NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his executive team raised eyebrows earlier this month when they slapped sanctions on multiple teams for recent game management and roster decisions. The Utah Jazz were handed a $500k fine for their handling of Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. during games against the Orlando Magic (Feb 7) and the Miami Heat (Feb 9).

On the same day, last year’s NBA Championship finalists, the Indiana Pacers, were also fined $100k for violating the player participation policy during their 131-122 loss to the Jazz. This rare move by NBA officials highlighted their determination to curb the ever-increasing issue of tanking, which is affecting the league’s integrity on the global stage.

Earlier this evening, ESPN reporter Shams Charania revealed that a meeting was held with all 30 franchise GMs on Thursday. His sources confirmed that Mr. Silver is working on a seven-point plan to address overt or covert tanking by a few teams.

Proposed Seven-Point Plan to Tackle Tanking

•First-round picks can be protected only top-4 or top-14+
•Lottery odds freeze at the trade deadline or a later date
•No longer allowing a team to pick top 4 in consecutive years and/or after consecutive bottom-3 finishes
•Teams can’t pick top-4 the year after making conference finals
•Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records
•Lottery extended to include all play-in teams
•Flatten odds for all lottery teams

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These anti-tanking measures proposed in today’s meeting aim to deter intentional losing by limiting draft incentives and stabilizing the NBA draft lottery. They address overt and ‘soft’ tanking by teams like the Jazz, the Pacers, the Washington Wizards and the Detroit Pistons, through pick protections, freezes, bans, and flattened odds.

“I think we’re coming at it in two ways. One is, again, focusing on the here and now, the behaviour we’re seeing from our teams and doing whatever we can to remind them of what their obligation is to the fans and to their partner teams,” Commissioner Silver said during All-Star Weekend. “But number two, as I also said in that statement, the Competition Committee started earlier this year reexamining the whole approach to how the draft lottery works,” he added.

The proposed measures will see teams focus on competing in all 82 regular-season games. It will also force organizations in transition/rebuilds to look for talent in the free-agent pool. This could see trade markets heat pre-deadline as picks lose value and high-performing teams gain parity, with fewer talent-hoarding bottom-feeders. However, critics point out that the two-year record rule could lead teams to underperform in back-to-back seasons to improve their lottery odds.

Mat Ishbia Urges Adam Silver to impose Anti-tanking regulations

At his annual All-Star Weekend press meet, Mr. Silver admitted that the tanking behavior seen by teams this season is “worse than we’ve seen in recent memory”. Phoenix Suns owner Matt Ishbia doubled down on those comments, adding that tanking is “losing behavior done by losers”.

The 46-year-old CEO did not mince his words when talking about the plague of tanking affecting the league right now. A small subsection of NBA fans is pointing fingers directly at Silver and his team for enabling this behavior over the last five seasons. But Ishbia remains confident in Silver’s ability to beat these allegations.

“We want to have fair competition, we want to have fair systems and to keep an eye on the fans, most importantly, and their expectation that we’re going to be putting the best product forward,” Silver said on the weekend.

The league has addressed this issue in recent years, with a $750k fine handed out to the Dallas Mavericks in 2023 after they benched most of their key players in a late-season game despite still being in contention for a playoff spot.

As NBA stakeholders confront the escalating tanking crisis head-on, the league stands at a pivotal crossroad. These proposed changes promise fairer competition and a product fans crave, but success hinges on enforcement. Ultimately, rooting out tanking could restore parity, boost attendance, and elevate the NBA’s integrity, ensuring every game counts.