Speaking of, the NBA fined the Jazz $500K and the Pacers $100K for their "roster management" for recent games.

Need to bump those numbers up a bit, but at least the league is taking notice.

The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/0JFQpOnOmF

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) February 13, 2026

Independent doctor involved according to the NBA

Guitarsoup said:

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KOC was saying that one floated solution was that the lottery odds is locked at a certain date, but that date is unknown to teams and unsealed after the season. It would change every year.

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I think they should do it like golf tournaments bump sandbaggers to the next flight. In golf tournaments, a number is drawn (3,4, or 5) after round 1and if anyone in the flight shoots that many shots better than the leader then they are bumped to the next flight up. No one knows what the number is until after the round. So you don't really know if you should stop trying to make birdies or keep going. It's not perfect but it's better than nothing.

The NBA should draw a number of wins and no one knows what it is. Maybe it's a number between 10 and 27. And anyone who wins less games than the number drawn is bumped back to the end of the lottery (or is bumped 5 spots back). Would make it more interesting bc teams would not know if they should win or lose and it would be safer to win and at least ensure you aren't bumped to the end of the lottery.

Fining them is a start.

Neither will care if they end up with Peterson or Dybantsa though. They'll have more than made up for those losses just in ticket sales to the first home game.

Gotta take away their (ping pong) balls.

Milwaukee beats OKC.

They may be more likely to make the play in than have one of the worst 8 records.

mavsfan4ever said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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KOC was saying that one floated solution was that the lottery odds is locked at a certain date, but that date is unknown to teams and unsealed after the season. It would change every year.

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I think they should do it like golf tournaments bump sandbaggers to the next flight. In golf tournaments, a number is drawn (3,4, or 5) after round 1and if anyone in the flight shoots that many shots better than the leader then they are bumped to the next flight up. No one knows what the number is until after the round. So you don't really know if you should stop trying to make birdies or keep going. It's not perfect but it's better than nothing.

The NBA should draw a number of wins and no one knows what it is. Maybe it's a number between 10 and 27. And anyone who wins less games than the number drawn is bumped back to the end of the lottery (or is bumped 5 spots back). Would make it more interesting bc teams would not know if they should win or lose and it would be safer to win and at least ensure you aren't bumped to the end of the lottery.

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I don't play golf and haven't heard of this, but it makes sense.

All of it is so wild. The Pelicans and Kings need the talent infusion more than anyone, but at the same time, I don't trust Dumars or Vivek to utilize the talent or even just not **** it up. Obviously, Pelicans don't have a 1st this year because Joe Dumars is dumb AF.

Brooklyn is a step up from them. MPJ is a good 3rd best player on a contender. I believe in Sean Marks more than anyone in NOLA or Sacramento.

Memphis was in a spot where they had to do a hard reset. I have no problem with it. They have done a good job of identifying talent recently. Chicago is similar, only with a front office that is way less talented.

Pacers are in a similar situation as the Spurs in 97 when Robinson hurt his back in the 96 Olympics, then had a hernia that needed surgery, then broke his foot (same bone that ended Yao Ming's career.)

Washington and Utah have good players they could be winning more. They obviously knew a fine was coming and made Jackson have surgery.

Then Dallas - in this position because of the worst GM in sports history somehow got combined with the dumbest governor in NBA history.

As an outsider, I would want the top 4 to go to:

Kings, Nets, Grizzlies, Mavs. Pacers would be my next choice. I don't trust the Kings front office with the talent, but at the same time feel bad for their fans. Team has no path to relevancy, even with Peterson or Boozer.

Happy to see Washington, Utah, Chicago, and NOLA (Hawks own pick) all drop, because either they are blatantly tanking with talent to win or they can't be trusted with talent or both.

Dirk on Prime tonight after the Bucks game said fines aren't enough at this point.

DEVELOPING: The NBA is discussing creating a tournament among lottery teams to determine draft order in order to stop tanking.

(via @ShamsCharania, h/t @flasportsbuzz)

— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) February 13, 2026

TANKING TOURNAMENT


Hali when the tanking tournament starts:

Guitarsoup said:

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Dirk on Prime tonight after the Bucks game said fines aren't enough at this point.

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He's correct.

See this is why I don't like this. The Mavs are right there with Kyrie. You'd have to have rules about rosters to prevent teams like this getting their superstars back just for a loser tournament.

I'd prefer the NBA just have a set of balls.

The irony is the average brain dead American sports fan won't realize that a tournament officiated by NBA refs would be FAR easier to rig than the current draft lottery, which is effectively impossible to manipulate from the top down.

Tksymm7 said:

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See this is why I don't like this. The Mavs are right there with Kyrie. You'd have to have rules about rosters to prevent teams like this getting their superstars back just for a loser tournament.

I'd prefer the NBA just have a set of balls.

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I really have no problem with where the Mavs and Pacers are. This was always going to be a lost season for both teams. I think that sucks especially for Kyrie because he has so few quality seasons left.

I agree that the Mavs and Pacers were kinda put in this situation by different circumstances than others, and that tbh they are just kinda bad as currently constructed.

What I don't love that I was referring to above is the idea that these teams can have their injured star players come back for one month of the season and play in a tournament to decide the draft slots. There would have to be some roster limitations put in place.

The Pacers this year are a perfect example; without roster limitations they could add Haliburton (top 10-15 guy in the league) and Zubac to a lottery tournament. They'd blow everyone's doors off imo. So that's not super fair.

My thought with a lottery tournament is that it would increase odds, but not necessarily get them the best picks.

Okay that makes a lot more sense. Thank you sir.

I think withholding a % of pingpong balls is the best punishment. It really comes down to PT of key players. I think you could build some base standards to measure, track, and then have a process to review and punish when not met. I just see a slew of unintended consequences if you trick it up too much.

But what if there is a popular player who most casual fans and the media thinks is good but is actually bad when you look at advanced stats, etc? If that player is benched or sits, how is the league going to determine what's allowed and not allowed? What if there is an off court issue that causes the team to sit or suspend a player? How would the league determine that? What if a team just wants to legitimately play young players to see what they have instead of some vets?

It seems like you are making the league a talent evaluator and it would have way too much discretion if you allow it to just take away odds on its own. I could see it getting very messy very quickly.

It's a weird situation where there isn't a good answer. It's strange that tanking is so much more prevalent in nba than other sports. I guess bc one player makes more difference in nba.

Again, I don't think you have to go down the rabbit hole of overly complicating it. Probably just tracking a few key players on each team and then the team would have the opportunity to justify not playing them. I'm mainly looking to limit the egregious stuff. Not something that stops all tanking or keeps teams from adjusting their lineups to some degree.

Exactly. The NBA already has classifications for stars and resting stars for nationally televised games. It wouldn't be difficult to apply similar metrics.

There are games where the bench goes off and wins it for you that can be taken into account. But when you have a double digit lead and then bench all your good players, lose the lead and lose the game and never put your stars back in, it doesn't take a lot of investigation.

And totally reasonable to want to work in your young players, but the Spurs are doing that as well with Carter Bryant while also not hurting their chances at winning.

Yea what Utah did was egregious and clear. But there would be tons of stuff that's in a grey area.

That's why punishment is likely a fools errand and not pulling out the root. If you are going to use a data approach, you do it the opposite, reward the non-playoff teams that are available, playing, and trying. If that becomes the goal, you get less tanking.

I'd take it so far as to punish the blatant tankers and still reward the teams playing hard that will be in the lottery. Idc if it's punitive. It needs to be.

My two great ideas

Have a group of sportwriters rank the teams regardless of records at the end of the year and dole out lottery odds that way. Maybe add some GMs to the mix or know nothing politicians as well.

Make the draft a white elephant version. Winning the draft lottery lets you pick which spot in the draft you want to be. Players drafted can be stolen twice before they are officially off the market. Complete mayhem!

This current losing streak is their longest since 97-98.

Just spread the ranking of worst teams over results from multiple years, weighting most recent year highest, and 2 years ago lowest. Multiply win totals this year by a factor (3?), last year by a factor (2?) and two years ago by 1. Current win spread between 1-14 is 15 games. Win spread using that system of non-playoff teams expands the win spread to 45 games 1 to 14.

Teams like the Bucks, Pacers, Mavericks, Clippers get disincentivized to tank. Gap on the right is the number of games "ahead" of the next team they are, so Wizards would have to win 9 more games than Jazz to move down. Flatten the odds in 3 and 4 team groupings. Top 3 same odds, 4-6 same odds, 7-10 same odds, 11-14 same odds. Delta between each grouping next to each other should be moderate, delta between groups separated by another group should be significant.

Top 3: 12% #1 (36)
4-6: 9% #1 (27)
7-10: 6% #1 (24)
11-14: 3.25% #1 (13)

Not exact numbers, but just a representation.

Doing that makes it brutal for when a team has to reset and might prolong teams being bad.

Think if the Hawks **** up the Trae for Luka deal and the Mavs had a prolonged talent deficit, it's going to take several years to actually bottom out.

That's probably the position the Kings are in now that Fox demanded out last year.

i was always confused on who he resembles cuz i always knew he looked like someone and i finally realized it’s captain underpants https://t.co/U8epIkV8g3

— 🛰️ (@KT_3410) February 12, 2026