The NBA Can’t Have 1/3 of the League Trying To Lose | Rachel Nichols & Chris Mannix

Chris Mannix & Rachel Nichols break down the Jazz sitting their stars in the fourth quarter of multiple games and what the NBA can do about a sizeable portion of the league trying to lose on purpose

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47 comments

  1. @5:41 Rachel, what do you think of getting rid of the lottery AND the draft and instead, it's just rookie scale contracts and standings
    In other words..

    1 (worst record) – $13,825,920
    2 – $12,370,320
    3 – $11,108,880
    4 – $10,015,680
    5 – $9,069,840
    6 – $8,237,640
    7 – $7,520,040
    8 – $6,889,200
    9 – $6,332,520
    10 – $6,016,080
    11 – $5,715,120
    12 – $5,429,520
    13 – $5,157,960
    14 – $4,900,320
    15 – $4,655,040

    Instead of draft night we get a wild week of rookie class free agency
    And maybe they keep it hushed until "rookie night" when everyone announces where players are going

    Teams can trade for several rookie contracts and combine them if they want. That way, a team that would struggle to get the attention of a rookie can put together a bigger offer.
    Also, if the kid is a bust and he's taking up a lot of cap space, it's a rookie deal so there's team options for years three and four.

    I also like the idea of a tournament…

    9v9 (14)
    10v10 (13)
    11v11 (12)
    12v12 (11)

    13v13 (10)
    14v14 (8)

    9v10 (9) team A
    11v12 (7) team B
    13v14 (5) teamC
    15v15 (6)

    AvB (4) *
    Cv15 (3) +

    * v + (1,2)

    I like the idea of the #1 pick possibly going to the 9th best team in their conference. Dallas could have had Wembanyama in 2023. And we all could have watched Luka+Kyrie+Wemby v Boston in the 2024 Finals.
    I don't think it is a good business practice to put your most high profile exciting new guys on unwatchable last place teams 😂
    If #1 goes to the 9th best team, the #2 pick would go to a 13, 14 or 15, so it's not like bad teams aren't getting a top tier talent..
    Plus this is post-season high stakes games for every team.
    Revenue for every owner.
    One last thing to care about for every fan in the league..

  2. Needed 3 from lauri last night. And I forgot what they're doing lol. I was like oh 17 hes got this easily, then checked it was the start of the 4th quarter in not a blowout. Insane they let teams get away with this not just for gambling but if I was at the game watching and this happened as a fan I'd be pretty upset if it's not a blowout

  3. How about place limits on how many times a team can have a pick near the top in consecutive years. Spurs have picked 1, 4, and 2 in the past three years. When was the last time the Jazz picked in the top 4? 2011, Enes Kanter. So 15 years ago. Top talent needs to be spread around.

  4. I mean as a jazz fan we tried the other way for like 20 years. We never got over the hump. Small market teams are at a big disandantage and even big market teams do it. Its rough that the moment we do it ever one freaks out we picked the wrong time. As a fan i'm good with a year of tanking if it actually gives us a chance to compete. Deron williams, goradon haward, dmitch rudy, none of it got us to our end goal. Heck the 76ers literally had their motto be trust the process. So the hate on the jazz is a bit hypocritical as many teams outside perhabs the lakers who have free agenets go to them has to tank at times. Just remeber the jazz is not the villain. Its the way the nba functions to incentivice tanking. And making loterry odds worse is like taking from the poor to give to the rich from a small market perspective. And it only makes teams tank harder as can be seen by this year. Despite worse odds more teams are tanking.

  8. I know the answer. But no one of importance will ever see it, but just in case I'll post it here:

    If lottery odds work like the salary cap. Make a benchmark for wins, let's say 30 for this example. If you don't hit 30 wins by the end of the season, every win you are short you lose 1% of your odds.

    You win 25 games, you lose 5%. That 5% percent gets distributed to the teams that have 30 or more wins.

  10. The only solution is to go to a snake draft with the first pick going to the team with the highest record non playoff team. That way the worst team would get the last lottery pick and the first 2nd round pick.

  11. David Locke brought up a great point about how teams have to be spending 90% of the salary cap, basically making it way harder for rebuilding teams to rebuild, when forced to sign players to fill 90% cap space.

  13. This is ridiculous! The Spurs tanked for Robinson, Duncan, and Wemby. The Jazz have never had the number one pick. Everyone remember "the process".
    The Jazz are playing within the rules. You have teams that are in the top 5, 3 years in a row.

    Rachel has it right. Stop screwing guys that are on small market teams, stop the awful reffing that favors big market teams, stop flattening the curve so that teams in middle of the season dont stop tanking, and start giving better benefits for making the playoffs.

  15. The two best players were drafted in the 2nd round and mid 1st round. RANDOM LOTTERY 1-30. Tanking ends. Build your team through scouting, trades, and luck. There will always be bad teams. At least they won't be trying to be bad. It's a horrible fan experience.

  17. If you want purity and ethics in sports – then you have to remove the profit incentive – but since that is NEVER going to happen – deal with teams doing what's ultimately best for their bottom line. Shit the league is now openly embracing and partnering with gambling – it's a joke for them to raise concerns about "tanking"

  19. It is true. A third of the league is tanking. You’re ripping off fans and the integrity of the game is compromised. Mark Cuban had the only remedy that I’ve seen that fixes the problem. Every team is awarded the first pick once every 30 years(30 teams) and picks 2-29 the following 29 years. There would be absolutely NO INCENTIVE to tank.

  21. I like the idea where you create pools of five teams, and they rotate every six years to get the top five picks in a draft based off of random odds

  24. Keyonte George reinjured his ankle.

    Plus even if Utah doesn’t keep its pick next year they are a playoff team as is. Lauris best years have come playing the three, Kessler will be back, George will continue to take a leap, Ace Bailey will improve and Trip is Trip.

    Collier, Bryce, Flip, Williams will be a fine bench.

    Give Utah credit for doing a complete rebuild in 4 years. OKC did it in 3, San Antonio did it in 6.

    Come on.

  26. There is one way and only one way to discourage tanking: Promotion and relegation! Otherwise, in every system you are better off playing your young players, the way the Jazz are, then go all out to win! And why are the Jazz being called out as the face of tanking? We haven't been tanking for any longer than anyone else and there was no complaints when a team like the Warriors tanked after they traded for the pizzagate conspiracy theorist Andrew Bogut and tanked to hang on to their pick that they used to get Harris Barnes!

  28. 1. Why is eliminating the lottery never even considered in these conversations? The more teams with a chance at the first pick (or second or third), the more teams will tank to give themselves that chance.

    2. Is it possible that too much emphasis is put on winning the Championship? Trying to be good enough to compete for the title can be crowded out by the hope of becoming great enough to guarantee the title.

  29. The real issue is not respecting the game. This turns fans off. We want to see teams compete every game. Nobody wants to spend over $150 or more and see a non competitive game

  30. Replace the draft with a point system. First place gets 1 point, last place gets 30 points. Players are traded for players plus points, not draft picks. Instead of a draft lottery, teams would submit sealed bids. They would not have to use all or any of their points when bidding. They can save points for a better draft class. They can make multiple bids, splitting their points between them if they want more than one 1st round pick. Highest bid gets the first pick. Teams bidding zero points come after all teams that bid at least 1. After the all-star break, any team, beating a team ahead of them in the standings, gets a bonus point. Teams, losing to a team below them in the standings, lose a point. Tanking and sitting stars after the all-star break is eliminated.

  31. Easy solution to the tanking is make entire draft order a lottery where everyone has the same odds so records don’t matter.

    I’d also get rid of guaranteed contracts and have salaries be paid at a fixed amount per minute played. For example, if the salary cap is 157 mil then it would be about $7800 per minute played. A starter that played the full season would average about 20 mil a yr, a rotational player about 11 mil a year. Superstars will still have their endorsements on top of all this so they narrate a pay cut but I think they’ll live.

  33. When there last 5 games of the season.. and without modifying schedule, get the last 5 teams of the NBA… and the team with more wins, and maybe points in their last 5 games, make that team automatically get the 1st round pick over all.. 2nd with more wins/points scored take the 2nd pick.. etc

  38. The Jazz did everything possible last year to get the #1 pick and the NBA colluded with Dallas to get them to trade Luka to the Lakers in exchange for the #1 pick. The NBA then caused the Jazz to need to go into tank mode AGAIN. I like Rachel Nichols ideas. She knows ball and has legitimate ideas on how to solve the issues.

  39. Can they just lump the draft odds into groups.. like actual organic groupings — the contenders, middle of the pack/play-in teams and out of playoffs (hopeless)teams. Those are 3 natural groupings with same type mindset, based on them trying to win.

    From there, they can penalize just the top 8 seeds, with the champs —ensuring being last pick..etc. (picks 23-30)
    Then you got the trying to be contenders.. (seeds 5-10=picks 13-22]
    The outside-looking-in teams all have same flat chances.

    the blatant tanking(not playing good players) occurs when they’re racing to get the first picks.. it’s like an artificial reward, based on losing vs ability to win.

  40. Blame the jazz. Who cares that the Spurs tanked multiple times to get David Robinson, Duncan, and Wemby.
    Now…..NOW, suddenly it's a problem.
    This is how the rules are. You don't like it? Make changes.
    Until then shut up

  47. Keep the lottery for the non playoff teams, but reverse the odds where you have a higher chance of a top pick the closer you are to the playoffs. That way you still give the bad teams a chance of drafting high without rewarding being the worst. Bonus, teams that are on the cusp of the playoffs can draft an impact player and become a contender quicker so it incentivizes good roster construction and not playing g league players just to try to draft dybantsa

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