Feb. 19, 2026, 10:15 a.m. CT
The last couple of weeks have seen the NBA news cycle amp it up with the tanking discourse. After the Utah Jazz sat out Lauri Markkanen in the fourth quarter of close games, the strategy of purposely losing games to improve lottery odds became a national conversation.
To the point you’re seeing some radical ideas thrown out there. Such as getting rid of the NBA draft as a whole or freezing lottery odds at a certain point in the season.
OK. Let’s take a deep breath on those outside-the-box ideas. If you follow the NBA at any level, you’ve likely read and listened to how the tanking epidemic has ruined the league’s integrity. The bottom-third of teams are looking to collect losses to help their lottery odds.
Even former NBA owner Mark Cuban chipped in. The former Dallas Mavericks governor took the pro-tanking stance. He argued on social media that it’s just part of professional sports and serves as the only way for franchises to naturally improve. Ala when they added Luka Doncic in 2018.
“Fans know their team can’t win every game. They know only one team can win a ring. What fan that care about their team’s record want is hope,” Cuban wrote. “Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring.”
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It’s difficult to really fault Cuban’s logic. As long as the NBA exists, tanking will too. Just part of sports. There will always be teams at the bottom of the standings. And the healthiest way to help those teams turn things around is by supplying them with the best college players in hopes of starting a natural life cycle of a title contender.
The NBA has cracked down hard on tanking in recent weeks. The Jazz and Indiana Pacers were handed six-figure fines for it. Adam Silver addressed it multiple times at All-Star weekend. To the point that he threatened to take away draft picks from the guilty parties.
But all this just feels like a made-up problem. Like drowning in a puddle. Surely the NBA and anti-tankers are aware enough of how much of a life supply the NBA draft is to smaller-market teams. Without it, some teams would be stuck in purgatory.
“We didn’t tank often. Only a few times over 23 years, but when we did, our fans appreciated it,” Cuban wrote. “And it got us to where we could improve, trade up to get Luka and improve our team.”
Cuban even brought up the Oklahoma City Thunder as an example. While they’re one of the best NBA developmental franchises in the league, they enjoyed some lottery luck, too. Perhaps not to the extent of other rebuilding teams in the early 2020s, but they jumped up to grab Chet Holmgren with the No. 2 pick of the 2022 NBA draft.
Cuban mistakenly thought the Thunder also tanked for Jalen Williams, who was actually taken with the LA Clippers’ draft pick at No. 12 in 2022. But the point overall still holds up for the most part.
Tanking will always be part of the NBA. If the league decides to rip up the current rules and write new ones, teams will just move along with the goal post to ensure they get the top odds to land at the top of the lottery. It’ll be a change for the sake of change.