NBA's bizarre tanking' problem has spewed theories but no solutions | Sean Ingle

"Teams that finish in the bottom four of the Premier League have a 14% chance of getting the first pick in the draft. But with every place you climb, your chances of acquiring a top pick and turning everything around actually deteriorate. So what would you do in this scenario? Tell your players to keep fighting and maybe edge up a place or two? Or would you discreetly try to lose for Lamine or collapse for Cubarsi by resting big names and letting sporting gravity take its course?"

"It is not that the NBA isn't trying. Last month, it fined Utah Jazz $500,000 (373,000) for not using their best players at the end of one game, while Indiana Pacers were hit with a $100,000 penalty after removing some of their star players. Both teams continue to lose and they are far from the only ones."

"Since the start of February, the NBA's worst seven teams have a combined record of 20 wins and 87 defeats and 13 of those victories had come when two of those struggling teams faced each other. Not all those teams are tanking, but the players know it is an issue."

The NBA faces a persistent tanking problem where struggling teams intentionally lose games to improve their draft position, similar to a hypothetical scenario where relegation doesn't exist and top prospects become available through draft lottery. Teams finishing in bottom positions gain higher chances of securing elite draft picks, incentivizing poor performance. The league has attempted to address this through financial penalties, fining the Utah Jazz $500,000 and Indiana Pacers $100,000 for benching star players. However, these measures prove ineffective as teams continue losing deliberately. Statistical evidence shows the NBA's seven worst teams accumulated only 20 wins since February, with most victories occurring when tanking teams played each other. Players acknowledge tanking as a significant issue affecting competitive integrity.

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