Despite Lottery Rules Changes, Tanks Rolling Over NBA
In response to overt tanking by its member clubs, the NBA modified its lottery rules for the 2019 Draft. The odds for the top picks were flattened quite a bit and the order based on standings now begins at pick five instead of four. If each of the three worst teams were to have the exact same chance at the top four picks, the theory went, there would be no incentive to finish last.
It hasn’t worked. A host of teams are all aboard the tank in the race to the bottom this season. There are 1,000 different combinations assigned to the 14 lottery teams, and if one of them thinks it’s better to lose to get maybe 30 extra combinations to get a better shot at a top-five pick, they’re willing to blow their season.
We’re not even at the 2024-25 campaign’s halfway mark and I count seven clubs, including the Nets (13-26), actively trying to lose as many games as possible. When a pair of them have faced off, like on Sunday when Brooklyn visited Utah, the result was a disgrace to the profession.
Injuries are an unfortunate consequence of humans performing incredibly athletic basketball feats. The league and its Players Association refuse to sacrifice money to reduce the schedule’s density and injury risk. I can’t blame them. However, tankers are taking advantage of this side effect by, ahem, massaging their daily injury reports.
Nets Head Coach Jordi Fernandez knows enough English such that his early season statement that he wants his players at “200%” before they can take the court is not merely hyperbole. Based on actual events, Brooklyn seems to have no problem with holding players who claimed to the media that they are ready to return out for additional games. Guard D’Angelo Russell was kicked in the shin during a January 4 loss to Philadelphia. He’s been out since with a “contusion.” Cue the Herb Brooks character portrayed by Kurt Russell in the film “Miracle”, who screamed at one of his players. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You got a bad bruise!” Only this is Bizarro World where the Nets are fine with DLo missing games. I’m not a doctor nor do I have access to Russell’s medical records that confirmed a diagnosis, but I do know that past players have been able to perform through greater pain when needed.
Only the Nets have no need for a player who might help them win an extra game or three. General Manager Sean Marks intimated that when he told the New York Post’s Brian Lewis at the start of the Nets’ six-game road trip, “We’re going to have to be systematic with some of the decisions we make. And they may not always be in line with winning the next game or putting the most talent out there.”
That didn’t sit well with some of Brooklyn’s remaining veterans, like Nic Claxton and Ben Simmons, the latter of whom said after the Nets’ 112-111 overtime loss to the Jazz, “I know this is kind of like a rebuild situation, but we’ve got to go in there like we want to win regardless of what the front office is expecting.”
It’s not like Utah was all that enthused about the prospect of winning this game either. They made ten players available, sitting center Walker Kessler because of what their injury report labelled “rest.” Kessler is 23 years old. Mikal Bridges just vomited. Utah was on a back-to-back, but the Kessler designation makes it seem like he’ll need an oxygen tank to get through the games when he’s 28.
Those that did suit up played the best they could, Pro athletes do not tank; it just can look that way when they’re surrounded by so many others on the court who do not belong there. Jazz veteran guard Collin Sexton was apoplectic when his young teammate Brice Sensabaugh lollygagged the ball upcourt without any pressure whatsoever to commit an 8-second violation with 15 seconds remaining in a tie game.
In the end, someone had to win, and it wasn’t going to be the Nets. They should have taken their foul to give with the clock ticking under 5 seconds to go in overtime instead of letting Jazz rookie Isaiah Collier waltz to the rim for the game-winning layup and then botched the play call for the final 2.4 seconds, not even getting up a shot. (By the way, why was Tyrese Martin starting the set in the backcourt? He’s not exactly a speed demon.) That the last shot was meant for Tosan Evbuomwan, who signed a two-way contract two weeks ago, speaks volumes.
With the loss, Brooklyn moved to within 2.5 games of Utah for fifth place in the reverse standings. They visit seventh-worst Portland on Tuesday. What a barnburner that will be.
Stories like Martin’s and Evbuomwan’s, who combined to score 33 points on Sunday, are a nice change of pace, but they’re not supposed to be the marquee attractions for extended periods. Nets fans are paying NBA prices for tickets and TV subscriptions for a G League product. The team is said to still be looking to trade away valuable players (hopefully for better returns than the Dennis Schroder giveaway to Golden State). It doesn’t need to be this way.
The fix is pretty simple. Everyone outside the play-in gets a 10% chance for each of the top 10 slots. Finish last? You get a 10% chance at No.1 and No. 10. That’s it—you stink, you’re guaranteed a top ten pick. The only unintended consequence I can foresee is that maybe there could be a team (more likely in the East—I can’t envision current 11th seed Golden State tanking with Stephen Curry healthy) that might want to forego the Play-In Tournament, Commissioner Adam Silver’s pride and joy, for the lottery.
But that might be two teams hoping to lose out instead of seven, with the tanking starting much later than Day 1 of a marathon NBA season.