The NBA had a record-setting trade deadline earlier this month and celebrated its biggest stars at All-Star weekend in Los Angeles this past weekend. However, tanking has been perhaps the most popular subject of discussion during the break in the regular season schedule.
A report 10 days ago indicated that the NBA is increasingly concerned about the issue and discussed it extensively at the most recent meeting of the league’s Competition Committee in January. Three days later, the league hit the Jazz with a $500K fine and docked the Pacers $100K for behavior that “prioritizes draft position over winning.” And two days after that, commissioner Adam Silver told reporters at his annual All-Star press conference that the NBA is considering “every possibly remedy” to reduce the practice of tanking.
As Adam Zagoria writes for Forbes, Silver acknowledged that tanking may be worse this season due to the widespread perception that the 2026 draft class is significant stronger than the ’27 and ’28 classes will be. Still, the league doesn’t seem content to sit back and let the issue sort itself out in the coming years.
According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, approximately 10 potential solutions were discussed by league officials during All-Star week. Abolishing the draft entirely wasn’t among those possible rule changes, per Vardon, but Sam Amick of The Athletic says the “draft wheel” concept first proposed more than a decade ago by Celtics executive Mike Zarren has reentered the discussion.
Of course, any significant changes would require the approval of the NBA’s owners and likely the players’ union as well, Vardon notes.
Here’s more on the tanking dialogue that has taken off in recent weeks:
- In a pair of lengthy tweets, Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban offered his thoughts on why it seems like tanking has gotten worse in recent years and makes a case for why the NBA should embrace it – or at least live with it – as a legitimate team-building strategy. By contrast, Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia strongly opposed the idea that tanking is a legitimate strategy, arguing (via Twitter) that it’s “much worse than any prop bet scandal” and that Silver and the NBA should be willing to make “massive changes” to fix the issue.
- ESPN’s Tim Bontemps is in favor of tweaking the lottery system so that after a certain point in the season – perhaps at the trade deadline, the All-Star break, or after a set number of games – wins would essentially count as losses for the sake of determining a club’s lottery record. For instance, if the cutoff were 50 games and a team opened the season by going 22-28, then tanked late in the year and went 4-28 down the stretch, that team’s record for lottery purposes would be 50-32, with those late-season losses added to the win column. The logic, Bontemps explains, would be to penalize – rather than reward – teams that are aggressively trying to lose during the last couple months of the season.
- Sam Quinn of CBS Sports breaks down several of the hypothetical tanking solutions that have been floated by fans and pundits, breaking down the positives and the negatives of each suggestion.
Bill Simmons proposed the Ping Pong Ball of Death, which immediately knocks a lottery team to the 32nd pick. I kinda like it
Agreed 100%. Let the number 1 pick be available to all 30 teams, and then shrink the lottery odds some so that it’s not quite a guarantee that a team with a bottom 3 record will pick between 1-4.
I think that would affect the parity of the league. I’d rather have all lottery teams with all the same lottery odds. Or after the trade deadline impose a lottery tournament where teams in the lottery with the most wins after the trade deadline gets the #1 pick, second most wins after the deadline gets the 2nd pick, 3rd most wins gets the 3rd pick and so on..
Yeah, I’m good with that as well.
U can’t get rid of tanking. It’s part of the game. Teams that stink know the best talent(is almost always at top of the draft). However the nba needs to find ways to teak the rules.
I don’t know why the nba wants to punish teams for trading aging stars and rebuilding
I guess Silver hates what the thunder proved after their rebuild
It’s not about punishing teams for trading aging stars and entering a rebuild. It’s when a team walks in to the 4th Q with a comfortable lead and then intentionally throws the game by pulling their starters out for the full 12 minutes.
“Last week, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000, saying both teams sat healthy players in recent games. The league noted that moves that compromise its integrity won’t be tolerated”
And yet Silver has done everything in his power to compromise the integrity of nba
The only way to end tanking is to stop rewarding teams for losing. Turn the NBA Cup in a 20 game, season long tournament, and use the standings from those 20 games to hand out the picks. Put some sort of language in that limits the amount of top picks any one team can win in successive years for parity sake.
As long as rewards are offered for failing, there will always be someone willing to fail intentionally because giving up is easier than trying.
That defeats the whole purpose of the draft, which is to give fanbases of bad teams something to look forward to. Might as well just eliminate it.
Also, your definition of “failing” is not shared by team owners or even most players. This is an entertainment business, and the bottom line has little to do with rings. That part of it is all in your head.
That’s a big problem. Should be the sports business. As in the fabric or integrity of the sport should come first.
NBA is turning more and more into the WWE each passing season. Why have rating been dropping past fifteen years?
Just do the draft behind closed doors and bring the envelope out. Or, just let Silver decide the draft order…oh wait…
Silver already decides the draft order lol look at Dallas
Or Zion, and potentially Wemby. Hope Silver’s still heading up the league in 15 years time when a generational center comes into the league and somehow ends up in SA!
The most effective way to eliminate tanking is fairly easy… Flatten the draft lottery odds evenly for all 30 teams in the NBA, so each team has a 1/30 chance to get the number 1 pick….Do a live lottery show for all 30 team, Put 30 ping pong balls in that pong shuffler… the first ping pong ball picked is chosen to get the 1st overall pick, the 2nd pong is the 2nd pick and so on ánd so forth all the way to the 30th pick all pick protections still apply… it would make the draft lottery more exciting for all teams in the NBA because any team can get a high pick now
So now it’s pointless to tank, every team has even chances at all picks… with this method it forces teams to build teams properly ánd compete night in ánd night out you don’t get awarded to suck… a playoff team can get lucky ánd get the first overall or a lottery pick so now teams can’t be cheap you have to spend in free agency ánd be open to trade to improve your roster because there is not a given that you improve from the draft if u suck…best part of all it limits load management, why rest guys when u trying to win every night now
But that makes too much sense. You’ve lost the plot. It needs to be more convoluted than that. Are you new here? Where’s the complexity?
Exactly it makes too much sense why does it have to be so hard… I’m a new poster but I’ve been coming to this sight for 15 years now just never cared to post until today because I have the perfect remedy for this issue
How would it make sense I get it that teams would all try to win but imagine how bad it would be if the thunder or the spurs get a top 3 pick in a draft like this while actually bad teams like the nets get a bottom 25
You’re good. Was only joking. I agree though. Just make the odds even across the board if they allegedly don’t like tanking so much.
I just saw the word sense and did not read the comment how did I not see the sarcasm omg :(
Why even have a draft then? You seem to have forgotten why drafts exist (to help bad teams improve). You’d have a European soccer situation instantly.
If a team is “caught” tanking they should have their traded picks protections taken away. This year Washington has a 1st rd pick top 8 protected and they are tanking to keep it. They tank and lose their protection on the pick. There would be no reason to tank. And if they know that before hand teams will be less likely to trade their FRPs for anything less than win-now trades
This, it would be subjective but this would make it fair between teams like the pacers (who are good but tank) and the nets (bad)
How would you define “tanking,” since whether or not you are deemed to have tanked would become massively important.
The NBA fined 2 teams last week for tanking.
I don’t mind teams that “tank” for only one year. I’d like to see teams being unable to participate in the lottery in successive years.
If it needs to be bargained collectively then this is all just sound and fury, signifying nothing. And it has to be micro managed and convoluted! Typical Adam Silver..Teams like the Pelicans suck and won’t even reap the rewards of ‘tanking’ because of trading there FRP for Queen last draft..I mean they just stink lol; the Bulls and Kings could be put in the same category of losers not being able to get out of their own way, and how do you tell those teams that are so desperate for new talent that you’re flattening odds completely for the best incoming talent?? The Lakers and Thunder and Celts and Spurs will have the same blanket odds as the worst teams? I’m sure Bill Simmons would love that! IMO that also makes the conspiracy theories surrounding the draft even more possible, pronounced and loud. The NBA should expand the draft, maybe make it round robin, maybe just make moves in general to replace the failing NCAA as a talent incubator similar to how baseball has been set up?? And maybe make exceptions for exceptional talent like Cooper Flagg or LeBron, and get rid of the required gap year for the most talented American HS talent to just bypass the NCAA and start in the G league perhaps..so many solutions but so much hand wringing. I predict almost nothing changes and the talent drop off and league wide parity in the coming years make this a moot point; fingers crossed lol
Ah yes Adam this problem is more important than the prop bet stuff or the clippers case or the expansion front
I love the idea of getting rid of the draft altogether. It’s a capped league with finite roster spots – one team can’t just get the best 8 guys every year or whatever people would be afraid of, due to those two things.
But it WOULD mean that teams are competing for the services of players. Which would mean everyone is incentivized to have a stable franchise with good coaches and staffs. Why are ping pong balls deciding where players go? Why couldn’t Indiana or whoever spend all season identifying which guys fit and pitch their agents (who everyone has now on the NIL era) on the good qualities of their teams?
And if someone wants to take less to play with Luka? Well, fine. That’s on them. If someone wants the max to go play in Indiana? That’s their right too. Again: a cap league with finite roster spots means that the only downside to this is young players get paid earlier and have more freedom of movement. Which is probably not a bad thing at all.
The draft made a lot of sense for a long time. It seems to be doing more harm than good at this point.
I like the idea of all incoming players being free agents, but the NBA will still include some kind of salary scale for new players. They regulate virtually every aspect of players pay, I can’t imagine letting college kids sign for the same money as an established star in the league.
The draft is archaic and should be disposed of in every sport. Teams should have to attract players, not use players as cheap labor, destroying future revenue and having such an affect on a players career, when all the player did was be unlucky enough to be drafted by that team.
Mmm yes great idea I would love dybantsa or boozer or Peterson to join a potential Cavs super team this off-season
Ehhhh bad teams don’t need blue chip talent they can find it themselves in the g league
You mean like when a Spurs team with David Robinson already got Tim Duncan? Or one of the other half dozen examples of young guys joining de facto super teams?
There’s no perfect system. Right now it’s ping pong balls, assuming no funny business (and I would LOVE to see what percentage of NBA fans think there’s funny business. My guess is there is absolutely no trust in this system at all after last season). All ‘no draft’ is, is free agency a few years earlier. We like free agency. We would probably be just fine if it was a few years earlier. Especially if it meant literally zero reason for an NBA team to ever want to lose again. That whole thing we’re talking about is entirely tied to the draft’s existence.
Spurs sucked at the time. Robinson was old as the hills and injured that particular year. I’m a Celtics fan and we had best odds of landing Duncan and I’m not whinging.
The issue with that is that the sponsors like Nike or Gatorade or whoever could offset the players salary and drive them to the larger markets. It’s better for their brand if their guys play in larger markets and win championships so they would offer larger deals and then the players could take that smaller salary to go play with Luka in LA vs a larger salary in a smaller market.
Something tells me Minnesota and Toronto and Memphis wouldnt have the same chances at recruiting talent as LA or Boston or NY
Tankgate scandal gets headlines. Meanwhile Silver still won’t punish the clippers for the aspiration deal
Steph Curry is correct: tanking isnt real, its not a problem. This is just a distraction from all the other crap the league and its backers are being exposed on right now.
Curry never said “tanking isn’t real.” You’re still as delusional as ever Davey. What he did say was focused on what great competition the league currently has. You just make it up as you go, right?
You just got Davey baited
The entire problem was created because the league over-reacted to the warriors sudden greatness and made steps to prevent it from happening again. The new CBA requires tanking in order to build a team. You simply cannot afford to build a team any other way. And, you need extra picks that extend into your couple-year window so you can draft replacements for the guys you can no longer afford to pay. People may not remember, or may not be old enough to know, but the warriors changed the NBA, stunned the league with a willingness to spend money, and royally pissed off a lot of the owners who looked cheap, and had their greed exposed. Warriors owner is like the 24th wealthiest owner, and he outspent all the big boys. Getting Durant sort of forced the issue, but the warriors team first fast paced play style completely revolutionized the slow, ISO heavy, boring league.
Never underestimate a persons willingness to lose financially in order to topple someone who bruised their ego. Especially extremely wealthy people.
Precisely. All these owners do is cry. In 2011 Wade,Bron,Bosh took less to win. Owners didn’t like it. Then warriors became dominant having acquiring KD as the salary cap increased that year, owners hated that, clippers spent to win, owners didn’t like it. Now teams have to shuffle their roster almost every 4-5 years because 3 max contracts is harder to sustain due to this weak second apron nonsense.
Cuban can talk? He was one of the owners who cried about teams who spend to win. Now he’s speaking on tanking intentionally? He should sit this one out because he has a problem with everything.
Why not just make the odds the same for all non playoff teams?
That way bubble teams are motivated to try to make the playoffs (extra $$) but somewhat disincented to go into an absolute tank to try to get the worst record.