{"id":485977,"date":"2026-02-17T15:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/485977\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T15:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T15:16:10","slug":"the-bounce-the-best-idea-to-fix-tanking-and-wholl-be-the-next-face-of-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/485977\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: The best idea to fix tanking. And who\u2019ll be the next face of the NBA?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bounce Newsletter\u00a0\":basketball:\"\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the birthday of my basketball \ud83d\udc10, Michael Jeffrey Jordan. His Airness turns 63 today. I\u2019ve rewatched \u201cThe Last Dance\u201d a few times, and even though it\u2019s a Jordan commercial for 10 episodes, I accept and love it every time. Maybe because it\u2019s a Jordan commercial. Nobody has ever entertained me on a basketball court the way he has. Here\u2019s a 19-minute compilation of MJ\u2019s top plays<\/a>. Happy birthday, GOAT!<\/p>\n

Silver bullets<\/p>\n

The biggest tank-aways from the NBA commish<\/p>\n

When NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke to the media on Saturday during All-Star weekend, the biggest topic was tanking. Tanking is such an issue that Silver didn\u2019t even try to find more league-friendly nomenclature like Marc Stein\u2019s Draft Positioning Prioritization Mode. Or maybe it was just to make the conversation easier? Regardless, Silver openly said the word \u201ctanking\u201d over and over as he addressed the issue.<\/p>\n

We essentially have nine teams refusing to put the best product on the floor, and the Bucks are the only non-Play-In Tournament squad still openly holding out hope for a better tomorrow by competing today.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery possible remedy to stop\u201d tanking is being considered, Silver said. That\u2019s awesome! The league isn\u2019t closing itself off from solutions. But what does that mean<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that\u2019s an antiquated way of going about doing it,\u201d Silver said of the NBA Draft Lottery, in which the 14 teams that do not make the postseason have a chance to land the No. 1 pick in the draft.<\/p>\n

The NBA recently fined the Jazz $500,000 for keeping Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. out of fourth quarters in consecutive games, which is funny because they accidentally won one of those games. They also fined the Pacers $100,000 for keeping Pascal Siakam out of a game. But the fines aren\u2019t severe enough to stop teams. Then what could happen?<\/p>\n

Taking away draft picks? Maybe.
\nChange the way the lottery is weighted? On the table.
\nAbolish the draft altogether<\/a>? I don\u2019t think they\u2019re prepared to go that extreme yet.<\/p>\n

Silver didn\u2019t seem to have any direct ideas he was willing to share, if they even exist yet. League officials are going to, again, discuss every possible solution to fix this problem. You can\u2019t have fans paying full price for intentional slop. (Although I think tanking teams should charge full price, but use at least half of that as a credit toward next season\u2019s tickets for those fans.) Regardless, we\u2019re going to come to a head with this thing pretty soon.<\/p>\n

There were two other big items on the ledger for the news conference.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on with the Kawhi Leonard\/Clippers investigation? Silver isn\u2019t close to a decision on punishment (if any) because he\u2019s not doing the investigation. There\u2019s a law firm<\/a> still doing its due diligence in figuring out if the Clippers circumvented the cap. Many people around All-Star weekend were wondering if Silver had it in him to drop the hammer on the Clippers if there\u2019s evidence that they cheated in this way. I wonder if we\u2019ll find out before the season is over.<\/p>\n

Do we have any clarity on expansion? Absolutely not. Las Vegas and Seattle are the presumed front-of-the-line options, but all Silver would commit to is that the league is still planning on making a decision this year.<\/p>\n

The last 24<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Let\u2019s fix it. Shakeia Taylor has some ideas to fix All-Star weekend. What about the NBA Cup final being held then<\/a>?<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcc8 Power Rankings. Law Murray has his latest rankings and a new top dog. It\u2019s Detroit vs. Everybody<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2b50 Searching the stars. We polled players at All-Star weekend on various topics. Here are their thoughts on the league\u2019s best player, biggest issue and best player podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udde3\ufe0f Not happy. Jaylen Brown had an event in Beverly Hills shut down by the cops. He criticized the police for what they did<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfc0 Not yet? LeBron James was asked about potential retirement. \u201cWhen I know, you guys will know.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!<\/a>)\u00a0and catch out-of-market games on\u00a0League Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tanking Tuesday<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found my favorite remedy<\/p>\n

I was on my SiriusXM NBA Radio show \u201cDeals and Dunks\u201d with Marc Stein yesterday, and he proposed a hybrid tanking solution. It came from an amalgamation of something that was discussed on Bill Simmons\u2019 podcast and something a reader, Daniel Joyaux, emailed him. The proposed tanking fix is that teams must win at least 27 games in a season to get their full lottery odds. If you fall short of 27 games, then you head to the back of the lottery odds.<\/p>\n

This is from The Stein Line substack<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy pitch: The NBA needs to seriously consider implementing a rule that stipulates teams can only remain eligible to secure the highest possible odds to win the draft lottery if they win at least 27 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoyaux\u2019s garrulous proposal suggests a 25-win minimum. I like 27-55 as the cutoff to secure the highest possible lottery ends \u2014 with teams that fall short of 27 wins moving to the bottom of the lottery order \u2014 because winning one-third of your games hits me as less arbitrary.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes far more in-depth, but I think this is brilliant. It does raise the question of whether the league would be punishing teams that suffer through key injuries and lots of them. Think of the aforementioned Pacers. Tyrese Haliburton blew out his right Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. Indiana has had a lot more injuries this season, but missing one of the best guards in the league is not exactly tanking. The Pacers are on pace to win 22 games this season. Would that be fair?<\/p>\n

Or does fair have zero to do with this? There are currently six teams on pace to win fewer than the proposed 27-game threshold. The Jazz (26-win pace), Pelicans (22), Nets (23) and Pacers are all within a good effort of getting to 27 wins. It\u2019s really just the Wizards (21) and Kings (17) who need more than a good week or week and a half of determination to get on track to reach this level.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure there are problems we haven\u2019t thought of with this idea, and figuring out how exactly to order the teams that fall short (maybe it is just the end of the lottery but in reverse order?) of winning one-third of their games could take a brainstorming session. But I\u2019ve been enamored with this proposal since I heard about it yesterday morning.<\/p>\n

Facing the future<\/p>\n

Ranking options for next face of the NBA<\/p>\n

We\u2019re pretty sure that LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Steph Curry are headed toward retirement relatively soon. James could retire this summer, while KD and Steph could follow in a couple of years. Unless the latter two want to play into their 40s? The NBA needs to start figuring out who the next face of the league is. Why does that matter? Because marketing this league and finding that player you know will bring eyeballs and attention to the NBA is massive.<\/p>\n

After the All-Star Game, where Victor Wembanyama deservedly received so much of the credit for getting everybody to play hard, Jared Weiss wrote about Wemby as the next face of the league<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWembanyama\u2019s emergence as one of the faces of the league has come as much off the floor as on the hardwood. He doesn\u2019t just dilate the filter when polarizing questions come his way; he pulls the pulpit closer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it time to officially declare Wembanyama as the new face of the NBA?<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Obviously, the social media, (the) NBA can promote whoever they want. But at the end of the day, it\u2019s going to be the best players and who the people ask for,\u2019 Wembanyama said on Sunday. \u2018Being the face of the league, it\u2019s something that can be manufactured, but only to some extent. It\u2019s only going to be the best players. This is what it\u2019s all about.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He understands it. He gets it. He wants it. Wemby knows what that means for him as a competitor and as someone who loves the game. The 22-year-old wants his legacy to be up there with the greatest to ever do it, and it takes a different wiring to reach for that and obviously get it. Is he the sure thing for Face of the NBA once the older stars are done? Let\u2019s rank the five best options.<\/p>\n

5. Cooper Flagg: Wired with unreal competitiveness? Check. Plays both ends of the floor? Check. Wants to dominate the very best? We saw that during his practices against Team USA in 2024. Skill set? Developing. Winning? Not quite yet, but he\u2019s a 19-year-old rookie. Flagg could absolutely find himself there.<\/p>\n

4. Luka Don\u010di\u0107: Sometimes I forget he\u2019s only 26 years old, because he\u2019s been around seemingly forever. There aren\u2019t many players who can challenge him for best offensive player in the world. But Luka will need to go on a real run of winning to take this crown. He doesn\u2019t defend at all, and he complains a ton to the refs. Maybe that prevents him from being the face?<\/p>\n

3. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: Already has an MVP and a title under his belt. He\u2019s one of the most unguardable players we\u2019ve ever seen, and he plays defense too. His team is in a position to win a few more titles. He\u2019ll be 28 this summer, so he\u2019s in his prime now. I just wonder if the public will embrace him because of his fouls-and-free-throw reputation.<\/p>\n

2. Anthony Edwards: It could very easily be Ant if he wanted it. I\u2019m not sure he wants it, even though he knows it\u2019s something the NBA would love to happen. Edwards has an unreal skill set that\u2019s still developing. He\u2019s this good already, and he\u2019s only 24. He\u2019s awesome on both ends of the floor and has developed a good clutch reputation now. He\u2019ll also need some accolades and titles to put him in the position, though. He\u2019s never finished higher than seventh in MVP voting.<\/p>\n

Like Flagg, though, Edwards is American-born, like every other previous face of the league.<\/p>\n

1. Wemby: I mean \u2026 duh! We\u2019ve never seen anything close to Wemby in terms of skills at his physical dimension. He has a phenomenal mindset that is both challenging those around him and wanting to challenge the ghosts of the game. Since the moment he entered the league, it\u2019s been obvious that a ceiling doesn\u2019t exist for him. He\u2019s a walking, talking, dunking and blocking convertible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bounce Newsletter\u00a0\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,7235,7232,5665,590,5548,10549,85],"class_list":["post-485977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}