{"id":593912,"date":"2026-04-08T18:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593912\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:15:11","slug":"response-to-nbas-anti-tanking-ideas-has-been-lukewarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593912\/","title":{"rendered":"Response To NBA’s Anti-Tanking Ideas Has Been Lukewarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

The three lottery reform concepts that the NBA presented<\/a> at last month\u2019s Board of Governors meeting haven\u2019t generated much enthusiasm around the league, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN<\/a>, who says the reaction to those proposals was lukewarm.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s very worst clubs. The three ideas were viewed as frameworks that could use some tweaking rather than finished products.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s a \u201cwide array of opinions\u201d 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 \u2013 such as beginning to count wins as losses for lottery purposes midway through the season \u2013 are complicated and wouldn\u2019t be easy to explain plainly to casual fans.<\/p>\n

Still, the NBA is determined to do something this offseason to address its tanking problem, which has, in Slater\u2019s words, gone from a \u201clargely ignored side issue to a full-on epidemic.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

John Hollinger of The Athletic<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the NBA\u2019s tanking problem:<\/p>\n

As Slater observes, teams have gotten more creative about their approach to tanking \u2014 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<\/a> 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. \u201cThese teams are doing the whole gamut: sitting guys in the fourth, playing analytically bad lineups, drawing up plays for bad shots,\u201d a Western Conference general manager told ESPN. \u201cThe creativity is impressive and I don\u2019t blame them. (Losing to get a high lottery pick) is the best strategy to get better.\u201d
\nThat sort of lineup manipulation is especially frustrating for the veterans who are losing playing time as their teams go into tank mode, Slater notes. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to stomach if it\u2019s a young player they\u2019ve just drafted with a future in the franchise,\u201d one Western Conference player told ESPN. \u201cBut when they\u2019re just bringing in dudes off the street and playing them over you in a contract year? That s\u2013t will piss anyone off.\u201d
\nCeltics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said on Tuesday that he\u2019s a \u201chuge proponent of doing everything we can to make sure that every night is as competitive as humanly possible,\u201d per Jay King of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cWe have the best players in the world and I think it\u2019s important to let them be that on that stage,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cThere 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.\u201d
\nWarriors forward Draymond Green<\/a> 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<\/a>. The league handed out penalties<\/a> of $500K and $100K to Utah and Indiana, respectively, earlier in the season, but hasn\u2019t been fining teams for tanking or dubious player management since then. \u201cJust fine the hell out of people,\u201d Green suggested. \u201cWe love taking money from players, keep fining the teams. I\u2019ve seen two fines. And we all know everybody tanking. But you\u2019ve seen two fines. \u2026 Everybody loves money. The punishment for players is always, let\u2019s take the money. Well, now it becomes time to punish teams and all of a sudden nobody don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The three lottery reform concepts that the NBA presented at last month\u2019s Board of Governors meeting haven\u2019t generated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-593912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593912","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=593912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}