The Washington Wizards picked the perfect time for their historic bad luck in the NBA Draft Lottery to end, landing them the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
Not only did the Wizards land the rights to select their future cornerstone to cap off their rebuild and push forward to return to relevancy in the Eastern Conference, but the team ended a decade-long drought of not owning the top selection after years of tanking in hopes their luck would somehow change.
Nonetheless, Washington no longer has any reason to continue tanking for the top pick, and it's not just because of the surplus of talent on the roster entering next season.
Instead, it's because the NBA has now officially passed the 3-2-1 lottery reform that is expected to officially put an end to tanking and punish the worst teams in the league moving forward.
NBA Draft rule changes gives the Wizards every reason to compete
According to ESPN's NBA Insider Shams Charania, the league has officially passed the new draft rules that will immediately change the competitiveness in the regular season.
Breaking: The NBA's Board of Governors has passed new anti-tanking rules that include expanding the draft lottery from 14 to 16 teams, a relegation zone where the bottom 3 teams get penalized with lessened chances for the No. 1 pick, and flattened odds, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/e1oq10p2yV
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 28, 2026
The bottom three teams that finish with the worst record in the league will no longer be given the highest odds to earn the top pick.
Now, the teams that finish within the bottom three record-wise will be given the lowest chance to land the top pick.
So what does that mean?
In more basic terms, there is now a 71% chance the No. 1 pick falls to a 6th-place to 12th-place team. As a result, it leaves a 29% chance it falls to a bottom 5 team.
All that to say, Washington has absolutely no reason not to compete in the East anymore.
In fact, the new rules incentivize not just the Wizards, but every team who's found themselves tanking over the last few years to compete with the chance that even finishing as a play-in team could land you the top pick.
No matter which side you fall on, whether you're in favor of the rule change or against it, it's clear that the league is going to look much different next season.
NBA is going to be a lot more competitive
The league has long been battling the issue of tanking, and for years, the regular season has been considered a joke due to teams making their desire to lose blatantly clear.
Obviously, tanking was a major reason for the rule changes, but the league's push to drive more competitiveness also stems from the ongoing issue with team's quesionably benching star players and making questionable decisions down the stretch of games.
In the end, the league is only as good as its product, and with the business side taking a turn for the worse, the NBA felt it had to make a change.
It'll be interesting to see how the rule change itself impacts the NBA Draft moving forward, but as for the regular season, expect a lot tougher battles for the Wizards and every other team, given they're now incentivized to compete.
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