[Highlight] Reporter: How close were you to putting Jaren or Lauri back in the game in the 4th quarter? Will Hardy: I wasn’t.
They’re not even trying to hide it
Have we considered that Cody Williams and Kyle Filipowski might just be better than those bums? >!/j!<
What’s actually happening is, the Jazz are tanking for 3 quarters then playing their best players for the 4th quarter. 4D chess right there!!
At the end of the 2022-2023 season Jason Kidd straight up admitted to tanking
This is nothing
For like a single game. This year it was blantant tanking in january
fr this is pre-all star weekend tanking
All the more reason to punish the Jazz & Mavericks & Wizards by moving their picks to the end of the 1st round this year.
I can’t imagine why a kings fan would want that
I’m just a fair and rational person. I also believe the 76ers should be punished for the Process Era, probably by being forced to max Paul George again.
I would say Kings should be forced to trade away their best player every 3 years but they do that anyway
Why would the Kings be punished? We’re not tanking like they were. We’re just stinkier than Kensington Avenue!
You’re tanking by signing a bunch of has beens that might be even worse
It’s good for the integrity of the league that Russell Westbrook gets to play 30 minutes a night.
The Mavs play their two best players at >30 mins a game (Cooper and Najii). Kyrie has been out with a torn ACL. Lively season ending for surgery. AD had multiple injuries and when he did okay they win half those games. How is this taking compared to Utah?
Kings are also making up fake injuries, albeit unique ones such as “5th finger soreness”.
Zach Lavine’s injury is serious. If you follow Kings beat reporters, then you might know that he injured his finger from flipping off the fans too much during games.
Punish them by removing the pick protection causing them to tank. Don’t check my flair and who would get it.
Okay move our pick to the end of the draft and we will compete. I don’t know if you guys understand this, but the MAIN reason we are tanking is so that OKC does not get a lottery pick. The second reason is because we have a chance at getting another solid asset to add to our roster.
If the Jazz didn’t owe their pick to OKC this year they wouldn’t be tanking. I would even say if the Jazz owed their pick to some random team in the east they probably wouldn’t be tanking, but we owe the pick to the defending champions so I think it makes sense to tank to make sure we get that asset and not them.
I have watched nearly every game this season this team is good, but in all honesty we still would be ending up in the lottery or slightly out of it, and that is just another pick to add to OKCs arsenal.
If we just lost the pick completely that would be extremely annoying to the Jazz’s front office, but it would be better than OKC getting it.
This Jazz team is hardly the first team to blatantly tank for an extended stretch
i swear they did this same shit last year
if memory serves, Donald Sterling talked about how to be a good team you need to get a top pick and tank. they took like three first round picks away from them or some shit
They blackballed Hinkie for blatantly tanking, let’s see if Soft Silver does anything about this new wave of teams openly racing towards the bottom. It’s just the Jazz there’s a whole bunch of them doing this.
Hinkie began this modern “tanking” by trading away all their best players. But before him, no team had done that before. So it was very blatant.
But he wasn’t pulling his starters in the 4th quarter, which is much worse
Tanking 1 game vs tanking for 5 years straight. “Nothing” 🤡
That team was not good and they got fined for it too.
Current Jazz roster is so good that the coach has to try hard to lose.
I get the sense Will Hardy would almost rather get fired. It must me miserable to coach this team which would already be losing a lot regardless and being instructed to sit his few good players on top of that.
I mean they’re gonna try next year, just has to tough it out for 30 games
No he’s had to tough it out for like a couple years now lol
I think this is the 3rd consecutive season wherein Hardy constructed a beautiful system to extract every bit of talent from his squad to show some life in January, only for Ainge to decide to shut down his players in February.
Blazers GM and Dame both openly said we were tanking multiple times over multiple seasons and got no consequences
okc didn’t hide it and they got the chip years later so
And the Jazz are getting magnitudes of hate compared to the Thunder
this changes nothing
We won?
Adam Silver is a disgrace between how he’s handling this and the Kawhi thing
Why should they?
i think spo has to answer the media to why his starters got outplayed by collier and rookies
Couldn’t outplay Cody Williams 😂😂😂
Cody Williams has been good this season though?
cody williams has been good for, at best, this last month
He’s been aight. 8th 9th man next year
6/2/1 on 53% TS. Better than last year, but that isn’t saying much.
I mean Ware in foul trouble early and eventually fouled out, and no Norm tonight. So not exactly the full squad to judge against. Obviously Herro DNP continues too. We had no shooters (other than our rookie pg seemingly breaking out the last two games). Bam fadeaway middies are never gonna be the difference maker.
Not making excuses (I am though), that was an embarrassing loss.
Honestly idk why bam and Wiggins weren’t just attacking the paint every possession. Kyle Filipowski at C has literally no shot of stopping anyone down low and it literally worked every time they tried. Idk why they didn’t just go back to that every single play down the stretch.
jesus christ that pfp is breaking my brain
Out of the loop, why is Herro getting DNPed?
Went from long ass toe injury to long ass rib injury. Hopefully back after the allstar break, who knows. We need him back desperately.
Spo answered this after the game. His response, almost verbatim, was “I don’t know. We’re working on it.” We’re cooked.
I can answer for him. The team isn’t that good and was missing one of the top 2 players
Collier should be their starter
Tbf Collier has been on an absolute heater this month.
Bro got mad they won
Ainge fined him $25k tonight
About to hobble the squad like Misery.
More like he is sick of this tanking bullshit that Ainge is doing. Will Hardy is one of the best coaches out there, and has shown that he can extract every bit talent of his roster just for Ainge to shut his players down for the tank.
Whoever gets drafted by the Jazz is gonna feel like the most sought after person in the world
they are paying Dybansta to go to BYU so… Dybansta.
That’s kinda fked up, they are clogged with talented forwards.
you certainly don’t pick in the top 3 of this draft for fit unless you are already a top tier contender (lol) like okc, indiana, spurs
indiana and spurs should be drafting bpa
Everyone should draft bpa even okc
You always pick BPA in the top 3. Doing otherwise is how you end up with a Wiseman
Till they do this again next year and he wonder what he did to deserve such a fate
Jesus
This is the difference between ethical tanking and unethical tanking.
Man we tanked “ethically” last year with the 2nd worst record & got pick 6, I’m not trying to hear that shit anymore
Jazz ethically tanked 2 years in a row and got the 9th pick twice in a row while Spurs got Wemby.
Cook. I don’t even like y’all but cook.
Not gonna lie those years were half ass tanks… we didn’t trade vets until the deadline both years and by that time our record was too good to realistically secure a good spot in the lottery
Point Sochan’s greatest assist was helping the Spurs get Wemby
For real, we ethically tanked and got pick 7. What’s the point?
Ain’t no such thing as “unethical” or “ethical” tanking. These are just arbitrary lines people are trying to draw. Definitionally, tanking teams are intentionally not trying to be competitive, which goes against the nature of competitive sports.
Theres degrees to things its not all just black and white. Like not all felonies are equally bad.
Yea it’s a such a silly argument. Theres obviously a difference selling off assets to rebuild and pulling starters in January for no reason other than to lose.
Mind you, I don’t blame the Jazz. If Adam Silver does absolutely nothing to address this, then he’s clearly okay with teams gaming the system so blatantly. Why NOT hard tank at that point? I put the blame fully on Silver.
Ethically tanked in the Paolo/chet draft got 5th pick, ethically tanked in the wemby draft got 5th
They would sit him too
Ainge is corrupting this man’s soul like Anakin Skywalker
Such a joke. Unserious league with an unserious commissioner. There is still two more months of the regular season left and the Jazz are pulling healthy starters in the 4th to intentionally lose
They won the game.
because the players will never throw on purpose. they are playing for their future every night. management is actively trying to lose and its not subtle. its really bad for the league.
Exactly. They don’t want to tank, this is an audition for another contract with their current team or another around the league. There is zero incentive for a player to tank just so the organization can draft someone to take their job. The organization however certainly does and it’s why we see them instructing the coach to sit guys who would otherwise help them win.
It used to be the GM can tank but the coach/players don’t. Now that the coach is tanking, things have gone a little too far. And I say that as a wizards fan who are doing the same shit
The players aren’t trying to tank but the organization is. They were trying to lose but the professionals have pride and are in the league for a reason.
You act like that’s relevant
They blatantly sandbagged and still won, so are now unhappy. This is hilarious.
I’m trying to figure out, and this goes for all tanking teams, what do the players feel like during this stretch of the season?
For the first time(maybe not some of the Jazz players) in their lives, they’re not being coached to win the game. Insert Herm Edwards Gif here. And then for the fringe rotation players still on rookie deals, there’s a good chance that if your team does get a top 5 pick… that mf is gonna take your spot.
They honestly seem to be more excited. Much more energy after the trade. After the trade it became clear that next season we will begin to compete. Just need to suck for a few more months
Not all of them will be around for it. Some are having to tank their own stock, only to be replaced anyway. Those that will be around had to give up years of their career for it. Lauri is going to be 29 and has never played a meaningful game, its sad
The ones not guaranteed to be here are getting plenty of play time and just got to close out and win the game. Definitely not ruining their stock.
The ones resting will be here next year and know it will improve our odds at being a championship team.
Winning these games is a sure fire way to make sure that Lauri continues to not play meaningful games. If we get a top 3 pick we have a chance at contending sometime soon. He’s fine losing for another 2 months for that reward
Some are definitely hurt by it. Think of the awards and recognition that someone like Lauri has had to give up while in Utah. He should be all NBA but has no chance sitting on the bench. That also hurts his pay. Hes never played a meaningful game and hes in his prime, its just a sucky position. Now JJJ has to be shutdown while in his prime too.
I understand bad teams being at the top of the lottery, but I hate the idea that teams with legitimate talent manipulate their way there multiple seasons. If the Jazz like their roster, and bought at the deadline, but simultaneously internally still think they are awful and deserve a top pick, its a mixed message.
They already have 2 all stars in their prime. They have a good young center, and a great young point guard. Fans talk about Hardy like a demigod coach. They just drafted Ace. If thats not enough to consider competing I’m not sure what else could be out there to wait for.
If they end up with like the 6th pick, do they tank again?
They are probably going to tank next season again after they get the 5th pick or something instead of the top 3 prospects
Yep. This is what happened to Sochan and why he probably asked for a trade this season. He played his role during the Spurs’ tanking seasons and then lost his place in the rotation when we started winning. And then didn’t get traded either despite the deadline passing. Dude can’t be in a happy place right now.
Yeah has to be bizarre. Someone like Brice stepped up and played well, does he get yelled at by Hardy in the locker room for it?
Losing is ingrained in this Utah squad so losing games is nothing to them.
At what point do coaches start calling timeouts when their own team goes on a run, subbing out all point guards and playing mismatched line-ups?
Coward
Hes just following orders courtesy of Danny Ainge lol
How does Will Hardy describe his job to his family? “I’m a basketball coach but I’m actually trying to lose”
We literally won the game thanks to great play from 1st and 2nd year players in Bailey, Collier and Bryce.
Giving these young fellas the opportunity to learn to close games is what a rebuild should be.
But he plays for the Griz
Nah. It’s the league’s fault. The incentive structure is such that a lot of teams are consistently convinced that losing now is better long term. You would intentionally suck ass at your job too if you thought it would get you promoted.
I intentionally suck at my job even when it won’t get me promoted so you’re right
Adam Silvers league ladies and gents!
Adam in his office thinking of ways to prevent tanking. “How about a 2nd in season tournament, funded by even MORE Saudi money?!?!?”
“It’s ok…the fans got enough clips to watch online from the first half.”
Garbage 💩
Am I wrong or is it really weird for a head coach to be tanking? I get it when the GM dismantles the roster, but in this case the GM made the team better and the coach is trying to lose.
GM is the one telling him to bench those guys in the 4th
It’s an open secret that the GM is whole heartedly signing off on tanking. Danny Ainge knows what it takes to win a championship with this roster: accumulate as much talent as possible and shoot for a superstar. The head coach is being asked explicitly to tank for a top pick and then they’re gonna run it back next year with Kessler and a top 3 pick (they hope). He’s probably been given assurance that he will stay on next season so he can maintain the tank with job security
He signed a 5 year contract last year.
It’s surreal that Hardy’s stuck around throughout this entire rebuild because being in this situation makes it a tough tell just how good he is as a coach with a competitive roster that isn’t trying to tank. I’ve heard a lot of things from how he’s able to make the most out of what he has to bad team defenses, which looks divisive from the outside for someone leading a rebuild.
Ownership, GM, and coach are all on the same page here.
Blud doesn’t understand the nba
Yeah unlike other tanking teams, the Jazz have a really good roster right now.
So he has to very intentionally throw games, players could lose respect for him, he then gets fired for losing the locker, and the tank losses are permanent on his career record.
This very sub claimed even after trading for JJJ and potentially obtaining a high pick, the Jazz would be, at best, a play-in team next season.
Just how good could this roster really be right now?
Thank God I had that Pistons-Hornets game to cleanse myself from shit like this
this is so much worse than the process sixers
Brett Brown was agonizing over losses. He wanted to win every game.
This guy is smirking about throwing games. That is your coach. Is this basically match fixing?
imo process sixers was worse. fielding teams with barely-nba talent, and then as soon as anyone has anyone has any type of value, gut the team for picks and start over. to me that’s much more offensive to the ‘integrity of the sport’ or whatever. and i still don’t think it was ethically wrong or anything.
guys like Covington, Jerami Grant, and TJ McConnell were on those tanking teams and Nerlens helped make us a top 10 defense.
sixers didnt trade anyone that they should be upset about at the time or in hindsight. They were just a bunch of average players like Thad Young and Evan Turner. The team was already gutted from the Bynum trade which predated the whole thing.
At least the Sixers put together a dog shit roster, Jazz made a winning move at the deadline and refuse to play the guy!
Hardy is playing and developing the young guys that will be around going forward. Thats 100% better than throwing out a shit roster thats going to get cut by the time you get better.
He’s not smirking, Jesus, and nobody “throwing” games. A touch melodramatic, aren’t we?
This is disgusting levels of tanking.
Just a devastating win for Hardy
How does Will Hardy explain his job to his wife
I wonder if Silver is going to do or say anything, I don’t particularly care but he certainly does and this is extremely blatant any way you slice it. They did get the win though
Silver: With the 9th pick in the NBA draft…
It would be okc if they fell to ninth
Can someone explain to me why the fuck the nba would come after the thunder who are legitimately injured vs blatantly trying to throw games. How are they not getting fined for this?????
The modern NBA likes to create rules that require no subjectivity to enforce. It’s hard to make a rule around rotation decisions without the potential for legitimate coaching strategy “catching strays”.
For example, coach Popovich used to have games where he would be so disgusted by the defensive effort of his starters that he would pull everyone and put in guys who “wanted to play”. If you try to make a “catch-all” rule you limit how much coaches can play with situational lineups.
I’m guessing the Jazz get back to “injuries” in the near future as their primary tanking strategy, though. There’s a lot of narrative around the team at this point.
Fined for coaches in game decision
Because if they game ain’t on cable tv or streaming, they don’t care.
So instead of “finding new systems/ways to combat tanking and fix the draft” can we just actually punish teams? What Dallas did in 22-23 and their blatant messaging around it, what Jazz and company are doing here and now not even trying to hide it, it’s just ridiculous.
Meanwhile fandoms stupidly keep lumping Kings in with actually tanking teams when we are just that bad lol. If we wanna tank, we play our star vet players, not sit them. Our best gams and close/actual wins come from all our young core guys/rookies playing big minutes and looking like a real team out there together.
Jazz got better this deadline, they can’t start having worse results, it’s ridiculous and commissioner is a joke for letting it fly. It’s Utah, punish them, league hates small market teams anyway so use them to set an example since we know it won’t happen to darling Indiana who is about to own the East for the next half decade.
I’m a mavs fan and I agree 100%, although in our case it was only the final 2 games after being eliminated from the play in. Utah is doing this with 1⁄3 of the season left
The only change you can make that doesn’t reward teams for tanking is a pure lottery.
Teams deserve to be punished for tanking, but by far the biggest thing is to stop rewarding it.
You can really just nuke the teams lol, we were doing “fine” before. I feel like blaming the system is literally just enabling the Jazz to game throw, we shouldn’t be deeming this acceptable.
You need to punish them, this isn’t your standard every day tanking this is advanced tanking
Actually question, is Utah technically breaking any rules? It’s unsportsmanlike and lame but it’s not illegal to be unsportsmanlike and lame. Idk if Silver even really can punish them without proof of major rule violations
We used to have that (fun fact). The issue the NBA had with that system was that some really bad teams (like the kings) would continue to get stuff like the 8th pick then the 6th pick then the 12th pick and so on. This would keep basement dwellers like the kings in the basement and you’d have teams that were close or at the 8th or 7th seeds or even higher tank near the end of the season to have a shot at a top pick even though they almost made the playoffs.
the sixers got punished so harshly that surely no one would ever tank again
the lottery odds changed, tanking is saved!
Silver is a clown. He ruined the process for literally no reason if he wont punish these other teams.
Yeah so now instead of teams trying to get a good pick by being the worst… we have the actually worst teams getting picks 5-8 and middling/play-in teams like the Spurs, Dallas and Atlanta getting the Top 1 and 2 picks over the last couple seasons lol so rich get richer and poor get poorer.
Way fucking worse solution than just giving the worst teams the best odds to improve their teams. Especially when so many small market teams can only do so with the draft as nobody wants to go there or be traded there or if they do, want to be paid even more than they’d take elsewhere. It’s dumb. Worst teams should have best odds clear cut, you punish for teams purposefully tanking or gaming the system and have a committee watch teams for this intentional behavior and management of games and players.
Rotate the order of the draft each year regardless of record; every 30 years each team will have the top pick (traded picks notwithstanding, of course).
(Not even joking) An end-season tournament of sorts where the non-playoff teams battle single-elimination to determine draft order.
I dunno, just a couple off the top of the dome.
the heat are so committed to anti tanking that we dont even let other team do it lol
oh another note i just cant imagine being a player on a team doing this, u can make fans understand it for the pick but half these players r ones that might get replaced by the draft pick
With gambling so involved in sports I do not see how Silver can let this shit go unchecked. And it’s just bad for the product/entertainment value in general
We wouldn’t want this to interfere with the gamblers, now, would we?
The funny thing is Vegas was the one making absolute fucking bank tonight. Heat were a 6 point favorite and do you know how many people hammered the ever living fuck out of Heat ML once it was obvious Jazz starters weren’t playing in the 4th…. And the Heat STILL lost.
I mean look at the last draft, the system is trash and how would a small market get out of mediocrity in another way?
I’m anti-tanking. But serious answers only, what do you expect the Jazz to do here? They’re not good enough to win anything. And if they try as hard as they can they will lose their draft pick in a really great draft. What do you think they should do in the best interest of their franchise?
Still won too…
They have to be punished for this. Unacceptable and makes the product worse for the league.
I’d love if they started stripping draft picks, made it so you couldn’t put protections on picks, and evened out the odds of the lottery even more
I agree with your idea. But for those who don’t agree, the NBA can make the lottery odds equal but with a few adjustment depending on draft luck from consecutive lottery years. Something like getting a top 8-top 14 draft, increases your odds for the next draft and vice versa for top 1-top 7.
Bottomline is Adam Silver can fix this if he prioritizes it, he has shown wild ideas in the form of the all-star format, but goddamn he is too focus on TV deals, and sponsorships instead of ironing out the league.
Just even out the lottery odds completely
Does anyone ask why he pulls them and sits them?
Right. Has anyone just tried asking for an explanation? Let us hear the defense — or lack of one.
Yeah, you’d think the follow-up question would be why is he sitting them at all.
From a more optimistic perspective, how do they know what the younger guys are made of if you don’t play them and put them in live pressure situations?
The Jazz aren’t making the playoffs even if they play every game like it’s their last. Why not use the long regular season to explore what the younger guys actually have, and see whether they’re worth investing time in and keeping on the roster going forward?
hey, someone gets it
Should’ve just said “Got the dub, didn’t need to”
Reporter: Are you tanking?
Will Hardy: Yes.
full disclosure, i am a jazz fan
so the jazz are obviously not making a playoff run this year
so, like, why should they try to? wouldn’t it make more sense, for the team’s future, even if they didn’t have a draft pick, to try to get more valuable minutes for their young guys that are going to be part of the future? lauri and jjj are who they are. shouldn’t the jazz’s best decision now be to try to put sensebaugh, cody williams, isaiah collier, ace bailey, and kyle filipowski in meaningful minutes in closeout situations? so that they can actually get better?
imo the tanking is not the problem. as long as the lottery exists, there will be tanking, there’s nothing you can do. half the teams are not making the playoffs every season, and fewer have even a chance of dreaming about it. that’s…fine? i don’t see why this is as disastrous as people are making it out to be.
Didn’t need them.
Thats not very subtle of you Will lmao
Adam silver has no spine if he doesn’t punish them (which he probably doesn’t)
My wizards a few days ago pulled the starters because we were beating the kings at home and the back ups ended up winning all those back ups were traded for AD like 3 day’s later.
How are we supposed to compete with this?
Our entire roster gets hurt, we have a one year chance to add a massively impactful player right into our long term timeline… and we have the Jazz to compete against. They have a complete tyrannical grip on the tank. They are tank. It just isn’t fair. lol.
10-4 we got em.
Obviously he knew the game was won. He had Miami on the ropes and didn’t need his best players to finish the lowly Heat. /s
unironically cold
Tankmogged that reporter
Really hope the Jazz and Wizards don’t get rewarded in the lottery for their blatant tanking
They’ve never been rewarded before…
Then again Spurs got rewarded for it.
High iq play by reporter lmaooo
Just needed a follow up question- “why not?”
Full answer: “I only regret not sitting them sooner”
The NBA will get their penance when the Jazz get the 9th pick and it goes to OKC with the ‘lottery odds.’
Bench players will always try to make a name for themselves, so not much a tanking team can do if they are decent.
That was a quick “I wasn’t” too.
dude what
Crazy….
Wait. That’s an actual wild thing to admit just like that. We have to keep that hush hush 😭
Can’t wait for the tank off Wednesday!!!
Tanks don’t tank themselves.
The MLB-fication of the NBA
Maybe they should do a reverse lottery of sorts? Don’t assign draft pick order, but the lottery directly assigns the player to the team? Like say you have the worst record. And all of the top 10 players are placed in a lottery. You get whatever player the ping pong balls say you get. So you’re the worst team in 2025, and oh well, the ping pong balls say you get Dylan Harper (instead of Flagg). 🤷♂️
did anyone ask why?
No because when he answers “give experience to young players, see how they perform closing out games” they don’t get to run the “jazz coach admits to deliberately losing games. It’s disingenuous reporting.
It’s getting kinda tiresome watching multiple franchises blatantly do the same thing my franchise was eviscerated for
When are their FO’s getting booted out of the league?
None of these teams are doing what 76ers did.
76ers traded away ANYONE who was remotely playable during the process to be as bad as they could.
Utah and Washington are actually holding onto their valuable guys and traded for valuable players this season, not just sought draft picks.
Markkanen would not have lasted on the 76ers during the Hinkie years. He would have been traded for picks. Utah have held onto him, and just been bad.
76ers were blatantly intentionally bad and no one has followed that model since.
Yay, fuck the jazz
COACHES TANK
Will Silver fine him?
The Heat should be ashamed. They’re playing at home against a team that’s blatantly tanking and they can’t even win
I thought the nba was going to clean up this garbage? Adam silver is the worst commissioner ever.
I know they won but they’re blatantly tanking and until someone faces real consequences nothing will change. We’re going to need someone to lose a top 5 pick to get the anti-tank ball rolling and I don’t see why Utah can’t start the ball rolling.