Spurs shouldn’t find a single trap game on the schedule under the NBA’s new lottery rules

The NBA's new 3-2-1 lottery is live this season, and the Spurs are ready to deal with the results of the new reality. The Board of Governors approved the new system 29-1 back in May, and the 2027 draft is the first one to run under it.

The new system expands the lottery from 14 teams to 16, with the three worst records falling into what the NBA is calling the relegation zone, dropping their chance at the No. 1 pick to 5.4% instead of the 14% they used to get. Adam Silver can also fine a team up to $10 million or take their draft picks if he believes they're losing on purpose.

That's a draft story for most as franchises figure out how to build powerhouses to compete with San Antonio and OKC's supercharged rosters. For the Silver and Black, it's a schedule story.

Players were never the ones tanking

The league basically admitted that franchises are the ones to blame for tanking. There were no penalties discussed for individual players, only for the organizations.

Fans and players alike should love that. The rarely spoken truth about tanking is that most guys on the court are hardcore competitors and/or have their own contract situations to worry about, so they're always trying. It's the organizations that are sabotaging them with poor roster construction, limitations on minutes, stipulations for rest days, etc.

Look at what the new discipline actually covers. Fines, forfeited picks, changed draft position, changed lottery odds. Every one of those lands on the front office because the executives know what they're doing. Players don't generally ask to be shut down in March. They're instructed to get that knee checked out.

No NBA teams should expect nights off

If the NBA curbs that stuff, contenders will have their hands full more often. Franchises put a better product on the floor more consistently, and now those players have more support. There should be no such thing as a "trap game" anymore.

San Antonio went 62-20 on their way to the Finals last season, and a chunk of any 60-win year is beating teams that had already quit. Those nights are going away. A Tuesday in Memphis and a back-to-back in Charlotte are real games now.

The good news is this roster was built to withstand the variance that comes with playing wildly different teams nightly. Mitch Johnson has the depth to throw varied looks at a league that no longer has any predictable soft spots in it.

The Spurs' ability to make limited offenses look even more limited travels on any night against anybody. Add the youth advantage nobody else in the West has, and an 82-game grind that got harder for everyone else got a little less hard for the Silver and Black.

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