Tanking was a hot topic at Adam Silver‘s annual All-Star weekend press conference, with the commissioner vowing that “every possible remedy” is being considered to curtail the practice, writes Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
Silver suggested the solution could involve limiting the number of teams that participate in the lottery each year. It currently includes the 14 teams that miss the playoffs, with the three worst records getting the best chance at the top pick and the odds declining with each spot.
“It’s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it,” Silver said of the lottery.
A strong draft class is providing extra incentive for teams to lose to improve their lottery odds, and Silver agrees that tanking is already worse than it’s been in past seasons. The NBA announced fines against the Jazz and Pacers this week for failing to use star players, but Silver said that’s not how the league wants to police tanking.
“I don’t think that’s the way to manage the system long term,” he said. “… It will lead to very unhealthy relationships between us and our teams.”
The commissioner addressed several other topics during his session with reporters:
- Silver confirmed that expansion will be discussed when the league’s Board of Governors meets next month, but a vote will not take place, Vardon adds. A final decision will be made at some point this year. There will be no consideration of moving a current franchise to either Seattle or Las Vegas, which Silver cited in December as two of the cities the league is eyeing for expansion teams. Silver stated there’s no set number of teams that will be added if the league decides to expand, and that decision will be made after an investigation of the marketplace.
- Silver confirmed that the NBA’s new league in Europe could be ready to begin play by the 2027/28 season, per Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). Progress is being made with banking partners as well as organizations that are viewed as potential league members. He emphasized the popularity of basketball in Europe and stressed that the NBA is prepared for a lengthy commitment. “If you are looking for a short-term return, you should probably look elsewhere,” Silver said. “But we plan to be invested for years to build this base.”
- Silver stated that “no decisions have been made” regarding the Aspiration case involving the Clippers, Smith adds (Twitter link). He noted that the investigation is being conducted by an outside firm and said team officials have been cooperative. The Clippers are hosting All-Star weekend, but Silver said that hasn’t affected the timing of a ruling.
Give it to the kings
all silver cares about is $
its no coincidence doncic went to big time lakers for a draft pick & a 12 pack of beer
then mavs with a 1% chance, get the top overall pick
and 20 of 30 teams have the opportunity, after regular season concludes, to win the championship. thats 2/3 of the whole f’ing league dude. what was wrong with 16? its just more games, more ratings, more $.
and the nba cup sucks. nobody cares. more ratings, more $. thats all he gives a sh*t about
and now he whining and complaining about tanking? stfu and gtfo
It is a business. What should he care about?
The tanking is bad but imo not close to the number one issue. Biggest league problem rn is clearly the style of play, wayy too many threes and homogenous offenses .
The fact that 40-50% of shots taken are 3s is vomit inducing . This just isn’t basketball. The amount of times I’ll see a guy get to a wide open 16 footer but pass it out for an eventual contested 3 makes my head hurt .
Not expecting any change here of course
I couldn’t agree more. I was an avid fan for decades, then the offense became pick and pop 6 times, and give up open layups for 3s. I understand a lot of it is analytics-driven – and to some extent I like analytics – but it’s been unwatchable for me since this shift to shooting 3s 40-50% of the time.
Argh good old analytics hey. Guys growing up think the three ball is the most efficient shot. Still a lay up (dunk) and free throw, don’t care what the analytic guys say.
The balance between offense and defence is way out of whack.
Whose idea was it to have the 3 point contest first?
That is like have the main event go first…
Who’s idea was it to have it so damn early? NBC should have just given it up this year since they only care about the Olympics. Can’t call it Saturday Night when you start it 2PM on the West, I missed everything but catching last round of dunk.
They could have easily started the show 4PM or 5 like TNT use to.
Expansion is the last thing the nba needs. Expansion will just water-down the league even more
Do the draft same as the last. Problem solved.
How can any commissioner talk of expansion when 1/3rd or more of his league’s teams are willing to surrender entire seasons to the cause of hapless losing, just to get a chance at the precious little impact talent that comes into the league each year-?
Silver’s statement indicates he really doesn’t get it, and likely never will. The sport doesn’t need another one of his indirect complex remedies to a very simple and self-inflicted problem. Just stop rewarding losing via the draft. Do it, and tanking ends forever. Continuing to lawyer it will just lead to it surviving (usually in a worse state) through the next cycle. Unfortunately, this tends to be a result that bureaucrats like Silver prefer.
If you eliminate the draft the small market teams could never get good players on rookie deals, period. That would be catastrophic. It would be Globetrotters v Generals.
They should do that the PHWL does, once a team is eliminated from the playoff race, they basically need to continue winning in order to get the #1 pick. So it’s like a “new season” among the non-playoff teams. So if a team gets eliminated early, they have a head start.
Then there would be a huge incentive to get eliminated early, which just moves the problem to a little sooner. Teams would tank in January and February and THEN start trying to win, knowing that if they get eliminated early they still have games against teams trying to be eliminated.
There is no solution. High draft picks are too valuable given how good and cheap rookies are now. Teams will twist themselves to fit any scheme the league comes up with.
Bottom 8 have a play in tourney for #1 pick. You’ll have to roster a competitive team.