Adam Silver is a coward

[collidingNeurons]

He said tanking would be met with "the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office."

So apparently the harshest thing they can do is basically nothing. Or, they really don't give AF

which would mean you have to punish pretty much everyone but maybe Brooklyn of the bottom 9, which includes trying to come up with definitive proof and criteria

[dirkforpres]

Seriously who cares. Tanking isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and it guarantees absolutely nothing anyway

[zimpy27]

Tanking is a part of the NBA now.

[whocurrz]

I mean he can do more if you want a commissioner always butting into everything but then it’s a slippery slope like NFL. But at least there have been warnings and an attempt at lottery reform where even though bad teams get picks (which is necessary) there won’t be as intense of a race to be the absolute worst.

[antonac]

you incentivise losing and teams try and lose.

gee, I wonder why that could be happening.

[Javier Acosta]

I mean he can do more if you want a commissioner always butting into everything but then it’s a slippery slope like NFL. But at least there have been warnings and an attempt at lottery reform where even though bad teams get picks (which is necessary) there won’t be as intense of a race to be the absolute worst.

The last team that needed to be warned was the Mavericks period. They tried to compete unlike other teams.

[RGM_SU]

The Mavericks have by far the best SRS of all tanking teams. If we go down the list of all teams that are seriously tanking right now:

Suns: -9.05
Kings: -6.91
Bulls: -6.17
Grizzlies: -5.53
Hawks: -5.35
Magic: -4.65
Knicks: -3.82
Mavericks: -2.07

Dallas has the 5th-worst record right now. The team with the 5th-worst SRS are the Hawks. The gap in SRS between the Mavs and Hawks is bigger than the gap between the Mavs and some teams in the playoff hunt (like the Pelicans, Heat, Bucks or Wizards).

The Mavericks are tanking without completely embarrassing themselves like the Suns or Grizz. They still play their main guys, Barnes has played in 75 of the 78 games, Dirk in 77 of the 78 for example, and keep most games competitive.

[lambchop]

To be fair, if I'm a non playoff team at this point I rrest my main guys tp avoid injuries

[SOUL]

To be fair, everybody besides Vucevic has been injured for a while or banged up every other game in Isaac's case.

[The_Hater]

Ultimately you can’t stop this from happening, the teams know it and Silver knows it. Silver has said a few things and implemented some loose ‘rules’ to try to feed angry fans the illusion that the league is trying to stop it, but it’s still an illusion.

[Novocaine]

Ever since this news came out

Everyone thought Adam Silver was going to do something about these transparent tanking team.'

Both teams basically held out their entire starting lineup, and yet the Bulls get warned for not playing Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday, even though Lopez has only played in 7 of the last 21 games (and 12 minutes each in 4 of them).

Meanwhile the Suns have benched Booker for the last 9 games due to "injury", the Hawks accidentally win a game and suddenly Schroder and Bazemore are out for the season and the Grizzlies hold out Gasol and Evans every time they desperately need to lose. The Nets might have the worst collection of talent on their team and they might get pushed to 8th spot before the lotto balls.

If Adam Silver cared so much about tanking, he would do something about it. Instead, he just throws out empty threats that no one takes seriously. SAD!

This is pretty much quintessential Silver - he loves to play up to the chattering classes. He saw an opportunity to get some social media/podcast praise by coming out as "anti-tanking" and "doing something about it" so he had to take it.

There was no reason whatsoever for him to say what he said about tanking and come up with those threats. Tanking is a complete non-issue - even if no draft existed, those teams would still rest players and give opportunities to end of the bench/g-league guys to show something- I mean, the Nets literally rested guys at the end of the season in the last few years without having a draft pick - and nobody really cares if some average players in 20 wins team take a few games off in April. More importantly, it was completely unenforceable - what the heck is he going to do if the team doctors or coaches say the players showed signs of tiredness and heightened injury risk or the players state they feel tired? By the end of the season, 90% of the guys have a handful of nagging injuries. High-intensity pro sports isn't exactly a healthy activity.

But tanking became a cause célebre for a certain set of media/journalists/analysts (in big part because it's something that cna be used muster outrage and a sense of injustice, no matter how misplaced, which produces clicks) and that's the kind of stuff Silver lives for. Yet, the one time tanking was actually a problem (when a team broke the unwritten rule of bottoming out and build up from there and decide to keep bottoming out until they'd get a championship core), it took Silver ages to do anything about it and it was necessary for teams to force his hand. It's like he was more concerned about the bathrooms in South Carolina than with a transformational issue for the league as it was the cap spike smoothing where he completely dropped the ball.

The sooner Silver leaves and is replaced by a guy who doesn't care about being popular among fans and players, the best for the NBA.

[BloodNinja]

Let teams tank if they want. As long as the 5 players on the court -no matter who they are - are playing to win I don't care

[baldur]

To be fair, everybody besides Vucevic has been injured for a while or banged up every other game in Isaac's case.

cant see a point in shutting down a promising rookie as a rebuilding team.

[peja_the_legend]

The only way Silver redeems himself is if he goes full Stern and totally rigs the lottery.I mean completely rig it.Have the Clippers get the first pick,Pistons the second and Hornets the 3rd..Noone would blame him.If certain teams make a mockery of the league by intentionally fielding Gleague squads commisioner should be able to rig the lottery against them.

[jordan0386]

League record 18 teams over .500 this season.

The product needs bad teams.

If some teams were a tad bit worse. The league could have had 5 East teams with 50 wins.

Stay Woke.

[Johnny Firpo]

We just beat the Blazers, give us a break.

[zFoxHoUnD-x]

Adam Silver is a fraud. Everything he does is for appearances only (see last 2 minute report, pointless).

The fact that the league stepped in to reprimand the Bulls and no other team is the most bewildering thing I've ever seen from a 'management' perspective.

It's time for that alien to be replaced.

PS, I apologize for any slander against aliens that do not f up in there roles on earth.

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[zFoxHoUnD-x]

There is nothing wrong with tanking. It gives fans of terrible teams something to actually be interested in.

You need to go away.

This kind of statement is what's wrong with the league.

Although, I do love your tag. Awesome-o

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[zFoxHoUnD-x]

As a Cavs fan it's super frustrating because the Nets would likely have the worst record in the league if all teams actually tried.

Lol, closet tanker!

But very true.

The league is broken.

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[Pharmcat]

when you are 20-50, what is one win going to do for you? it does nothing in the short term and hurts you in the long term if it makes your lotto balls odds worse.