NBA Weighing Rule Changes To Discourage Tanking
The NBA, in the hopes of further discouraging teams from tanking, has begun soliciting input from team owners and general managers on possible rule changes, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania. According to Charania, the league sought feedback on a number of ideas at a Board of Governors meeting last Friday, including:
- Eliminating mid-lottery protections on traded picks, so that traded picks could only include either top-four protection or top-14 (or higher) protection.
- Prohibiting teams from drafting in the top four in back-to-back years.
- Locking lottery positions as of March 1.
As Charania explains, the NBA is looking for ways to discourage teams from “deliberately manipulating” their rosters in an effort to land a higher draft pick or hang onto a protected pick. The league’s goal, Charania says, isn’t to stop young, rebuilding teams from using their normal rotations, but to reduce instances of clubs sitting regular starters and encourage them to remain competitive down the stretch.
Some of the most egregious instances of tanking in recent years have involved teams looking to retain control of traded picks with protections on them. Charania points to the 2023 Mavericks, who owed the Knicks their top-10 protected first-rounder and held out key players in the final games of the season in order to hang onto that pick despite still being in contention for a play-in spot. The first proposed rule described above would be designed to target those cases.
The second proposal would have had an impact on multiple recent drafts if it had been in effect. For instance, the Rockets and Spurs, two of the Western Conference’s most promising up-and-coming teams, drafted in the top four in several consecutive seasons — Houston selected Jalen Green (2021), Jabari Smith Jr. (2022), Amen Thompson (2023), and Reed Sheppard (2024) with top-four picks, while San Antonio did the same with Victor Wembanyama (2023), Stephon Castle (2024), and Dylan Harper (2025).
The third proposal would disincentivize post-March 1 tanking, but wouldn’t necessarily eliminate instances of teams tanking prior to that date.
The NBA is focused on tanking in part because gamblers have allegedly been able to access inside information about lottery-bound teams sitting certain players in recent seasons, Charania notes. Federal investigators say that an unnamed co-conspirator, who matches the description of Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, told a bettor that several Portland players would miss a game in March 2023 as the team began to tank.
In the wake of that federal probe into illegal gambling that resulted in the arrests of Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier, and former player and coach Damon Jones, the NBA is attempting to close off avenues for bettors to gain access to and use inside information. The league sent out a memo to teams last week detailing adjustments to the injury reporting process and proposed changes affecting prop bets.
No rule changes aimed at tanking have been approved at this point, but the subject figures to be an ongoing topic of discussion at upcoming Board of Governors meetings.
Cameron Payne Signs With KK Partizan
Free agent point guard Cameron Payne has signed a rest-of-season contract with KK Partizan, the Serbian team announced today in a press release.
A 10-year NBA veteran who was selected with the 14th overall pick of the 2015 draft, Payne has appeared in 477 regular season games for seven teams since debuting a decade ago. In 2024/25, he suited up for the Knicks, playing in 72 games (five starts) and averaging 6.9 points, 2.8 assists, and 1.4 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per night, with a .401/.363/.907 shooting line.
Payne, 31, was in camp with the Pacers this fall, but didn’t play well in the preseason, shooting just 28.6% from the field and registering nearly as many turnovers (six) as assists (seven). He was waived when Indiana set its roster for the regular season and has been a free agent since then.
Marc Stein reported nearly two months ago that KK Partizan, a EuroLeague team based in Belgrade, was showing “serious” interest in Payne, then followed up a few days later to say that the longtime NBA point guard was continuing to seek out opportunities stateside rather than immediately committing to a team overseas.
It seems no favorable NBA opportunities emerged for Payne, who is joining a Partizan team that also reportedly engaged in discussions with free agent sharpshooter Malik Beasley. Payne will become part of a roster that features several other former NBA players, including Jabari Parker, Duane Washington Jr., Isaac Bonga, Bruno Fernando, Sterling Brown, and Nick Calathes.
Warriors Notes: Green, Kerr, Horford, Melton, Richard
The Warriors picked up a second straight victory on Monday, beating Orlando by 23 points to get back to .500 (15-15). As Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, Golden State got exactly the kind of tag-team performance it wanted to see from Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, who led the team with 26 and 21 points, respectively.
However, the big story of the night was a third-quarter spat between head coach Steve Kerr and Draymond Green. The two men engaged in a heated argument in a team huddle during a timeout (Twitter video link), resulting in Green leaving the court and not playing for the game’s final 20 minutes, as Anthony Slater of ESPN details. Kerr said after the game that he and Green “had it out a little bit” and that it was the forward’s decision to head to the locker room to “cool off.”
“Tempers spilled over, and I thought it was best that I get out of there,” Green confirmed. “I don’t think it was a situation where it was going to get better. It was best to remove myself.”
According to Slater, teammates Butler, Al Horford, and Buddy Hield checked on Green during the third quarter and the former Defensive Player of the Year returned to the bench in the fourth quarter. He remained on the sidelines for the rest of the night, with Kerr explaining to reporters that he didn’t seriously consider reinserting Green into the game.
“No, he wasn’t going back in,” Kerr said. “No. He left. He went back to the locker room. We moved forward, and the guys played great.”
Green’s play has been under a microscope lately due largely to his turnover issues — he committed a combined 13 turnovers in the Warriors’ two most recent losses, and Golden State has been outscored during his time on the court in his past six games (including by five points on Monday).
Still, Kerr said he thought Green played well in the first half vs. Orlando and stressed that the team “needs” the 35-year-old going forward. For his part, Green downplayed the incident and suggested he didn’t think there would be any lingering effects.
“We’ve been at this now for a long time,” Green said. “Sometimes you’re with people for a long time and there’s a level of comfort and s–t happens. We move forward.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Horford, who has played just once in the past month as he dealt with sciatica, could be back in action for the Christmas Day game vs. Dallas, Kerr said on Monday (Twitter link via Slater).
- Guard De’Anthony Melton has played between 15 and 21 minutes in each of his seven appearances since making his season debut following his recovery from an ACL tear. According to Kerr, Melton could play more than that if needed, but the head coach’s preference would be to keep him in that 20-minute range for now (Twitter link via Slater).
- In a profile for The Athletic, Nick Friedell takes a look at rookie Will Richard‘s path to the NBA, detailing how the guard transformed his body in high school and then capped off his college career with a national championship. “He’s a winner,” Butler said of his teammate. “He’s hella smart. But I think the thing that I love the most about Will is his ability to listen. You tell him what to do, to the best of his ability he’s going to do it. … It’s really hard to try to please everybody because you can be told five different things from five different people, and he’s the type of human being that’s going to try to do all five of those things that everybody’s telling him. They could totally contradict each other, but he’s a hellafied listener.”
- Kerr remains confident about the Warriors’ ability to contend in the Western Conference despite the team’s up-and-down start to the season, per Friedell. “Look, our goal coming into the season was to be a top-four seed, and I still think it’s well within our reach,” Kerr said on Sunday. “But it can be daunting if you look and you go, ‘Man, we’re five, six games back.’ But we know how fast things can flip if we can take care of our business and find some momentum because everybody else is gonna go through tough stretches too.”
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript: 12/22/2025
Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today at 2:00 pm Central time (3:00 pm Eastern).
Southwest Notes: Irving, Zion, Borrego, Rockets
Brett Siegel of Clutch Points wrote on Friday that it “truly seems” as if Mavericks point guard Kyrie Irving will be able to return from his ACL tear at some point in January. However, head coach Jason Kidd said this week that there’s still no specific timeline for Irving as he works his way through the rehab process, writes Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal.
“There’s no schedule still,” Kidd said. “He’s just still doing the things he’s supposed to… He’s in a good place. He’s rehabbing. That’s the only update I can really give you — that he’s in a good place and he’s doing everything he’s supposed to.”
Irving tore his left ACL on March 3 and underwent surgery to repair the injury on March 27. Next weekend will represent the nine-month mark since that procedure, so the window for Irving’s potential return could open in the coming weeks.
Still, it’s not uncommon for an ACL tear to sideline a player for a full year or even longer than that, and the Mavs will certainly take a cautious approach with the 33-year-old — especially since the team currently sits outside the top 10 in the West.
We have more from around the Southwest:
- Pelicans forward Zion Williamson has come off the bench in each of his first two games back from an adductor strain and spent the final 17 minutes of Thursday’s comeback overtime win over Houston on the sidelines. The decision – and the victory – felt significant, according to William Guillory of The Athletic, who suggests it could be interpreted as a sign of the team taking steps toward a future in which Williamson isn’t the top priority.
- With the Pelicans riding a three-game winning streak, Rod Walker of NOLA.com (subscription required) contends that head of basketball operations Joe Dumars should remove the interim tag from head coach James Borrego — or at least place him high on the short list of candidates to coach New Orleans beyond this season. Pelicans swingman Trey Murphy III lauded Borrego for “igniting” the team, while forward Saddiq Bey also had high praise for the interim coach. “He’s made some helluva adjustments,” Bey said. “In the game, scout and when we are going through shootaround. He’s a great mind on both ends of the floor and we really trust him.”
- Tilman Fertitta‘s Rockets ownership group is engaged in “substantive” talks with the Connecticut Sun about the possibility of purchasing and relocating the WNBA, sources tell Alexa Philippou and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. A group led by Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca previously reached a tentative agreement with the Sun to move the franchise to Boston, but the WNBA effectively blocked that deal, and there’s a belief the league would prefer to see the team move to Houston, per Philippou and Shelburne.
- In a feature story for ESPN.com, Michael C. Wright takes a look at how veteran forward Kevin Durant has meshed with the Rockets‘ young duo of Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson, as well as the ongoing development of the chemistry between Sengun and Thompson.
Injury Notes: Poeltl, Barrett, Dante, Sixers, Bradley, Brown
Raptors center Jakob Poeltl, who has been dealing with a back issue this season, will miss a second straight game on Saturday as Toronto hosts the Celtics, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.
“We have a long-term plan for him,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said, “which consists of managing this injury and which consists of building his strength, which consists of him playing through a certain level of discomfort.
“But we’re not concerned at all. It’s just something that we are dealing (with) in the middle of the season. If we were in the offseason and you shut him down for two weeks, he would be completely fine, but it’s something we’re really trying to manage day to day. At this point, it’s not to that point that we just need to shut him down. It’s not that serious.”
Meanwhile, Raptors forward RJ Barrett will miss a 12th consecutive game on Saturday due to his right knee sprain, but he’s making progress toward a return. According to Grange (Twitter link), Barrett has resumed on-court activities. The plan is for him to do live work against coaches in the coming days, then participate in practice and scrimmage with teammates.
Here are a few more injury-related updates from around the NBA:
- Hawks center N’Faly Dante may have sustained a serious knee injury while playing in the G League for the College Park Skyhawks on Friday. According to John Hollinger (Bluesky links), Dante was in significant pain after awkwardly twisting his right knee following a rebound and had to be carried off the court. It was the big man’s first game since he entered the concussion protocol on December 2, tweets Kevin Chouinard of Hawks.com.
- Sixers center Joel Embiid (illness and right knee injury management) will miss a second consecutive game on Saturday vs. Dallas, while forward Paul George (left knee injury management) has also been ruled out, tweets Marc Stein. George hasn’t played both ends of a back-to-back set yet this season, so his absence comes as no surprise after he suited up for Friday’s win over New York.
- Pacers center Tony Bradley suffered a fracture on the tip of his thumb, according to head coach Rick Carlisle, who referred to the thumb as “partially functional” with a splint on it, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter links). While it sounds like Bradley will remain active, the decision to sign James Wiseman to a 10-day contract was directly related to that injury, Carlisle said (Twitter link via Dopirak). While Wiseman will give the team some additional depth, he’s probably not in NBA game shape quite yet, Carlisle admitted.
- The Celtics will be without top scorer Jaylen Brown when they take on the Raptors on Saturday night. Brown, who played in 26 of Boston’s first 27 games, has been ruled out due to an illness, per the team (Twitter link).
Western Notes: Monk, Ellis, Brooks, Nuggets, Jokic, Mitchell
Kings guard Malik Monk was a DNP-CD for the first time since the 2022/23 season on Thursday, not getting off the bench at all during the team’s 134-133 overtime loss in Portland. Explaining the decision after the game, head coach Doug Christie described Monk as the “odd man out” in the backcourt rotation as he sought to give Keon Ellis a larger role for defensive purposes.
“We were going with defense, but it’s a logjam,” Christie said, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “We’ve got a lot of guards, so whenever it was Keon being the odd man out, then it was Keon being out. Tonight, we were playing Keon, so Malik was out.”
With the Kings off to a 6-21 start this season, Christie acknowledged that he’s still searching for answers and is willing to experiment with the rotation in the hopes of turning things around. He also made it clear that “nothing is permanent,” though he added that he liked what he saw from Ellis, who played a season-high 32 minutes vs. Portland.
“We’ll give Keon a run and allow him to continue to develop with those guys,” Christie said. “He came in off the bench, I thought, and played fantastic with that bench unit. They did a really good job in the third quarter. It just kind of got away from us. We got stalled out a little bit, but they came back with the starters and Keon was a part of that group. … I thought those guys did a great job.”
We have more from around the Western Conference:
- The NBA has rescinded the technical foul assessed to Suns forward Dillon Brooks in the second quarter of Thursday’s game vs. Golden State, the league announced (Twitter link). Brooks appeared to get the technical for something he said after making a layup and stumbling to the floor (video link via NBA.com). He’s still the league leader with eight technicals this season.
- The Nuggets aren’t especially well positioned to be aggressive at this season’s trade deadline, writes Bennett Durando of The Denver Post (subscription required). Denver is hovering right around the luxury tax line, has few tradable draft picks, and lacks an obvious salary-matching candidate making mid-level money or more. Zeke Nnaji ($8.2MM) is the most expendable of the Nuggets’ players earning more than $5MM, but his contract – which has two more years left on it after this season – would have negative value.
- Nuggets star Nikola Jokic passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Thursday for the most career assists by an NBA center, Durando writes in another Denver Post story. Abdul-Jabbar compiled 5,660 assists across 20 NBA seasons; Jokic surpassed him in his 11th season, at age 30. “This is a time that I can be able to look back and appreciate all the years I’ve had to play this game with him,” teammate Jamal Murray said of Jokic. “It’s special. Passing Kareem in anything is pretty cool. So I think it just speaks to his greatness and how unselfish he is.”
- Thunder wing Ajay Mitchell spoke to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints about the experience of winning a championship as an NBA rookie, whether he has thought about vying for the Most Improved Player award, and why he views the toe injury that cost him three months last season as a positive. “I know it sounds crazy, but this was my first major injury ever, and looking back on everything we went through, it made me realize how special being a part of this organization truly is,” Mitchell said, explaining that general manager Sam Presti was with him “every step of the way before and after surgery.”
Central Notes: Bucks, Cavs, Hunter, Buzelis, Mathurin
The Bucks hoped last Thursday’s win over Boston would act as a catalyst as they look to turn their season around. But they’ve since dropped back-to-back games to Brooklyn and Toronto and now have an 11-17 record, with Giannis Antetokounmpo seemingly not close to returning from the calf strain that has sidelined him since December 3.
Still, head coach Doc Rivers said this week that he doesn’t plan to make any major tactical or personnel changes as Milwaukee attempts to get out of its slump, per Steve Megargee of The Associated Press.
“We like our team,” Rivers told reporters on Wednesday. “I really like this team. We’re not playing well. We’re not playing well for a lot of reasons. You don’t recreate the wheel. You just don’t. Teams that do that, then they fail. I’m just being honest. I’ve been around this long enough.
“… We want to tweak things. We like what we run. We like our defensive package overall. We’ve just got to do it better. We’ve got to take care of the ball. But we like the parts of this team, and that has not changed. This is not, ‘OK, guys, we’re five games under .500, let’s blow it all up.’ This is not where we’re at. We’re not even thinking in those terms.”
We have more from around the Central:
- Shortly after Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com published a column advocating for the Cavaliers to move De’Andre Hunter out of the starting lineup, the team did just that on Wednesday, as Fedor writes in a separate story (subscription required). The early returns weren’t great, as the new starting five – with Jaylon Tyson in Hunter’s spot – was outscored by eight points in 11 minutes of action in a loss to Chicago. However, sources tell Fedor that the Cavs plan to stick with it for the foreseeable future in the hopes of stabilizing the second unit and getting Hunter, who thrived as a sixth man last season, back in his “comfort zone.”
- According to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times, the Bulls‘ priority in the coming months shouldn’t be competing for a play-in spot — it should be doing all they can to unlock the star potential of forward Matas Buzelis, who has been up and down in his second NBA season. In Cowley’s view, it’s not inconceivable that Buzelis and Josh Giddey could be the only current Bulls still on the roster in a year, so maximizing their potential is crucial.
- As Tony East of Circle City Spin details, a handful of Pacers players provided updates this week on injuries they’re coming back from or are continuing to deal with. Among those players was Bennedict Mathurin, who admitted that the toe injury which sidelined him for 11 games earlier in the season isn’t fully behind him. “Still an issue. I would say it’s still a problem, but I’m a problem solver, I find solutions,” said Mathurin, who has played in every game since November 17. Asked specifically how the injury is affecting what he does on the court, the Pacers wing replied, “Without saying too much, I can still feel it, man.”
Evaluators Split On Keon Ellis’ Value
Within a look at potential Lakers trade targets, Dan Woike of The Athletic reports that league sources believe the current asking price for Kings guard Keon Ellis is a protected first-round pick.
Ellis, who will turn 26 next month, has a reputation as a solid defender, is a career 41.8% three-point shooter, and is earning just $2.3MM in 2025/26, making him an appealing option for teams not well positioned from a cap perspective to acquire a player on a larger contract.
However, there’s not a consensus on Ellis’ value, according to Woike.
One league source who spoke to The Athletic referred to the fourth-year guard as “maybe the most divisive player in the league,” pointing out that rival scouts are high on him but neither Mike Brown nor Doug Christie has been comfortable leaning on him consistently in Sacramento. After starting 28 games and averaging 24.4 minutes per game last season, Ellis has made two starts and averaged 17.6 MPG in 2025/26.
As Woike explains, some skeptics believe Ellis’ defensive skill set is more suited to generating turnovers than to actually slowing down opposing offensive offensive players, while others have reservations about his size and ability to hold his own against bigger guards.
It’s also worth noting that Ellis will reach unrestricted free agency in July if he doesn’t sign an extension before then (he’ll become eligible on February 9), so a team acquiring him would risk losing him for nothing during the 2026 offseason.
Still, Woike believes Ellis is one of the possibilities being considered by the Lakers, who could badly use another defensive-minded player in their rotation. Pelicans forward Herbert Jones, Heat forward Andrew Wiggins, Clippers forward Derrick Jones Jr., Nets guard Terance Mann, Hornets wing Josh Green, and Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu are among the other potential targets Woike mentions, though he cautions that not all of them will be available, especially for a price the Lakers would be comfortable meeting.
Los Angeles only has one tradable first-round pick (in either 2031 or 2032) and one movable second-rounder (2032). The team could also offer a handful of first-round pick swaps. The trade value of Dalton Knecht, a 2024 first-rounder, has slipped since last season, as he has fallen out of JJ Redick‘s regular rotation this fall.
Trade Rumors: Castle, Suns, Raptors, Davis, Kings
There’s reportedly a sense that the Spurs won’t seriously pursue a Giannis Antetokounmpo trade even if the Bucks make the two-time MVP available this season. While San Antonio seemingly has the assets necessary to make a compelling offer for a star-level trade candidate like Antetokounmpo, the team is very high on its young core and isn’t eager to break it up to go all-in on an older player, writes Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.
Victor Wembanyama is obviously untouchable and reports have indicated that the Spurs have never shown any interest in moving rookie Dylan Harper, dating back to lottery night when they won the No. 2 overall pick and the right to draft him. The team’s unwillingness to discuss trades involving its rising young stars also extends to reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said this week during an appearance on The Ryen Russillo Show (YouTube link).
“I cannot tell you how much the Spurs loved Castle when they got him,” Windhorst said (hat tip to HoopsHype). “Like, right out of the gate they were like, ‘Oh my god, do we love this guy.’ They are convinced that he is the perfect guy to have with Victor. … They love everything about his make-up. They love everything about the way he competes. They love everything about his willingness to improve. They love Stephon Castle.”
While Windhorst acknowledged that very few players in the NBA are absolutely untouchable, he stressed that the Spurs are extremely unlikely to move Castle anytime soon.
“I would be stunned if they gave Castle away for almost anything,” he said.
Here are a few more trade-related notes and rumors from around the NBA:
- Gerald Bourguet of Suns After Dark confirms that the Suns and Raptors spoke about a possible trade that would send Nick Richards to Toronto in exchange for Ochai Agbaji and a second-round pick, but says Phoenix isn’t looking to make a deal quite yet, doesn’t have a ton of interest in Agbaji, and didn’t love the quality of the second-rounder the Raptors were willing to offer. While it’s unclear which pick Toronto put on the table, neither of the 2026 second-rounders the team controls would be very valuable if the season ended today — the Raptors’ own pick would be No. 52, while the Lakers’ second-rounder Toronto owns would be in the 56-58 range.
- Mavericks big man Anthony Davis sits atop the trade deadline “big board” published today by Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, who ranks potential trade candidates based on a combination of their potential impact and their likelihood of being moved. If Antetokounmpo doesn’t get traded this season, Davis is considered the one player on the market who could “swing the title race the most if he were dealt to the right situation,” Vecenie writes.
- Earlier this week, Yossi Gozlan of The Third Apron (Substack link) published the first installment of his comprehensive guide to the 2026 NBA trade deadline, identifying possible trade candidates and potential goals for all 30 teams. For instance, in examining the Kings, Gozlan classifies Keon Ellis and Dennis Schröder as likely to be traded, Russell Westbrook, Malik Monk, and DeMar DeRozan as “very possible” to be moved, and Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis as more likely to stay put due to their sizable contracts.