In recent years, I\u2019ve come to wonder whether I\u2019m on the autism spectrum.<\/p>\n
Then again, I kind of think everyone\u2019s on the spectrum now. That could be selection bias \u2013 I\u2019m mildly autistic, so I gravitate to mildly autistic people. It could be a reflection of bastardization of diagnostic and clinical language. It could also just be accurate.<\/p>\n
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One symptom of autism is \u201ca profound, often unwavering commitment to fairness, equality, and moral correctness\u201d. I used to find this annoying. It felt like a sneaky way of virtue signalling. \u201cOh no, I have a neurodevelopmental disorder that makes me a really good person!\u201c. Now, I feel like it\u2019s another symptom I might endorse:<\/p>\n
Because I am absolutely seething about the NBA\u2019s new anti-tanking reforms, even if they might benefit my beloved Houston Rockets<\/a>.<\/p>\n New NBA tanking rules patently unfair<\/p>\n So, the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> acquired three future first-round picks from the Utah Jazz<\/a> in exchange for Jaren Jackson Jr.<\/a> The new rules state that a team\u2019s pick can\u2019t convey in the top five for three consecutive seasons. The Jazz have picked in the top five for two straight years, so now, their 2027 pick can\u2019t land there:<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Even though the Grizzlies own it.<\/p>\n If anyone can locate the iota of sense that makes, someone tell me. I\u2019ve seen some attempts to justify the rule, but they have been feeble.<\/p>\n Some have said the Grizzlies should be punished for trading Jackson Jr. in a deliberate bid to get worse. Hogwash. Teams can\u2019t get younger anymore? This is especially outlandish in an increasingly punitive CBA. So the Grizzlies have to keep Jackson Jr.\u2019s salary on the books, even though they\u2019re not winning, or else they\u2019re punished? The league is bullying one of their smallest markets directly into a space between a rock and a hard place.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, the Jazz acquired Jackson Jr. so they could stop tanking. They likely weren\u2019t sending the Grizzlies a high lottery pick anyway\u201d. Likely true, and incidentally, not the point. Who\u2019s to say Jackson Jr. doesn\u2019t suffer a season-ending injury on day one?<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The official position from the league is that they didn\u2019t want to create an imbalance in the value of acquired vs original picks. Sure, but the Grizzlies acquired the pick with the understanding that it held a certain value. The broader point is that you can\u2019t change the rules of a game in the middle of the game. You buy a lottery ticket with the understanding that you probably won\u2019t win the lottery. You would not buy a lottery ticket knowing that it was impossible to win the lottery.<\/p>\n It\u2019s garbage. It\u2019s unfair by any measure.<\/p>\n Does it affect the Rockets?<\/p>\n Rockets could benefit from rule changes<\/p>\n When Rafael Stone traded the second-best player in the history of an old NBA franchise for nothing but draft capital, he had a vision. Just two years later, he would state on record that \u201cthe NBA punishes the middle\u2026that\u2019s just the way the system is set up.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n We can safely assume that principle informed his decision-making process.<\/p>\n The rule changes incentivise the middle. In theory, the Rockets also had the rug pulled out from under them. It shouldn\u2019t hurt them, but that\u2019s mere serendipity. Luckily, the teams that owe Houston picks (the Nets<\/a>, Suns, and Mavericks<\/a>) are likely to land broadly in the middle going forward.<\/p>\n This could also open up paths for Houston. The fear of regression should be less prominent. If they ultimately decide (re: realize) that Alperen Sengun<\/a> and Amen Thompson<\/a> can\u2019t play together, retooling at the expense of a handful of regular-season wins will be more palpable with the flattened odds.<\/p>\n In terms of the NBA viewing experience, this may not even be so bad. Personally, my least favorite era of Rockets basketball since becoming a fan in (roughly) 1998 was the Louis Scola \/ Kevin Martin era. If the Rockets had a chance of adding a young John Wall to the 2009-10 team that went 42-40, it would have piqued my interest.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Personally, I\u2019ve never considered tanking a major issue. Most of this feels like fear-mongering designed to pander to the gambling companies. Still, nobody should be fiercely opposed to disincentivizing the practice. If you love tanking, you\u2019re weird.<\/p>\n What I am (as it turns out) passionately opposed to is unfairness. There is no rational reason why the league couldn\u2019t amend the rules to \u201cgrandfather in\u201d the Grizzlies\u2019 incoming pick.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t need any diagnoses to understand that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In recent years, I\u2019ve come to wonder whether I\u2019m on the autism spectrum. Then again, I kind of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[1307,883,7,294,194,496,166,293,177,4070,91994,6,671,181,427],"class_list":["post-747269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-alperen-sengun","tag-amen-thompson","tag-basketball","tag-grizzlies","tag-houston-rockets","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-mavericks","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-mildly-autistic","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-the-grizzlies","tag-utah-jazz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116659327024262098","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}