GM Floats Nuclear Tanking Fix: Make Bottom 3 Teams Ineligible for Top Picks

According to Kevin O'Connor of The Ringer, one anonymous general manager has floated what might be the most extreme anti-tanking proposal in league history: simply make the bottom three teams ineligible for the top picks entirely.

The logic is straightforward — if you can't reward losing, teams won't lose on purpose. But the counterargument writes itself: you'd be punishing genuinely bad teams for being genuinely bad. The Charlotte Hornets didn't tank their way to mediocrity. They're just... bad. Should they be locked out of generational talent because they couldn't figure out how to win?

The proposal has sparked a firestorm across the league. Some executives see it as the only way to kill tanking for good. Others think it would create a perverse incentive to be the fourth-worst team instead of the worst — basically just moving the tank line. Either way, the fact that GMs are openly discussing this tells you how broken they think the current system is.