May 12, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, United States; Rolando Blackman of the Dallas Mavericks poses with NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum after winning the top pick in the 2025 NBA Draft Lottery at McCormick Place. Mandatory credit: David Banks-Imagn Images | David Banks-Imagn Images
It’s been a week without basketball and a week of FREAKING OUT because of hockey???? These hockey people love chaos, because oh my god, the stress?? As I wipe away tears after the Canadian women lost the gold medal earlier today, another interesting piece of news came into my feed.
Apparently Adam Silver is about to bring the hammer down on TANKING.
As someone who has followed the Toronto Raptors for the past few seasons, I know a thing or two about the tank machine. It’s a miserable ride. However, if done well, it can lead to good things. See: Scottie Barnes.
The overall product, however, when you’re mid-tank, is horrible. Naturally, the league wants to try to fight him. They need to do something because the enthusiasm to pay the price of 2026 NBA games to watch a team tank is low. Nobody wants that. It’s one thing to pay money to go see a good game, and then your team ends up losing – it’s completely different to pay hundreds of dollars to go see a team lose on purpose so they can have a good 19 year old player and be a good team in 3 seasons. It’s not a good system.
I also admit that I don’t have the answer. I’m really curious how the league is trying to get stricter on tanking, in addition to what it already does. Being strict on injury management tactics, taking away rewards from players who only play a certain number of games all help, but clearly not enough. Ultimately, there will also be a pro-tank group — the kind of people willing to sacrifice a season of good hoops in exchange for a generational player.
My two cents here comes from the fact that I watch a lot of WNBA basketball. The WNBA, because it is a smaller league with shorter seasons, uses data from the past two seasons to create its draft odds. This means a team can’t just have one season and then have top draft odds. You have to be the worst for two seasons to have the best draft odds, and well…you’re not really trying to do that, it just happens. In the WNBA, this is currently happening because some franchises are behind in terms of facilities and player processing, making them less than ideal free agency destinations, meaning they aren’t getting the best players. This makes you not a very competitive team, and well, then you get good draft chances.
For example, the Connecticut Sun. They reached the WNBA semifinals in 2024, but did not make the playoffs in 2025. They were the third-worst team in 2025, but entered the lottery with the fifth-best odds due to their strong showing the previous year. I don’t know if extending draft chances to two years in the NBA would help or hinder their problem.
So tell me, what do you think of the NBA’s crackdown on tanking? Can they? Is this a good idea? Also, what’s your big idea on WHAT exactly they do? Let me know in the comments:
