NBA新乐透抽签制度下，摆烂球队球星为何仍深陷输球挫败感

Before the 2026-27 NBA season, commissioner Adam Silver pushed hard for a new draft lottery system to try to prevent the widespread tanking of the previous campaign. Under the new system, teams that finish with the three worst records in the NBA have a worse chance at landing the No. 1 pick than the teams finishing between fourth and 10th from the bottom.

Many of the NBA’s top executives lauded the new system, saying they expected a smaller gap between the best and worst teams.

“I think it’ll be the most competitive league we’ve seen, maybe ever,” Minnesota Timberwolves team president Tim Connelly said before the season. “From top to bottom, there’s no one who is incentivized to lose, which is great for the NBA.”

“It feels like you’re playing meaningful games every single night now,” Cleveland Cavaliers team president Koby Altman said. “The league has changed around the draft rules, the 3-2-1 model. So, tanking is not a thing, or shouldn’t be a thing, if there’s no incentive to lose games anymore.”

Yet midway through this season’s fourth week, with most teams having played about 12 games, four have only one win (Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings), while two other teams have three or fewer victories (Los Angeles Clippers, Brooklyn Nets).

Organizations are suffering regardless, and several of their key players have recently shown their frustration.

Tyler Herro made two Eastern Conference finals appearances with the Miami Heat, played in the 2020 NBA Finals in the bubble and was an injured member of the 2023 team that made the finals as a No. 8 seed. This summer, he was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason as part of the package for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

He admitted he’s having trouble adjusting to his new team’s reality.

“This is the most I’ve ever lost in my life,” Herro told reporters Wednesday after Milwaukee’s eighth straight loss, a 123-112 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers. “We can’t just be smiling and thinking this is OK. Like, the goal here is to win. That’s why we get paid, to win games.”

He wasn’t alone in expressing his frustration Wednesday.

While the New Orleans Pelicans sit just outside the bottom group with a 4-8 record, a 145-111 blowout loss to the Nets on Wednesday greatly irritated Zion Williamson, the Pelicans’ All-Star forward. In his postgame news conference, Williamson lamented his team’s defensive effort and said the situation was “unacceptable.”

“As men, we have to, as a unit, players, coaches, everybody, you have to go look yourself in the mirror when you’re by yourself and say, did I do everything that I needed to do for my team?” Williamson said. “Was I in the gaps on defense? Was I a low man when I was supposed to? Did I get out there and contest shots to make it tough on them? Did I do everything I needed to do? Did I give in real effort?

“I said nobody likes to lose like this, but if we don’t like to lose like this, we have to start with ourselves first,” the 26-year-old added.

Herro and Williamson’s comments mirror those from Kings star rookie Darius Acuff Jr. after Sacramento’s 107-100 loss to the Orlando Magic Tuesday, which dropped the team to 1-10.

Acuff’s play has been historic — his 288 total points are the most any rookie has scored through the first 11 games of their career since Michael Jordan scored 289 for the Chicago Bulls in 1984. Still, he admitted the losses have begun to weigh on him.

“I don’t know what to do,” Acuff said to reporters after the game. “I feel like we’re trying — everybody as a whole. We’re just not coming out with the win. One and 10 just don’t sound right.”

He also added that: “I’m not a loser, so it’s not fun.”

Frustrations are riding high in Sacramento. Darius Acuff Jr. post game was very different. Some pretty raw vibes after a 1-10 start: pic.twitter.com/gxyQcM1LWx

— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) November 11, 2026

Acuff’s words are similar to Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson earlier this season, when he said he’s “not ever gonna accept being a loser.” Unfortunately for Wilson, the Bulls have lost four straight games since then.

The Kings’ next two games are unlikely to offer a reprieve, with two playoff teams, the Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder, coming to Sacramento before the Kings go on the road to Phoenix next Wednesday. The Bucks have playoff teams in their next two games, facing the Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks. Chicago plays three consecutive playoff teams. New Orleans has a comparatively lighter schedule in its next few games before facing the Detroit Pistons, Thunder and San Antonio Spurs over five days from Nov. 18-21.

Injuries have played a factor for some teams. Utah has missed Jaren Jackson Jr. due to a torn MCL and will now try to dig its way out of the league basement without All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen, who will be sidelined at least a month because of two non-displaced fractures in his right hand. The Clippers are without former All-Stars in Brandon Ingram (partially torn Achilles tendon) and Bradley Beal (right knee inflammation).

Under the old system, fans would stomach current losing with the promise of better odds at a better pick in the future. If the NBA season ended today, however, the aforementioned Kings and Bulls would each have just a 5.4 percent chance at the top pick. The Jazz are sending their pick to Memphis via the Jaren Jackson Jr. trade (it cannot be a top-5 selection because of the new rule that prevents teams from receiving three top-5 picks in a row), while Milwaukee must hand the Pelicans the higher of the two teams’ picks thanks to the 2021 Jrue Holiday trade.

Meanwhile, the teams ahead of them in the standings, like the Clippers, Nets, Phoenix Suns (4-6), Washington Wizards (4-8) and Indiana Pacers (4-8), would all have a greater (8.1 percent) chance at the No. 1 pick.

Silver hoped the new system would force teams at the bottom to compete, since it no longer pays as much to lose. Instead, bad teams have fallen way off the pace, and their stars are growing exasperated.