The topic of NBA teams tanking has continued to make rounds over the past few weeks, but it was uncertain if the league would do anything about it. It looks as if NBA commissioner Adam Silver has stepped in, and he's planning to set some new rules for next season regarding anti-tanking, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
“Commissioner Adam Silver informed the league's 30 general managers on Thursday that the NBA plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season, sources tell ESPN. Stakeholders have intensified dialogue about combatting tanking,” Charania wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
During the meeting, there were several topics discussed on ways to curb tanking, which included 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, and flatten odds for all lottery teams.
Over the past few weeks, teams such as the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers were fined. The Jazz were fined after sitting Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen in the fourth quarter of two games, and the Pacers were fined after sitting Pascal Siakam in their game against the Utah Jazz, as the league found out he could have played.
Bennedict Mathurin, Andrew Nembhard, and T.J McConnell were also fit to play in the game but sat out.
There have been other situations throughout the league where some suspect that some sort of tanking is going on. Anthony Davis will probably not play for the remainder of the season for the Washington Wizards, and there's a chance Trae Young will be on that list.
Meanwhile, for the Sacramento Kings, both Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis have been shut down for the rest of the season.
