Guitarsoup said:

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There is no way the NBA or owners want to abolish the draft and it is something that would take like a decade to do anyway because draft picks are traded so far out.

Then it also makes trades and stuff way more complicated when draft picks are a major currency.

Just clickbait engagement from a clickbait account.

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I have heard this potential option mentioned on more than one podcast recently, so it's coming from more than some rando click baiting account. usually these podcast guys aren't coming up with their own fix, they are regurgitating **** they heard from guys "in the know" (one of the pods I heard it on I'm pretty sure was Windhorst) So I think it's something being "discussed", but for all the reasons you mentioned, It's not really a legitimate option. My take is that it's something being thrown out there by a big market team or teams to scare the small market teams. Like a nuclear option.

HummingbirdSaltalamacchia said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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There is no way the NBA or owners want to abolish the draft and it is something that would take like a decade to do anyway because draft picks are traded so far out.

Then it also makes trades and stuff way more complicated when draft picks are a major currency.

Just clickbait engagement from a clickbait account.

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I have heard this potential option mentioned on more than one podcast recently, so it's coming from more than some rando click baiting account. usually these podcast guys aren't coming up with their own fix, they are regurgitating **** they heard from guys "in the know" (one of the pods I heard it on I'm pretty sure was Windhorst) So I think it's something being "discussed", but for all the reasons you mentioned, It's not really a legitimate option. My take is that it's something being thrown out there by a big market team or teams to scare the small market teams. Like a nuclear option.

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23 Owners would have to agree to it for it to even work. So it really isn't even something that would scare the small market guys.

Just not a feasible thing and everyone in the NBA knows this.

I'm not sure there is a fix to teams tanking. The nature of the NBA and basketball players, there are just certain places that guys don't choose to go to. Most of these small markets only chance of attracting a free agent of any consequence is to land a star that makes them a contender that other guys want to be part of. Sacramento, Utah, Memphis, etc. just aren't destinations for major free agents. Our own Spurs have always struggled to draw major interest from free agents. Lamarcus Aldridge is the only all star level player we've signed in his prime, and he's from Texas. Fox forced his way here via trade and same thing, he's from Texas. The Mavs during the Dirk era always struck out on big time free agents, and they were a top contending team. Golden State couldn't get anybody until Steph showed up and once he's gone, no one will want to go there either. Milwaukee has struggled mightily to put pieces around Giannis and he'll probably get traded this offseason. Cleveland lucked into drafting one of the greatest players of all time, who's from Ohio, and still couldn't keep him there long term.

The solution just needs to be codifying what is egregious tanking.

The Kings don't have talent. It is what it is.

The Jazz have two-three all-starish level players and are benching them and allowing a double-digit lead turn into a loss. That type of work is obviously at odds with the integrity of the league and should be punished.

I think there needs to be definitions in place about the integrity of the league and intentionally losing. Right now, everything that covers it is very vague and generalized.

Fines won't work, because utah getting a top 5 pick is worth way more than the league would fine them with when a 9th or 10th pick would confer to OKC. So you could fine them 1M a game for tanking the rest of the season and they would pay it because that pick being top 5 is worth more to them than $40M in fines.

So I think you have a progressive solution of 500k fine, 1M fine, then either loss of draft position (move back one spot from lottery results each time) or removal of lottery balls to reduce chances of hitting. How brutal would it be for the Jazz to know they lost 50 combinations in the lottery and then one of those combinations pops up where they would have gotten #1, but they redraw instead and they end up getting #7.

The fines will never be enough, you have to hit the draft position.

And you also need a league office in place for injuries. Because JJJ could have obviously played with his benign tumor, but they went ahead and had the surgery for the same reason we had Fox do his surgery last year during the season. Then you have the "minutes restrictions" for Lauri and George. Do they need them or do they just help the "swear we arent tanking" narrative of victimhood the state of Utah loves. I don't think the league wants to get into the position of approving surgeries for athletes. But they certainly could be saying players are healthy enough to play because we know a lot of them are sitting out despite health.

I don't think there is any real way to police tanking. If a team wants to lose or sit players that's what they are going to do. The league isn't going to want to get dragged into a fight over whether JJJ's surgery had to happen now or not. They don't want to mandate Lauri play 35 minutes a game, or that he must play all crunch time minutes.

Any sort of punishment is not going to work, it'll just make the guilty parties like the Jazz find ways to work the system so they don't get punished again.

That's why the solution to tanking is likely more about removing the incentives to do it. No one would tank if lottery odds were flat. Even better, incentivize marginal teams to push for the playoffs and then reward them with better lottery odds. In the last 15-20 years, the teams finishing with the bottom 3 records are finishing there because they intentionally sold off their best players in order to suck.

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No one would tank if lottery odds were flat.

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Could not disagree more. We will just see different tanking. No one is going to want to be in the playin or win the playin. It will be more like how Dallas tanked to get Lively. Only it will be way more teams. Being an 8 seed and getting worked over by the 1 is WAY worse now than being 9 seed and having a ~20% chance at a top 5 pick.

They have already flattened it out a lot and still tanking has done nothing but get worse. Teams like Atlanta and Dallas jumping the field to win it hasn't thwarted anything.

They are going to have to get into policing teams, whether they like it or not. And teams will continue to try to skirt around it in the most legitimate ways they can think or like we did with Fox and Utah did with JJJ after the fine.

The Dallas tank was different, that was about holding onto a pick they would otherwise owe in a trade.

To solve the other part of your critique, just either keep the lottery odds flat for all teams in the play-in as well or bump their odds up slightly for at least being in the play-in.

Just hold one initial lottery where everyone has the same odds and set the draft order that way 1-30. Then every year everyone moves up one spot in draft order and the previous first pick moves back to 30. No more tanking.

Not going to change anything. If Giannis can come back soon, they could totally knock the Hawks out of the play in and possibly make a playoff run, because Giannis, Rollins, Thomas, Porter, Portis, Myles Turner and Dairy Bird could absolutely make noise in the East. But their option is to push for that or just tank it and get a good shot at a pick, Giannis might choose the pick in this stacked draft. In the 24 draft, they probably go for the playoffs.

It just adjusts when and why teams would tank. It doesn't end tanking.

I'm not sure Giannis is the kind of guy that sees a 19 year old rookie as his path to contention. If the Bucks tank the rest of the year that's more about the post Giannis future than anything else.

I hope for the sake of the sport they push in when he returns and try to win. Because you are right that the Bucks would be dangerous in the East with a fully healthy Giannis.

I like the lottery team tournament idea. Players won't be shut down. There's more games to sell.

How about setting the lottery positions after 41 games? We know who the bad teams are by then. If teams tank during first half of the season its doesn't seem as impactful when fans aren't fully invested yet. Lottery teams could then play everyone and attempt to build a "winning atmosphere" at the end of the season playing spoilers.

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How about setting the lottery positions after 41 games?

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Just changes when teams tank. Tank the first 41 games, then are free to do whatever the rest of the season.

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I'm not sure Giannis is the kind of guy that sees a 19 year old rookie as his path to contention. If the Bucks tank the rest of the year that's more about the post Giannis future than anything else.

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It could track either way. Giannis needs help.

Does Giannis have a better shot with 37yo Jimmy Butler coming off ACL surgery and 38yo Steph Curry or with this team in the East:

Turner
Giannis
Dybansa
Porter
Rollins

With a bench of Portis, Cam Thomas, Dieng, and Kuzma

That's a pretty solid East team.

That's the point. Most teams won't be tanking in Nov-Dec cuz "everyone has a chance". They'll be tanking Dec-Jan, but who cares - football season is going on. It'll be a storyline like this year, but there will be an end to it before all-star break when fan interest picks up.

Maybe it might incentivize bad teams going into the season to play their young players sooner "before they are ready". I prefer that if I know my team is bad.

Maybe there are cases where a team gets real hot and they have decide between a playoff birth and a good draft spot? Do they keep their pick even if they make the playoffs?

Whatever changes happen It'll be interesting how draft pick values change for trade purposes.

The biggest Bucks mistake was in waiving and stretching Dame, with the Hawks giving away Trae and the Mavs giving away AD they could have used his salary to grab either of those guys to try and make it work had they waited.

You also know that I'm not a fan of Trae, but pair him in the PnR with Giannis in the East and I think you have something interesting.

Also a twin towers approach with AD and Giannis would have given them a really intriguing defensive frontcourt to throw at teams. Flip Portis for another guard and maybe that team is competitive.

It would have just taken a bit of patience to wait for those guys to become available and then move off of Dame. Now they are stuck with Dame's empty salary weighing down their books and a much more average player in Miles Turner.

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The biggest Bucks mistake was in waiving and stretching Dame, with the Hawks giving away Trae and the Mavs giving away AD they could have used his salary to grab either of those guys to try and make it work had they waited.

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Hard disagree. Dame had two years left at the 35% max. AD and Trae went for expiring contracts. Neither the Mavs or Hawks (or anyone else) wanted Dame's awful contract.

You might be right that no one would take his contract, but they lose 22.5 million off the cap until 2030 for ghost Lilliard.

Essentially the cost to get Turner was that same 35 percent of the cap, and in no world can I justify that.

And lol I bet the Kings would have taken Lilliard for Lavine. You can always count on the Kings to bail you out.

LaVine's contract was at least 30% instead of 35% like Dame's. And LaVine wasn't hurt, he just sucks. I think even the Kings pass there unless they just wanted to tank this year, but honestly who knows.

🚨: A man was discovered with 90% of his brain mass missing, and yet he was living a perfectly normal life owning the Sacramento Kings. pic.twitter.com/uJHhG3GnEi

— Playoff Kings (@PlayoffKings) February 15, 2026

Everything with Dame's trade was awful. Two swaps, a 1st, Jrue Holiday, and Grayson Allen for Dame's awful supermax contract. Dame was 33 and coming off two seasons where he played 87 games out of 164 possible games.

Portland flipped Jrue for 2 firsts, Brogdon, and TimeLord. Then took Brogdon and the two firsts to get Deni and kept Rob.

Could have just traded Jrue for Deni Adjiva and Robert Williams, kept their three firsts and Grayson Allen. Then Brodie was a FA, sign him. Or don't blow your 1st round pick that year on AJ Johnson one spot ahead of KyShawn George

Wemby playing with pedestrians.

Enzo The Baker said:

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Wemby playing with pedestrians.

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Jeremy Lin would have done better than Murray. Now I know why he never made it before.

Portland is in an interesting situation. Their attempts at tanking have not yielded any high picks that panned out. But as you mention they masterfully parlayed Dame into Deni plus picks.

Deni is on the best contract in the entire NBA right now (non-Rookie scale) but they probably aren't going to be able to take advantage of that because most of their money is tied up in Jerami Grant and Jrue Holliday.

Maybe they emerge as a dark horse in the Giannis sweepstakes this summer and see if they can use Bucks pick swaps in 28 and 30 along with maybe Shaedon Sharpe and matching crap salary to try and pair Deni and Giannis. For this to work you'd need Scoot to finally show he has a pulse, but this roster:

Scoot
Deni
Camara
Giannis
Clingan

Isn't terrible on paper.

AggieEP said:

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Portland is in an interesting situation. Their attempts at tanking have not yielded any high picks that panned out. But as you mention they masterfully parlayed Dame into Deni plus picks.

Deni is on the best contract in the entire NBA right now (non-Rookie scale) but they probably aren't going to be able to take advantage of that because most of their money is tied up in Jerami Grant and Jrue Holliday.

Maybe they emerge as a dark horse in the Giannis sweepstakes this summer and see if they can use Bucks pick swaps in 28 and 30 along with maybe Shaedon Sharpe and matching crap salary to try and pair Deni and Giannis. For this to work you'd need Scoot to finally show he has a pulse, but this roster:

Scoot
Deni
Camara
Giannis
Clingan

Isn't terrible on paper.

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The problem is the the Bucks already reswapped their swap in 28. So if they get it back, they just owe it in another swap with Washington for Washington taking on Khris Middleton's contract. Then Washington used the Middleton contract to get AD and Bucks are stuck paying Kuz 20M next year.

Portland giving that indefensible contract to Jerami when he agreed to it before Dame demanded out was what is killing them. I like Giannis with them, but I think they can't pull off a good deal for him.

On another note, KD's burner account got exposed again. He was trashing Jabari Smith and Sengun as well as calling Westbrick "Triple double cocaine bear" and said Booker is a dictator.

LawHall88 said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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All good options for the GLeague Dunk Contest.

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He's barely even a G-Leaguer, but dude can dunk.

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I don't know about barely a G-Leaguer. He led the G League in scoring in 2024 and was the "G League MVP". He is second in the league in scoring this year.

I'm surprised he hasn't taken the money to go play in China for at least one year. He would be a star there with his ability to dunk and score (at that level). But he's said that he's dedicated to try to make in the NBA long term, which is just not going to happen. He's destined to be an end of the season call up on a team that is tanking.

Seven Costanza said:

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LawHall88 said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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All good options for the GLeague Dunk Contest.

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He's barely even a G-Leaguer, but dude can dunk.

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I don't know about barely a G-Leaguer. He led the G League in scoring in 2024 and was the "G League MVP". He is second in the league in scoring this year.

I'm surprised he hasn't taken the money to go play in China for at least one year. He would be a star there with his ability to dunk and score (at that level). But he's said that he's dedicated to try to make in the NBA long term, which is just not going to happen. He's destined to be an end of the season call up on a team that is tanking.

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He's 27 and has played in 10 NBA games. I don't think he is even a tanking call up. But Ainge could surprise me to stick it to Silver.

SWIPA CALLS GAME 😤😤😤

📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/0VFtbiIwvA

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) February 15, 2026

Clutch POY.

I think he's perfect tanking call up. He isn't good, so you get all of the advantages of losing. But at the same time, there may be some young fan interest in going to the game to see the pale dunker kid. I would have signed him if I were Ainge, but it looks like he just signed a two-way with the Bulls.

The problem is there is no way he can get to the basket in the NBA.

He can't do much of anything in the NBA and that's the point. Lose, but maybe generate some interest from curious young fans for a few games who wouldn't otherwise be interested in watching the team intentionally lose.

Guitarsoup said:

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The problem is there is no way he can get to the basket in the NBA.

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He only has to once or twice a game on a fast break or blown assignment. But it'll never happen.

You have to watch him in the NBA. It's not going to generate any interest. He's worse than 2026 Chris Paul. Bulls are better off just playing heavy minutes for Rob Dillingham, who also won't dunk.

Have him out there for pregame dunks could be cool.

Average Joe said:

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Guitarsoup said:

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The problem is there is no way he can get to the basket in the NBA.

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He only has to once or twice a game on a fast break or blown assignment. But it'll never happen.

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Yeah, he has 3 NBA dunks in 125 minutes.

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You have to watch him in the NBA. It's not going to generate any interest.

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I have and it did generate some interest for me. I watched part of a game a couple of years ago because I wanted to see if he could do literally anything productive (he can't). I would also watch part of a Wade Taylor game if he were called up for some reason, even though I know he would be awful.

I think McClung is overrated too. A lot of his good dunks have someone holding thr ball st thr tin for him to tip down. I don't care what you jump over to get there. If someone is holding the ball st the rim for you to tip down it's not that good a dunk.

Seven Costanza said:

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You have to watch him in the NBA. It's not going to generate any interest.

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I have and it did generate some interest for me. I watched part of a game a couple of years ago because I wanted to see if he could do literally anything productive (he can't). I would also watch part of a Wade Taylor game if he were called up for some reason, even though I know he would be awful.

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Yeah, watched part of a game, saw he would never dunk, then never watched again. That's my point.