Charles Barkley's ideas to combat tanking make the most sense of anything we've heard so far

The NBA is about to do what it can to ensure that losing on purpose to secure better draft picks becomes a thing of the past. Referred to as tanking, the issue has gotten out of hand in the eyes of a lot of fans and experts. A lot of people have pitched different ways to solve the problem, but the ideas we've been hearing have been everything from useless (freezing draft odds at the trade deadline) to bad (deciding the draft order via a tournament) to downright sport-killing (eliminating the draft). It feels like every new idea is worse than the last, that is, until someone unexpected seemingly solved the problem. 

The best ideas so far have come from former NBA Hall of Famer and star of Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley. On a recent episode of that show, the man dubbed 'The Round Mound of Rebound' put out the best three-step plan to end tanking; and yes, the best plan has come from Barkley, of all people.  

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Firstly, Barkley points out that if your team falls under .500, then you as a franchise cannot raise ticket prices. A fair idea, as it incentivizes owners to field a competitive roster to keep their revenue as high as possible. 

Secondly, you simplify the draft lottery. The NBA uses a lottery system. Each team has a varying number of actual ping pong balls that represent their odds. In theory, the worse you are, the more balls you have and the more likely you are to win the number one draft pick. Except that rarely happens. So instead, you reduce the number of ping pong balls to just one per team, making the odds the same for every club that didn't make the playoffs, regardless of their final record. So teams that would have tried to tank will now have no reason to field terrible rosters, because their odds for winning the lottery just got decimated. 

Thirdly, no more trading partial picks. In the NBA, you can trade a draft pick, but not really. Teams can put protections in place that guarantee the pick to return to them if it falls inside a certain range. The Utah Jazz, for instance, traded away their 2026 NBA Draft pick. They, however, put a protection on that pick, so if the Jazz pick eighth or sooner in the upcoming 2026 draft, they can keep that pick. But if it falls to ninth or later, they lose it. Getting rid of protections eliminates the Jazz's current mockery of the game. You trade the pick, you lose the pick. That's how every other major American sports league operates. So why not the NBA?

These ideas could work for controlling tanking. Since the NBA is a star-driven league more than any other sport, getting the number one overall pick best sets a team up for future success. So it makes sense that teams would want the next future superstar of the sport. Plus, with free agency, players can choose to play wherever, making it harder than ever to land a major name. So, allowing teams that aren't prime destinations for major free agents the ability to acquire young and talented players is a must for keeping parity in a league that, for so long, didn't have it. 

The draft evens out the playing field, so making sure teams can't exploit it to their benefit at the detriment of others is imperative. These three ideas could very well solve the problem that so many fans are tired of dealing with.

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