The search for solutions to rampant tanking around the league was a prominent topic of discussion at the most recent NBA Competition Committee meeting in late January, Marc Stein of the Stein Line reports (Substack link).
Despite league efforts in recent years to discourage tanking, including flattening lottery odds, nearly one-third of the NBA’s 30 teams appear to be incentivized to lose as often as possible for the remainder of the season. That’s due to a top-heavy draft class, with potential franchise-altering talents Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa and Caleb Wilson available for the lottery winners.
The Jazz and the Wizards — both of whom made major trades last week — are especially motivated to finish in the bottom four to ensure that they can’t fall lower than eighth in May’s draft lottery. Both of those teams hold top-eight protected picks and in the last three lotteries, the team with the worst record fell to the No. 5 spot.
It’s noted around the league that the Spurs’ upswing coincides with their franchise landing top four picks in three straight drafts. Other executives noted to Stein that the Sixers’ tanking methods during the second half of last season landed them the No. 3 pick, which turned into VJ Edgecombe.
Commissioner Adam Silver will likely field numerous questions on the topic during his annual All-Star weekend press conference.
Here’s more from Stein:
- The Clippers received major interest in Kawhi Leonard in the final hour before last Thursday’s trade deadline after their decision to trade Ivica Zubac to Indiana became public knowledge. While they ultimately held onto their best player, potential suitors are expected to line up after the season to make offers for Leonard, who will have one year remaining on his contract and is extension eligible.
- While Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported that the Warriors were interested in signing point guard Lonzo Ball, they might pass on him because of health issues, Stein writes. NBA insider Chris Haynes reported over the weekend (Twitter link) that multiple teams are reviewing Ball’s medicals to determine whether to sign the veteran guard.
The NBA should be worried, period. Between every game turning into a three point shooting contest, dubious foul calls being whistled constantly, and a distinct inability for over half the players in the league to play defense, the game is borderline unwatchable half the time.
Anyone who thinks NBA players don’t play defense simply doesn’t watch games.
You must be younger. Defense is completely non existent these days compared to other era’s.
The man’s points are quite valid. Anyone who does try playing D gets hosed by the whistle.
Is there such thing as a travel these days? The favouritism toward offence is way out of hand. Well toward some players anyway.
Yet I keep hearing faster pace, this that and the other. Odd considering points per game right now is pretty on par with the 80’s where the three ball was non existent in comparison.
Personally the NBA is just kinda on the tele as I come and go in the regular season. It is hard to stay engaged in the regular season. Tell you what is easy though. Live betting if your having a punt, it’s pretty easy. I can tell how the games going to be played out quite early at a alarmingly accurate rate.
We’re the same age, I just consume a lot more modern basketball than you do, while you are living in the past thinking bad offense was good defense.
The fact you think I need to sit and watch every second to understand modern basketball is quite the insult from my perspective.
Where did I say you should watch EVERY second? You should start with a SINGLE second.
Hahaha hahahahaha 🤭👍
Defense absolutely still exists, it’s just different and more complex. Teams switch everything, shrink the floor, and prioritize taking away threes and layups instead of hand-checking. The rules favor offense, so raw scoring is up, but defensive schemes are way more complex than they used to be.
Defenses today cover more ground, make more rotations, and communicate more because of spacing.
The pace is faster, the scoring is about the same even with teams taking more threes because teams play actual defense.
People confuse higher scores’ with no defense. That’s just lazy analysis.
Just out of curiosity. I went to BBREF and looked up the numbers. I was questioning you. Yep. You are right. Pace is definitely up.
Are you a Hoops genius, or did you look it up? It kinda reminds me. Eyewitnesses are the least reliable in a criminal trial. Your point of reference matters.
The pace is up and yet scoring is on par with 80s. Good for you.
At chuck…You mean teams in the NBA switch everything now? Wow, total mind blow. Rest of the world been doing that for 30 years. Another bandwagon warrior or laker who thinks he’s watching the best era.
Why has the league seen a dramatic drop off in ratings since the superteam era. Aka Bron to miami and KD to the Warriors? The competitiveness just isn’t the same.
Unless old heads like me pay the bills to watch this crap in the regular season, the kids don’t watch.
You are right. NBA viewership is in such decline that they were able to land their largest media deal ever.
This is a whole lot of confidence for someone recycling Twitter clichés and calling it “analysis.”
First off, congratulations on discovering switching defenses. The rest of us learned that NBA teams don’t “just switch everything”—they switch selectively, based on personnel, coverage rules, and matchup hunting. If you think the league runs one defensive concept, you’re not behind the curve… you’re not even on the track.
“Rest of the world been doing that for 30 years” is another tell. FIBA and NBA spacing, rules, and talent density are not remotely the same. Pretending they are is how people announce they’ve never actually studied either.
Now the ratings argument — the classic refuge of the box-score philosopher. Ratings didn’t dip because “competitiveness died.” They dipped because of cord-cutting, fragmented media, time-shifted viewing, and international audiences watching outside Nielsen windows. But sure, let’s blame LeBron and KD because that’s easier than understanding how media consumption works.
And calling people “bandwagon Warriors or Lakers fans” while parroting the most bandwagon talking points imaginable is peak irony. That take has been copy-pasted since 2017 by people who confuse nostalgia with insight.
I’ve been watching the NBA since before the three-point line mattered, before illegal defense was gone, before zone rules changed, before hand-checking was outlawed which means I’ve watched multiple eras evolve, not just picked one to romanticize because it felt comfortable.
The league isn’t less competitive. It’s more skilled, deeper, and less forgiving, which is why simplistic takes like this struggle to keep up.
And no “old heads paying the bills” isn’t saving the league. The NBA is global now. It moved on. Some people just didn’t move with it.
Next time, try breaking down a possession instead of yelling at the calendar.
Killin it Chuck !
Doesn’t fall on ALL deaf ears …but mostly it will
* The ratings thing is hilarious as a LOT of us have found ways (not hard) to watch any game for free off the grid that wont show up in any rating system
NBA went in favor of offense after the Spurs-Pistons and Spurs-Cavs finals stinker. Low scoring led to low viewership.
The defense is lackluster more now, than it has ever been. Star players get star treatment: hand check fouls, and like another user mentioned, players are traveling at an all time high and the refs almost always look the other way. Now, I’m not opposed to a basketball game full of high octane offense but this new era of defense is bad and going down the drain pretty fast unless the league wakes up and finally takes action on the matter. I’m not saying that players should be out there hacking and getting away with being too aggressive but there should be a better balance between the offense and the defense, just like a championship caliber team, the league should have a good amount of control over the offense and the already mentioned – nonexistent defense.
Why are you here ??
Well said, Lloyd. Part of the problem is that the changing nature of the offensive part of the game has made defense almost impossible. Witness the big guy in the middle who uses his shoulder, once, twice, three times, to bump his defender out of the way. How about the Euro-step? Traveling, as you pointed out, is everywhere, as is palming or “carrying” the ball. Players plough through defenders on their way to the hoop, and any contact is virtually always called against the defender. My favorite is the way a defender jumps up to defend against a shot and the offensive player leans in to be hit by the defender on his way back down. And all those trips to the foul line! How many find the defender at the line? The NBA rewards offense and penalizes defense.
Due to this being an exceptionally strong draft I think tanking will Peter itself out being that the coming years doesn’t seem as strong.
The Jazz and Wizards might get the hammer thrown on them. The Jazz’s way of tanking is by sitting out their main guys for the 4th quarter. The Wizards’ way of tanking is by playing normally because they are so bad and sometimes by sitting their better players for the whole game.
Yeah that Jazz game was pretty bad – up by 17, sit the starters the whole 4th, lose. They didn’t even try to hide it.
Torn here
Q- Do the Thunder deserve that Utah pick for essentially doing the exact same thing many moons ago?
Here in lies the bigger issue ….better late than never , I do see Silver doing something in the positive direction here soon but whats done is done and cant be undone
**My answer to above- No they (Okc) do not, and Silver should be just as ashamed for trying to scapegoat Utah last year as Utah should for what they did in that 4th qrter the other day, they are complicit
Silver has lost control of the situation. Everyone knew tanking was going to become a bigger and bigger problem, yet the league has done very little to sort it out.
As long as teams continue to be rewarded for being bad, many will actively be bad. Unfortunately, the belief that being bad should equal high draft picks the following year, is ingrained into US sports. People need to go back to basics and question whether or not that’s even appropriate anymore. Why should a bad team be rewarded? Look at other sports leagues – football for example. If you’re bad, you get relegated. But in the US, that’s a no no.
Just make the draft completely random every year with no tie to standings.
Tanking is part of rebuilding. That’s how you build your team. NBA should watch is shutting down players to tank. Hornets and Jazz have been tanking forever. They still suck. Silver can always adjust the ping pong balls. If he needs to. Right Nico 😜
Silver complains about a lot of things wrong with nba however he has never come up with any type of solution.
He’s spineless and ineffective. The Aspiration investigation with the Clippers seems like a joke when Silver straight up *invited* Kawhi to the All-Star game.
Was he supposed to NOT select the most deserving player, from the home market?
“Was he supposed to NOT select the most deserving player, from the home market?”
First of all, “most deserving” is debatable. Second, YES. Kawhi is under investigation along with the Clippers for committing a massive violation of the league’s CBA. It’s so easy to not pick him and avoid the bad optics. Straight up inviting a guy who possibly deserves a lengthy suspension when you could pick any number of players for this silly exhibition is insane from a PR perspective. Now, if they give Kawhi a slap on the wrist, this lends credence to the idea that the league never cared about flouting the rules for a minute. Or, if they do levy a heavy suspension, they look dumb for inviting this guy. It’s lose-lose. A smart commissioner doesn’t do this. A spineless buffoon does.
Kawhi has been a Top 5 player in the NBA this season (much less Top 25). Leaving him off looks foolish, investigation or not.
An “investigation” means he hasn’t been proven guilty yet. Lest we forget how things work in this country. If he gets his contract voided and/or suspended AFTER the investigation concludes, that’s his punishment.
39 gms, 33 mins, 39% 3pt, .56% 2pt, 92% FT
28 pts, 4 ast, 6.3 ast …….. I think he’s earned all star this year.
He definitely has started to feel like the worst commish in the US, especially lately. He could just fine teams like he has a right to do iirc, but he won’t stand up to his bosses really (the owners) at the end of the day and just complains to the media and takes minimal steps to actually address the problems imo; He knows where to find the owners of the Wizards and Jazz, but he won’t
It’s because the league is reactive not proactive. The whole line of thinking we need to solve and stop tanking is stupid. Any discussion about this issue needs to start from a completely different perspective:
How are teams supposed to rebuild or go from bad to good outside the major markets? There will always be countless options for teams like the Knicks, Heat, Lakers, etc. But, instead of figuring out how to stop tanking or what lottery odds to change, you should be thinking what system would be best for Trailblazers or Kings or Pelicans to get good. Because the current way it works this is still the best option for them no matter how much you punish them or make it harder. All they are doing is making it so bad small market teams stay bad longer.
The best way for them to be good is hire competent front office personnel. That is the biggest issue facing teams. It is why a glamor market like New York can suck for years. Nothing the NBA can do about that.
That is the issue with that discussion.
Mavs who won 39 gms and made play in *somehow* got #1 pick
Gtfo adam silver and stfu
They had a 1.8% chance. So, not impossible.
Why worry. I mean did anybody actually see the draft process or did a guy just come from out the green room with a envelope and say ‘this is the pick’
Nobody said boo, not a word. The draft order will be exactly what Silver wants it to be if done under the same circumstances as last draft.
Funny thing about these grand conspiracies. They fall a part easily. Got any proof. Why would 29 other teams want Dallas to have the number 1 pick?
Proof? Can you read? You got any proof the other way. I mean the man just walked out from behind the curtain and said this is what happened, trust us. Anybody actually see last drafts process, NO.
Go do some homework on how the lakers got magic back in the day. Who the F said the other 29 teams wanted Dallas to have the number one pick, nobody.
I’m taking bets, $1000 dollar buy in. I have ten envelopes I’ve packed myself. Whoever picks lucky no.1 wins the lot. You want in?
Bridge in Sydney I could sell you too.
How about a beach house in the middle of Australia. I’m sure we could get a deal done.
With the potential for one player adding multiple billions of dollars to the value of a franchise, why wouldn’t the other teams question how Dallas got the first pick. Just look at what Curry has meant to the Warriors. Do you really believe that the owners would just sit back and just watch if they thought something hinky was going on?
What could in high probability be the outcome of crying foul? They all need to toe the line and play the game within the game.
Wizards and jazz whinge and the draft procedure last up is used again. I can guarantee you they won’t be sniffing anywhere near the no.1 pick. That last draft was a joke man.
Why would owners throw away billions of dollars? That makes no sense. Silver isn’t that powerful.
Thats funny ….. you have to win for it to work. Haven’t you learned this is a team sport yet. Luka to Lakers doesn’t guarantee anything. Except him losing weight for photo ops. NBA doesn’t help you win. They just adjust their product for more exposure. That helps every franchise. Look where Clippers are. The Spurs. Now the Thunder. They don’t help the Knicks.
The Kings today are valued at 4.45 billion. In 1990 they were valued at under 20 million.
Yeah ok Al…how’d the Lakers get Magic instead of utah? You just stated on this thread ‘silver will just manipulate the ping pong balls’ WTF are you talking about? How’d the lakers beat Sacramento back in the day, or are we still debating that one? Let me guess, just one rougue ref, a one off. You seen Scott Foster or Tony Brothers officiate?
2010 game 7 wasn’t scripted either. Except for the part where Boston were winning the chip until a 4th qtr free throw discrepancy of 20-2. All while the lakers were shooting a worse field goal percentage on less shots. A worse 3 point percentage with less shots. More turnovers. Less assists, less blocks. Less points in the paint etc. Less steals. Pppfffttt. Actually come to think of it, you’ve set me straight. The NBA has never been manipulated, lols.
They drafted Magic in 1979. The pick was acquired in 1976. And Larry O’Brien was commissioner then. I said they can interfere when they want. Like with Luka and Cooper. Knicks with Patrick. They monitor their business. Like they should. It’s what’s best for everyone. Doesn’t guarantee chips. You don’t seem to understand that contending is as good as winning. Thats all they need for ratings and exposure.
And what do refs have to do with lottery. NBA is not into fixing games. Questionable calls are not fixes. All calls they review it. Or we review it. Lottery is the easiest way to help a franchise and the NBA. Doesn’t guarantee wins. Like drafting Zion and Ja ….. or the OneWay Wonder.
@Giants74: “Why would 29 other teams want Dallas to have the number 1 pick?”
Why would it matter what the other 29 teams want? Luka being on the Lakers is good for league profitability. In exchange for helping out, the Mavs get Flagg. It’s not even a grand conspiracy. It’s a very simple one.
Have you ever heard of a team negotiating exclusively with one team to trade away their perennial MVP candidate, especially when that player *didn’t* request a trade? Because that’s what happened. The Mavs (Nico) weirdly chose the Lakers, didn’t open it up to a bidding war, accepted a below-market value for Luka, then miraculously won the #1 pick in the draft a few months later despite an almost zero percent chance of that happening. You’re never going to get ‘proof’ of something like that but there’s enough circumstanial evidence and unexplainable behavior for conspiracy to make perfect sense.
How would Luka playing in LA help the Pacers or Bucks? He can only play so many games.
If a GM wants a particular player, why would he talk to all the other teams? Sometimes they get fixated on one player and don’t talk to other teams.
You should also remember. Nico worked for Nike in 2013. He completely botched a presentation to a somewhat borderline player. That player was Curry. I think you know what happened. GMs can be quite dumb sometimes.
It doesn’t. It helps the most followed basketball team in the world which in hand helps the NBA. Big markets are big business. More eyes, more rating, bigger TV deals, bigger contracts etc.
Other owners also get to share some of luxury tax from teams spending don’t they? Kinda seems like bribe doesn’t it.
By that measure, they should have sent Luka to Golden State. It is a big market team. The Clippers share LA with the Lakers. The Warriors have a much higher revenue. It is an International tourist destination. Hell, Superbowl Week generated $500 million in revenue. Poor Michael Jordan. His party was took place at the Gold Club. I guess not enough clout.
What? 😭🤣🤦♂️
Just say no to drugs man.
There is a lot of money in the SF Bay Area.
@Giants74
What about the Pels getting the #! pick 5 days after they traded AD to the Lakers?
The odds of that happening twice within a decade are orders of magnitude below 1.8%.
The odds of winning the Powerball lottery are 292 million-to-one. But, 10 people win it a year.
“The odds of winning the Powerball lottery are 292 million-to-one. But, 10 people win it a year.”
BEYOND absurd false equivalence noted.
At nba is ok. CP3 trade to clippers turned into no.1 pick too didn’t it? Ant Davis. Surprisingly Ant was still a Pelican when New Orleans got the no.1 pick in Zion. Shock horror Ant then goes to the Lakers, lmfao.
Hell of a lot of luck and coincidences happening here, no?
And it didn’t take long for the Lakers to get that asterisk rec league title…
With the rules the NBA has, why wouldn’t teams tank? The salary cap forces team to get broken up to early. The GLEAGUE isn’t helpful in developing players. They have to look at colleges to develop players.
You can look at other sports. Except for crappy owners, tanking is not a big issue.
They need to add more rounds to the draft. Get rid of the two way contracts. Have every GLEAGUE player directly assigned to a team. Allow veterans to play in the GLeague. They also need to upgrade the coaching.
With good coaching, players can actually learn their positions and get the minutes playing in that role. Young players can learn from veterans. Not every player will become an All-Star. But, they develop into serviceable rotation players.
That is part of went wrong with Kuminga. The Warriors drafted him at 18. I doubt he had any coaching in the GLeague. He was definitely raw. The Ignite had below standard facilities. Kerr was his first taste of coaching. A year of college probably could have helped him transition to the NBA.
The G-league teams are owned and managed by their NBA team. It’s their responsibility to coach and develop young talent. There are teams that use it right. Heat probably the best. Knicks under Thibs. Mavs have two PGs from G-league. It’s getting there. With all these 18-19 yr olds coming in. You need it more than ever.
Not all of the owners get it. They got dragged kicking and screaming into it. Anjali Ranadive was GM of the Stockton Kings. The Ignite played in a facility that was used for after work pick up games; I can’t imagine they put any effort into the coaching. The GLEAGUE website has broken player pages.
Compare that to MLB. You can look up every player in an organization. What they did in their latest game. A complete thorough standard scouting report. Their ranking in MLB. They have a league that is designed to introduce draftees into professional baseball. Teams have advisors and coaches for every aspect.
March Madness is such a huge event. The GLEAGUE should be a step up from that. But, the NBA seems to treat it like the wayward step daughter.
The MLB minor leagues have been around since beginning. Night n day. Two totally different businesses and sport. NFL works cause college football has as much money as NFL. Football is checkers compared to chess the MLB. Soccer leagues develop from 10 yr olds. Most basketball players today don’t even learn the game till NBA. What can you learn in one year of college. When you are trying to get drafted. NBA needs to invest in their development league. It’s in their best interest. They will catch up. Knicks finally got it under Thibs.
In the NFL, you don’t become draft eligible until you have completed 4 years of college.
So, you agree with what I say. One and done isn’t good. They need to spend more time in college, or a developmental league. The Tampa Bay Rays aren’t even 30 years old. Yet, they have an excellent minor league system. It can be done, if the NBA wants to put in the effort.
Yeah but college football are factories for talent. There is so much money and competition. Better facilities than some pro teams. Great coaches who have to teach to win. They don’t win they are gone. NBA frankly is late to this. And rather have colleges do it. So they don’t spend the money. Like I said they are starting to do it.
Agree with you ?? I been saying it since one and done players came into L. Yeah I guess we agree. Only you never agreed when it was about Wiseman and Kuminga.
No 18-19 yr olds are ready for NBA. A lot has to be right. Especially size and weight. Bron and Cooper are only ones, special talent. Both have size and IQ. And even Cooper you can see is still learning. Look at VJ a great talent. But has bad games. Kon has size and IQ so he is coming along. Yet look at Miller he is still finding his way. Tre Johnson in Wash should be in G-league. Buzelis should of been in G-league first yr. Chet wasn’t ready, it’s why he got hurt. And why they signed IHart. Teams can do harm by rushing talent. Most here don’t get that. In MLB it’s easy to pick up bad habits and lose it. Everyone thinks a lottery pick is going to save the team ??
The league needs to stop rewarding terrible teams and punishing teams that try to be competitive but miss the playoffs. They should reverse the draft lottery odds, giving the worst teams the worst odds, and the best non playoff team gets the best odds.
The problem is that if a team is just truly terrible. When they dont manipulate it at all, and are just such garbage they cant win when they try. If you try to reward teams that are decent but just miss you could end up with something like the EFL where most teams relegated from the premier are the ones just promoted. You have this perpetual bottom that if you end up in it can be impossible to get out of.
I get that it hurts gates, but the league also generates SO much interest/content from the draft, summer league, and then trades. Prospect intrigue is also higher with NIL.
Bottom line is it’s turning into its own cash cow. And if that’s the case, then I think you have to accept some shenanigans in the last 6 weeks of the season.
This year is different. Check out previous years – there were always 1-3 teams at 20 wins or below. There were even years when all 30 teams were above 20 wins.
Currently, there are 6 who are aiming for 20 or fewer wins on the season. But Utah probably won’t be able to get there; they already have too many at 16.
The only to fix this issue entirely is this:
Eliminate this front office incompetence by allowing each team to make 1 player their cornerstone, franchise player, and then completely re-draft every other player, so every team is on paper at least a .500 team. Do this every 5 years. It’s on the untalented front office GMs making terrible decisions that are not based on putting a winning team on the court, and instead about any other factor. Fans should not have to suffer as much as they do at the hands of a couple of untalented morons in the front office.
Make a rule that you cannot be in the top 4 or 6 picks two years in a row… wouldn’t completely fix the problem, but would reduce it. Sitting out players is an issue, fans need to see the stars playing. Reducing amount of games may help that but NBA do not want that.
At least with English soccer, you have more to play for with relegation involved.
They won’t do anything.
Best cure for tanking. Make a rule that the teams that finish with the 4 worst records are not eligible for picks 1-4. The teams that finish with the 5th-14th worst record all have an equal (10%) shot at getting the #1 pick, and a 25% shot to get a top 4 pick.
No draft. Instead, give every team a rookie salary exception, scaled by record. Say, the worst team can sign a rookie for a $15M starting salary, second worst gets a $14.5M slot, etc. Losing teams still get an advantage but they will have to appear competent (ie, not play like crap) to appeal to the best rookies since any team could make a pitch to any player.
Don’t see a problem with tanking, doesn’t bother me at all!
That’s a lie
First, reduce the lottery to 10 teams. The play-in teams don’t need to be in the lottery. Then flatten the odds, so every team has a 10% chance.
If the play-in teams aren’t included in the lottery, you’ll have teams who’d prefer to tank for a spot in the lottery over making it into the play-in.