The Best Tanking Solution [OC]

With all of the tanking talk this week, and the league's ideas having a very negative reaction, I've been trying to think of a better solution, and I truly think this is a good one that I haven't seen yet.

The idea:

Before the season, there’s a ranking of all teams (based on a combination of media and front office voting). Teams are then paired based on that ranking:

1 with 2, 3 with 4, 5 with 6, and so on.

At the end of the season, your draft lottery odds are based on your paired team’s record, not your own.

Only non-playoff teams are eligible for the lottery. If your paired team makes the playoffs, you get reassigned to the closest team in the rankings that also missed the playoffs.

Everything else stays the same. Same schedule, same playoffs, same lottery system.

Example:

Say before the season:

• Team A is ranked 29th
• Team B is ranked 30th

They get paired.

At the end of the season:

• Team A goes 20–62
• Team B goes 25–57

Team A’s lottery odds are based on Team B’s record, and Team B’s odds are based on Team A’s record.

So if Team A has zero incentive to lose, it doesn’t help them, because their odds depend on Team B.

Why this works:

You can’t improve your draft position by losing games, so tanking becomes pointless.

Bad teams should still usually get good odds because they’ll be paired with other bad teams based on the preseason rankings. This would possibly even be more accurate because the rankings are a true reflection on team ability and not which team tanks harder (we all know Utah is better than their record).

It also adds something interesting where every team has another team to follow during the season.

You could even make the preseason rankings and pairings a TV segment before opening night.

Curious what people think or if there are flaws I’m not seeing.