Two teams near the bottom of the NBA’s standings, the Wizards and Jazz, raised eyebrows this week by making blockbuster deals for veterans stars Anthony Davis and Jaren Jackson Jr., respectively.
According to Tim Bontemps of ESPN, Washington’s and Utah’s willingness to push their rebuilds forward by sacrificing 2026 cap room and attempting to contend next season reflects not just the lack of top-level free agents expected to be available this summer but a league-wide lack of enthusiasm about the 2027 draft class.
While the 2026 draft is viewed as especially strong, the same can’t be said for ’27 or ’28 — sources tell Bontemps that neither year rates nearly as high as the ’26 class. In other words, after this year, there will be less incentive for teams like the Wizards and the Jazz to remain deep in lottery territory, pursuing high draft picks.
Still, the key caveat there is “after this year.” As Sam Vecenie of The Athletic writes, the NBA’s race to the bottom might get ugly in the next couple months, with the Wizards and Jazz still extremely motivated to hang onto their top-eight protected 2026 first-rounders while other sub-.500 clubs like the Kings, Pacers, Nets, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Bucks, and Bulls also have incentive to lose as much as possible.
The NBA is reportedly considering rule changes to discourage tanking and already has the ability to penalize teams for resting certain healthy players and/or mischaracterizing injuries. But teams will likely be willing to push the boundaries of the current rules and risk facing fines if it helps them secure a top 2026 pick, Vecenie writes.
“The value of confirming a top-five pick or improving your chances at a top-two pick in this draft class is very large,” one executive told The Athletic. “Is it worth $5 million if you keep getting fined by the PPP (player participation policy) and the price tag rises? Is it worth $10 million if you’re successful? We haven’t done modeling on that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a team has and comes to the conclusion that getting access to one of the top players in this draft is worth a certain amount in fines.”
Here are a few more notes related to this year’s trade deadline and what’s to follow:
- In another story for ESPN.com, Bontemps spoke to scouts and executives about their impressions of the trade deadline, which included lottery teams emerging as buyers and many of the top contenders standing pat or making minimal roster adjustments. “These aprons are tough to build around,” one Western Conference scout told ESPN. “It means teams are going to have to negotiate harder moving forward.”
- Bontemps adds that people around the league are debating whether the Pacers will tank the rest of the way in the hopes of keeping their top-four protected 2026 first-round pick or go all-out in an effort to move up the standings in the hopes of pushing the pick to its other protected range (10-30). “If it was me, I would tank and get the best possible odds at the high pick,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “But if they choose to get to 10, I think they could.” The Clippers pushed for that 10-30 protection, according to Tony East of Circle City Spin, since they’d rather take their chances on an unprotected 2031 first-rounder if it doesn’t land between No. 5 and No. 9.
- The trades that didn’t get done at this season’s deadline could set the stage for a “wild” summer, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said during a TV appearance on Thursday. “There’s a lot of unfinished business that didn’t get done,” Windhorst said, per RealGM, pointing to the Heat, Timberwolves, Knicks, and Cavaliers as some candidates to shake up their rosters if their postseason runs don’t go as planned. “… You will see a revisiting of the Giannis (Antetokounmpo) situation in the summer. “We know that the Clippers are now in the middle of a controlled tear-down. I don’t want to use the word ‘rebuild.’ What about Kawhi Leonard? And then you look at Domantas Sabonis — he was being floated and they couldn’t do a deal for him. None of that mentions Ja Morant.”
- This year’s “weird” trade deadline was characterized by “too-late” trades, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic. As Hollinger explains, players like Davis, Trae Young, Jonathan Kuminga, and a handful of Bulls would’ve been warranted stronger packages if they had been moved earlier, but those teams instead settled for modest returns.
****FINAL RESULTS OF THE TRADE DEADLINE PICKING POOL****
The final hours leading up to the deadline were notably anticlimactic, and as a result, a major logjam prevented a single winner……..
T1. – jam fig, luvhoops, myaccount2, washington_bonercats…….16 of 20
5. – pogo…………….14 of 20
T6. – Black Ace57, Diabetic Rockstar……………..13 of 20
8. – SportsBum……12 of 20
T9. -Abs Samanta, JBS, *KingJames…….….11 of 20
NOTES:
myaccount2 was the only one to foresee AD getting traded…..
myaccount2 was ALSO just one of three who predicted Ja would remain a Grizzly (KingJames, luvhoops)….
Perhaps those two distinctions should mean myaccount2 wins the tiebreaker and the competition as a whole??……There were no instances where all 11 participants correctly predicted the same player getting traded; on the contrary, there were TWO instances of the panel unanimously (and correctly) anticipating a no-trade (Jimmy Butler III, LeBron James)…..JJJ was a unanimous NO – albeit only three participants got their picks in prior to the stunning announcement of him being Utah-bound)……Tale of finishing strong: Diabetic Rockstar and jam fig nailed each of their final eight predictions: Reaves, Sabonis, Klay Thompson, KAT, White (the only one traded), Wiggins, Williamson, and Draymond Green…..The majority thought Michael Porter Jr. would get moved – only Black Ace57, Abs Samanta, and washington_bonercats thought otherwise.
Giannis (8 of 11 were right)
*Bridges, CHA (10 of 11)
*Butler (all 11)
AD (1 of 11)
DeRozan (5 of 11)
Grant (8 of 11)
Harden (4 of 5; OFF BOARD midway through recruitment)
*Herro (9 of 11)
JJJ (0; OFF BOARD after only 3 participants locked in)
*LBJ (all 11)
Kuminga (7 of 11)
Morant (3 of 11)
*Murphy III (9 of 11)
Porter Jr (3 of 11)
*Reaves (10 of 11)
Sabonis (6 of 11)
Klay Thompson (7 of 11)
*KAT (9 of 11)
White (7 of 8; late inclusion)
Andrew Wiggins (7 of 11)
*Williamson (9 of 11)
Draymond Green (4 of 6; late inclusion)
This was pretty cool. Thx for handling
Don’t really think tanking can be stopped unless they alter the pick protections more. Look at the Jazz Favors trade with OKC, the pick was protected for so long and if Jazz keep it this year then OKC gets nothing. Jazz had no reason to ever win because they lose pick. Just tank until the restrictions are lifted. Either always have the pick convey or make it so unprotected and swaps are the only trades.
Relegation to the D League. It works wonders in European football.
Alot is on the line for pacers…
Big gamble potentially giving away the #5 overall pick in a strong draft class…
If they pick 1-4 tho, then thats an additional elite young player who can pair up with hali for a few years…
If they want to stop tanking they should just reverse the draft lottery odds. Instead of the worst team having the best lottery odds, maybe the best non playoff team should have the best odds, all the way down to the last overall team having the worst odds. That would reward teams for trying to be competitive and will help mediocre, middle of the pack teams get better faster, as well as remove all incentive for teams to be intentionally bad.
How will this affect the play in tournament? You could see teams throwing those games to get the best odds instead of going into the playoffs.
I guess it’s still much better than seeing teams tank over a period of 82 games. Also most teams should prefer the chances of a playoff run over 17% chance at first. The two playoff home games you guarantee yourself is a lot of revenue, and you get your team some playoff experience.
Or they could give all the non playoff teams equal odds of winning the first overall pick.
That makes the most sense to me, along with reducing the number of teams to 10. Leave out the play-in teams. 10 teams, 10% chance each.
During a TV interview today ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who doubles as chief reporter for the DEPARTMENT OF REDUNDANCY DEPARTMENT stated: “There’s a lot of unfinished business that didn’t get done …” I can’t help but wonder what my sister she would think about this phrasing.
Is it any wonder we sports fans are often regarding as knuckle-dragging dopes?
As Yogi Berra said: You can observe a lot just by watching
NOW we’re talking, and on Babe Ruth’s birthday. Ah, epiphany! But this mangling is NOT Berra-like.
Rick Carlisle does not tank, and the Pacers want to contend next year – not develop a rookie. Pacers are 10 1/2 games behind the 10th place and 12 behind 11th. with 31 games left, if Indiana wins 18 of those games that should be enough. I think they will surpass Atlanta in the standings for the 10th seed. Losing mathurin should help their chemistry. Time for them hard and McConnell to play with some pep in their step.
UTH and WSH have been embarrasing the sport for years. Nothing to do with the supposed exceptional talent in the 2026 draft.
Regardless of Silver’s babble, tanking has very little to do with the protections on FRPs. Keeping a FRP vs losing it based on where it falls matters, of course (particularly if it’s fill or kill). But the real goal in trying to lose games for years is about getting a pick at the very top of the draft, the ones awarded by the ping pong balls. 95% of tanking teams over the past decade have held their FRP outright.
Too late trades. The story of the Chicago Bulls under AK and Eversley. But by all means keep them and extend Donovan. As much as it doesn’t work the more that Reinsdorf likes it.