[The Athletic] In a worst-case scenario, executives said, if starters are pulled from winnable games for no reason before the start of the fourth quarter, those teams (like Indiana, Utah, and Washington) could lose draft picks.
The more egregious tanking situations — the examples Silver used last weekend to declare that tanking is worse in the NBA than it has ever been — are teams like the Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz, who traded for All-Star caliber players and then stashed them on the injured list while their teams continue to lose, and also remove starter-caliber players early from games they could win.
The Jazz and Pacers have already been fined this month by the league office for obvious tanking, and there could be more penalties coming if the behavior continues. In a worst-case scenario, executives said, if starters are pulled from winnable games for no reason before the start of the fourth quarter, those teams could lose draft picks.
Otherwise, the league is fielding ideas from all 30 teams for how to set up a better system that does not incentivize losing. (Marks, one executive said, asked on the call to see all those ideas.) Numerous ideas and input were shared on the call by more than half of the general managers in the league. While Silver’s change in tone was noted, they also said the call was constructive and productive.
Silver’s delivered message was, when it comes to tanking, as summarized by an executive on the call: “This is not who we are going to be as a league.”