The NBA is about to take its most aggressive swing yet at the tanking problem. According to Sam Amick at The Athletic, a frontrunner has emerged among draft reform options: expanding the lottery to 18 teams while giving the bottom 10 teams an equal 8 percent chance at the No. 1 pick.

Let that marinate for a second. Equal odds for the bottom 10 teams. No reward for being the absolute worst. No advantage for going 15-67 versus 25-57. Just 8 percent odds for everyone in the basement.

Now folks, you all know how I feel about tanking. I hate it. I've railed against it for years. Teams that deliberately lose games to improve draft position are a cancer on competitive sports. So on the surface, I should love this proposal, right?

Well... I'm torn.

Here's what I like: It eliminates the incentive to be historically bad. No more Sixers-style "Process" where you intentionally field a G-League roster for three years. No more games in March where both teams are actively trying to lose. That's good for the sport. That's good for fans who pay money to watch professional basketball, not tanking theater.

But here's my concern: Does this actually stop tanking, or does it just spread it around? Because now instead of three or four teams bottoming out, you might have ten teams all hovering around 20-30 wins, figuring they've got the same lottery odds whether they win 20 or 28 games. You've just expanded the tanking pool.

And what about the truly awful teams? The ones that aren't tanking but just genuinely stink? Don't they deserve the best shot at a franchise-changing player? Isn't that how you build parity in the league?

The NBA is walking a tightrope here. They want to discourage tanking without punishing legitimately bad teams. They want to create competitive balance without rewarding mediocrity. That's not an easy balance to strike.

Teams are meeting Tuesday to continue discussions, and you better believe front offices are running the numbers. Figuring out the new optimal strategy. Because make no mistake - smart teams will find a way to game this system, just like they gamed the old one.

My prediction? This passes. The optics of fighting tanking are too good for the league to pass up. But three years from now, we'll be having a different conversation about the unintended consequences. About how the middle of the lottery became the new wasteland. About how teams still aren't trying to win in March.