Response To NBA’s Anti-Tanking Ideas Has Been Lukewarm

The three lottery reform concepts that the NBA presented at last month’s Board of Governors meeting haven’t generated much enthusiasm around the league, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN, who says the reaction to those proposals was lukewarm.

Each of the three proposals would expand the lottery to at least 18 teams (one of the three would include 22 teams) and would further flatten the odds for the league’s very worst clubs. The three ideas were viewed as frameworks that could use some tweaking rather than finished products.

However, as Slater details, the NBA faces two problems as it attempts to revamp the lottery and alter other rules in an effort to deter tanking. For one, there’s a “wide array of opinions” around the league on the best way to tackle the issue, with little consensus on the ideal solution. Additionally, Slater writes, some of the most popular concepts – such as beginning to count wins as losses for lottery purposes midway through the season – are complicated and wouldn’t be easy to explain plainly to casual fans.

Still, the NBA is determined to do something this offseason to address its tanking problem, which has, in Slater’s words, gone from a “largely ignored side issue to a full-on epidemic.” As he points out, the average margin of victory in games this season is 13.1 points, which would be the highest mark in league history. There have also been a record 89 games decided by at least 30 points.

John Hollinger of The Athletic took a closer look earlier this week at the one-sided nature of many of the games played during the second half of the season, noting that the nine lottery-bound teams that own first-round picks (all but New Orleans) have posted a 17-148 record against the 20 playoff and play-in teams since the All-Star break. To put that in perspective, Hollinger writes, the Bulls alone won 18 games against those top 20 teams prior to the end of January.

Here’s more on the NBA’s tanking problem:

• As Slater observes, teams have gotten more creative about their approach to tanking — one strategy that has been employed this season by teams like the Jazz and Grizzlies is signing non-standout G League players, then having them play significant roles at the NBA level. For instance, rookie guard Bez Mbeng is playing a more significant role in recent weeks for Utah than he did for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, and the Jazz have a net rating of -18.1 in his 406 minutes. “These teams are doing the whole gamut: sitting guys in the fourth, playing analytically bad lineups, drawing up plays for bad shots,” a Western Conference general manager told ESPN. “The creativity is impressive and I don’t blame them. (Losing to get a high lottery pick) is the best strategy to get better.”
• That sort of lineup manipulation is especially frustrating for the veterans who are losing playing time as their teams go into tank mode, Slater notes. “It’s easier to stomach if it’s a young player they’ve just drafted with a future in the franchise,” one Western Conference player told ESPN. “But when they’re just bringing in dudes off the street and playing them over you in a contract year? That s–t will piss anyone off.”
• Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said on Tuesday that he’s a “huge proponent of doing everything we can to make sure that every night is as competitive as humanly possible,” per Jay King of The Athletic. “We have the best players in the world and I think it’s important to let them be that on that stage,” Stevens said. “There are a lot of discussions going on about how to best focus on that, both in the near term and long term, and maybe there is a near-term solution that is a stopgap before a longer-term solution, when people have time to really think about it and break it down.”
• Warriors forward Draymond Green would like to see the NBA be more liberal with the fines it hands out to tanking teams, according to Nick Friedell of The Athletic. The league handed out penalties of $500K and $100K to Utah and Indiana, respectively, earlier in the season, but hasn’t been fining teams for tanking or dubious player management since then. “Just fine the hell out of people,” Green suggested. “We love taking money from players, keep fining the teams. I’ve seen two fines. And we all know everybody tanking. But you’ve seen two fines. … Everybody loves money. The punishment for players is always, let’s take the money. Well, now it becomes time to punish teams and all of a sudden nobody don’t know what to do. Why not? We know exactly what to do when somebody gets a technical foul. Or suspended for a game. We know exactly what to do.”