a 3-2 series lead.
**⚽️ Champions League, Semifinal**
Atlético Madrid host Arsenal in the first leg of their semifinal matchup *(3pm, CBS)*, six months after the Gunners thrashed Atlético, 4-0, in the league phase.
**Trying to break through:** No clubs have played more Champions League matches without winning the title than Arsenal (223) and Atlético (190).
**More to watch:**
🎾 **Tennis:** Madrid Open *(7am, Tennis)* … Men's and women's quarterfinal action.
⚽️ **NWSL:** Portland vs. San Diego *(10pm, CBSSN)* … The top two teams in the league square off in Portland.
*Got plans tonight? Gametime is the best place to score last-minute tickets to the events in your city. Get tickets now!*
🏆 PLAYOFFS TRIVIA
Matt Boldy of the Wild celebrates his game-winning goal in Game 4. (Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images)
Matt Boldy of the Wild celebrates his game-winning goal in Game 4. (Ellen Schmidt/Getty Images)
Minneapolis (Timberwolves, Wild) is one of four cities with teams currently alive in both the NBA and NHL playoffs.
**Question:** Can you name the other three?
*Answer at the bottom.*
📸 PHOTO FINISH
Hailey Baptiste demolishes her racket at the Madrid Open. (David Ramos/Getty Images)
Hailey Baptiste demolishes her racket at the Madrid Open. (David Ramos/Getty Images)
***What a photo.***
Hailey Baptiste demolished her racket after losing six match points against Belinda Bencic on Monday at the Madrid Open. The American ultimately won the match and advanced to the quarterfinals, where she knocked off world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka after *saving* six match points.
**Trivia answer:** Denver (Nuggets, Avalanche); Philadelphia (76ers, Flyers); Boston (Celtics, Bruins)
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