The NBA Tanking Crisis: The Truth on Why the Utah Jazz are Being Scapegoated | DJ & PK

“An absolute joke!”

The Utah Jazz are currently the target of national outrage over tanking after sitting multiple starters to close out their recent games, but is it fair to blame the Jazz for playing by the rules that the NBA created?

The KSL Sports Zone’s DJ & PK break down why the Jazz are being “scapegoated” for tanking in the NBA and push back against the narrative that the Jazz should be penalized for doing what other teams have done to become contenders.

đź“Ś In this video:
âś… Criticism toward the Jazz for tanking since acquiring Jaren Jackson Jr.
âś… The hypocrisy of criticism toward the Jazz for tanking
âś… The “Unfairness” of Tanking in the NBA
âś… Strategy and player availability for the remainder of the season.

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#utahjazz #nba #nbatanking #takenote #jarenjacksonjr #kslsports #utahsports

11 comments

  2. Who cares hahaha absolutely right
    I'm excited watching 4th quarters from now on. Only our youngsters sharing the floor and trying to figure out.
    4th qtr in Miami our own picks beating Bam and Wiggins, man I was proud like a daddy hahaha who cares !!!

  3. Let’s talk about the facts. The NBA built this system, and now small markets are forced to live inside it.

    If you’re the Utah Jazz, the margin for error is basically zero. You don’t get free agents. You don’t get star players forcing their way to your city. And even when you draft well, the clock starts ticking the moment a player becomes great.

    So when people say, “Of course Utah is tanking,” the real answer is:
    What else are they supposed to do?

    Even when Utah had one of the worst records in the league, they still ended up with the fifth pick. The NBA changed the lottery model specifically to flatten odds—great for optics, terrible for teams that actually need elite talent to survive.

    Utah has never consistently picked at the very top, and in today’s NBA, that matters more than ever. Superstars are the currency of relevance, and the system makes them harder for small markets to acquire and easier for big markets to stack.

    So tanking isn’t about incompetence.
    It’s about survival.

    The league talks parity, but the structure quietly funnels stars toward glamour markets and leaves teams like Utah playing the long game—draft, develop, hope, repeat.

    The Utah Jazz aren’t broken.
    They’re responding rationally to a system that gives them no other leverage.

    And the NBA owns that. They need to fix it.

  4. Make no mistake if the Jazz were currently on a 6-game win streak right now the national media would be criticizing them for ruining their future and that it is downright idiotic to be winning any games right now.

    The Jazz are playing this season perfectly at this point. 20-something games left, no incentive to win any games from now until mid April. Play your starters early to give them some run for the rest of the season, and then have the young guys with less experience to GET EXPERICENCE by closing the game out, if they win so be it.

    The Jazz are literally not suddenly tanking because you can't start tanking 65 games into a season, this has been the plan all along! We all knew back in October this team wasn't going to win a lot of games, Don't get all pissy now that they aren't winning games that they shouldn't be. Also they're doing a terrible job of tanking because at best we're probably not gonna even end with a top 5 pick. the Kings, Pels, Pacers, Nets, and Wizards have been trying to not win since before Thanksgiving. The Jazz really aren't any different and that's okay, every franchise has a cycle of life.

    To be honest before this season started I thought it would be a good idea for the Celtics to mail it in from day one. Tatum is out for the year, you just won a title two years ago so the fans aren't dying for it, and probably understand it ain't happening until Jayson Tatum is back anyways. They could have gone into this year with the intent to win 14-games, lock up a top 5 pick no matter what, land Cameron Boozer and then go be in the Eastern Conference Finals 9 of the next 10 seasons.

  5. Why are they not talking about the fact that the Jazz have never had a higher draft pick than #3 since they've been in Utah? Dallas, San Antonio, Cleveland, etc. all tank and get #1 picks year after year, while the Jazz gets pushed aside. Yet, let's complain about them tanking, not the other 10 teams doing the exact same thing.

  7. Quit rewarding the bad teams with higher draft picks. The draft order should be on a rotation do every 30 years every team gets 1-30. Have a draft lottery with all teams having the same odds to start the initial draft order then rotate every year from there.

  8. Y'know, I lost interest in the Spazz long ago. This latest attempt at landing top talent has pushed me further over the edge.

    It's all but guaranteed that the team from Utah will NEVER get the #1 pick. To believe that the supposedly fair lottery is legit is incredibly naive.

    Just go back and look at where the #1 picks end up going, and there is a massive pattern of fraud.

    Professional (and college) sports have been ruined by the greed of owners AND players. Just look at Mr. Smith, not only has he raised ticket prices, but EVERY event in his arena includes a ticket fee.

    You can't even enjoy sports at any level where players are hungry to hit the big time. With all the incredibly expensive clubs, schools, etc., normal children get priced out of participating. It's just become tiresome to this guy.

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