NBA cracks down on tanking as Adam Silver orders league-wide policy review

According to Shams Charania, the league informed all 30 NBA franchises on Friday that it has launched a renewed review of its anti-tanking policies.

Commissioner Adam Silver has made it clear for years that he hates what tanking does to the product, and now the league is once again exploring ways to curb it.

NBA will review league policy changes concerning tanking

The NBA tells its 30 franchises today that the league has undertaken a renewed review of league policy changes concerning "tanking" — such as potential modifications to rules regarding Draft pick protections, revised Draft lottery rules, and other approaches. https://t.co/zCfNAFG3sS

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 19, 2025

This isn’t just talk, either.

The NBA is reportedly looking at potential changes across multiple fronts, including draft pick protections, lottery odds, and other structural tweaks designed to make intentional losing less appealing.

The league is also pushing sportsbooks to rein in certain player prop bets that can create incentives for shady behavior. That includes limiting maximum wagers, restricting “unders,” shrinking the pool of available players, and eliminating hyper-specific bets tied to single plays.

On top of that, the NBA is tightening injury reporting rules. Teams will now be required to resubmit injury reports on game day between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time, then update public reports every 15 minutes.

The league clearly wants fewer gray areas where teams can quietly sit players or manipulate availability under the guise of “maintenance.”

None of this is happening in a vacuum. Tanking has been an issue for years, and the league already tried to address it with lottery reform back in 2017, changes that took effect before the 2019 draft.

Those adjustments flattened the odds at the top, but they didn’t eliminate the incentive to lose. Bad teams still lose on purpose.

Reaction online has been mixed, and understandably so. Some fans worry that cracking down on tanking will trap bad franchises in permanent mediocrity with no clear path to elite talent.

Others are frustrated that the league seems more focused on draft optics and betting optics than on officiating consistency or on-court issues that impact games every night.

The reality is that tanking puts the NBA in a tough spot. Allow it, and you risk fans checking out on half the league by January. Eliminate it entirely, and you risk locking rebuilding teams into years of irrelevance. There’s no clean solution, and Silver knows it.

What is clear is that the league feels pressure, especially with sports betting under a microscope and multiple gambling scandals still fresh in everyone’s mind. Whether these changes actually fix anything or just reshuffle the same problems remains to be seen.

Join The Chase