The NBA has long sought to eradicate tanking through methods such as flattening the draft lottery odds and penalizing aspiring lottery winners for unnecessarily resting key players.
However, former 17-year NBA veteran Richard Jefferson believes the league should instead implement one major change to incentivize floundering squads to try to win games during the season’s stretch run.
Richard Jefferson Proposes NBA Draft Lottery ‘Points’ System As Tanking Heats Up
The Utah Jazz (17-37) reignited tanking debates this week amid their gutsy decision to rest their two best players, Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr., for the entire fourth quarter of back-to-back winnable games.
Jazz coach Will Hardy’s controversial coaching strategy has drawn the franchise accusations of “point shaving” and “shameless tanking” despite Utah managing to hold on for a 115-111 road win against the Miami Heat on Monday.
Still, many around the NBA World are calling for change, with Jefferson among those proposing tangible pathways forward.
On Tuesday’s edition of the “Road Trippin’ Show,” the 2016 NBA champion urged the league to consider rewarding lottery teams for late-season victories.
“There was a thing in soccer … once you are eliminated from the playoffs, you should actually be given points towards your percentage for the games you win. Does that make sense?” Jefferson began.
“So, if you’re eliminated from the playoffs and there’s 10 games left, if you go 0-for-10, you should have a lower percentage of getting a higher pick. If you go 6-4 in your last 10 [games], that means you are trying to win; the wins give you a closer percentage to a higher pick.
“So, those six wins, instead of you having a 30% chance, right? If you go 0-for-10, if you can win six of your last 10 [games] after you’ve been eliminated, you actually have a 35% chance. So, they reward you for pushing all the way to the end.”
Richard Jefferson proposes an idea to solve the NBA’s tanking problem. pic.twitter.com/WmcJq9ScIL
— StatHunter (@stat_hunter) February 11, 2026
Jefferson’s bold solution comes as eight of the NBA’s 30 teams are already 10 or more games below .500 with little to play for as the All-Star break approaches. This includes the league-worst Sacramento Kings (12-43), who are in the midst of a dreadful 13-game losing streak and routinely sitting out their top players.
Giving bottom-feeders like Utah and Sacramento motivation to compete for a better chance at landing a franchise-altering draft prospect like AJ Dybantsa, Cameron Boozer, or Darryn Peterson could drastically improve the NBA’s nightly on-court product.
However, such a proposal could receive pushback from organizations that are more than content to throw games and take the easy route toward favorable lottery odds.
