By changing the probabilities of obtaining the best Draft choices in 2019, then by definitively establishing the “play-in” seen in 2020 in “the bubble”, without forgetting the fines, the NBA has found interesting weapons to limit “tanking”, that is to say the practice of voluntarily losing matches to move up in the Draft, in recent years.
This arsenal thus prevents franchises from throwing away entire seasons, as Philadelphia did during the “Process” era. More teams are competitive for more time during the regular season. Even if it’s not perfect, especially when they no longer have any chance of making the playoffs.
What if we no longer drafted twice in a row in the Top 4?
Also, ESPN tells us that the NBA raised the subject again recently, with the owners and GMs of the franchises, in order to find new solutions. The recent illegal betting scandals, with Terry Rozier and Chauncey Billups, were not far away since absences can be more numerous among players at the end of the season, when there is nothing left to play, and therefore more likely to be at the center of betting.
Among the ideas launched, we find:
– limiting protections to the Top 4 or Top 14 to avoid the balancing acts of certain teams
– no longer allow a team to draft two years in a row in the Top 4
– block the balance sheets for the “lottery” on March 1 and more at the end of the regular season
The idea for NBA leaders was to push teams that did not qualify for the playoffs, but which still had modest ambitions, to play until the end of the season.
How to make the last few weeks interesting for everyone?
It would not be for teams undergoing total reconstruction who will be weak whatever happens. And with a record stopped on March 1, a mediocre team would no longer have any interest in not playing seriously in the last weeks of the regular season, nor in putting its stars in the fridge.
On the other hand, this can also cause the opposite effect, with franchises which will give up more quickly to have the worst possible record on the fateful date. Whereas the “play-in” was precisely intended to push them to give themselves longer… Hence the difficulty of finding the right dosage, faced with this problem which is insoluble.
But the league is thinking of behaviors that it no longer wants to see. The first example is that of the Mavericks, who threw away the last matches of the 2022/23 regular season, and took a $750,000 fine in the process, to keep their first round Draft choice, while they could aim for “play-in”.
The second is the Jazz, also sanctioned, for having left Lauri Markkanen to rest at the end of last season, to accumulate defeats. And this season, their first round of Draft is protected if it is in the Top 8. And as currently, Utah is in the race for the “play-in”, the chances of losing it exist. Therefore, it will be interesting to observe how the franchise behaves in the spring…
