The state of the NBA
- Martyn Foster
- 2 hours ago
- 6 min read
Tanking, playoffs, and end-of-season award eligibility.
With the playoffs starting this weekend and a lot being said about a number of issues facing the league, principally tanking and end-of-season award eligibility, I thought, to change it up a bit, I’d cover one of the sports and leagues dear to my heart in its current state and moving forward. Plus, my beloved San Antonio Spurs are back in the playoffs after a long absence so I’m happy.
Getting straight to it, tanking has come under increased scrutiny this season in particular as the race to the bottom incentivised by an increase in ping-pong balls to get the top pick in next season’s draft has seemingly gone to new lows of anti-basketball behaviour. Deliberate losing, fouling good free throw shooters while leading for no reason, benching healthy players / playing lower quality players extended minutes etc., it’s been baffling to watch. The gap between good teams and bad teams has significantly grown and for all intents and purposes completely erased any middle ground, especially in the Western Conference. It’s an embarrassment to the league and an insult to the fans.
The question always arises about what can we do to stop this, but few seem to look at the underlying cause/s. Much like how treat mental health nowadays, it’s straight to treatment and we’ll figure out the true problem later, if at all, probably with some misattributions along the way. There is no demotion in the NBA, teams do not drop down to the G-League, and as I mentioned above, there is a draft incentive to do even more poorly if you aren’t in playoff contention (which was meant to balance the talent level across the league and improve the lesser teams). There are fines for teams bringing the league into disrepute, but the league seems reluctant to hand any out.
The Play-In was created in addition to the Playoffs to give teams ranked 9 and 10 (outside the top 8 seeds who make the playoffs) a chance to keep playing hard until the end of the season and maybe make the playoffs instead. Essentially an anti-tanking measure, as well as making teams want a top 6 position to avoid the mini tournament to get into the playoffs. This year, the teams were relatively locked into their seedings early and this didn’t have the desired effect, possibly due to the increasing disparity between the good and bad teams as I mentioned earlier.
“I never thought you’d have to work so hard to make professional teams compete, but then again, I understand human nature.”
Poorly run organisations with ethically questionable management will reason and logic their way to justify their decisions to engage in this abhorrent practice. Like with a lot of behavioural change, a combination of positive reinforcement of the desired behaviour and punishment of the undesired behaviour is required. However, this is a billion-dollar industry surrounded by businesspeople and lawyers with ulterior motives that may not be conducive to competitive sport as a primary goal.
I didn’t intend this article to all be about the issue of tanking, but it is a multi-faceted problem and it taints the product of NBA basketball. You don’t want to reward poor behaviour, but you’ll never truly eliminate it. All you can do is strongly discourage it and create an environment that penalises transgressions while emphasising what you do want from your teams in the league. NBA legend Charles Barkley suggested giving all the teams who don’t make the playoffs an even chance in the draft lottery, rather than staggered like it currently is, which might be a shout to combat tanking even if it does it at the cost of fairness to the genuinely weaker teams.
Sometimes solutions just breed more problems, like what we’ve seen from the end-of-season awards eligibility concerns (which can also financially impact the players) and the multiple iterations to All-Star Weekend in recent years. Brought in this season as a deterrent to players “resting/load management” during the season, the new 65-game limit has already got some big names missing out on silverware, accolades and big paydays. Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham (for genuine injury reasons) are a couple of MVP candidates who (narrowly) miss out while the likes of reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Victor Wembanyama only just scraped in - EDIT: Just before posting, the NBA has allowed Doncic and Cunningham to be eligible through "extraordinary circumstances" ruling. Only 18 players (out of approx. 500) in the entire league played the whole 82-game season.
It does highlight a shifting mentality in the league, not just from the players, but the teams themselves. The increase in staff levels on these teams, especially athletic/trainer and medical staff, the improvement in facilities and logistics, all have these players playing less than before. Granted the game is less physical than in yesteryear, but it is quicker and faster with far more lateral movement. Players put more of a priority on their health, wellbeing, and financial security with the teams being more risk-averse to their multi-million-dollar investments. Whilst I do not expect everyone to be like iron man A.C. Green (NBA record 1,192 consecutive games played), a bit more of the Jordan’s “love of the game” clause and obligation to the fans to put on a show mentality wouldn’t go astray. Hell, you have medical/training staff listing healthy players as injured.
I do understand that the mentality of the players is not what it was although the skill level is arguably better across the board. I still question whether the fundamentals are still there and preached. A lot of these new(er) players are a bit more style over substance as if making the SportsCenter top 10 takes priority over winning. Granted the league is probably at its most offensively creative as it’s ever been since effectively taking the leash off and teams shifted away from structured offensive plays to a more free-flowing and dynamic game led by the better perimeter players generally. The league wants higher scoring games to attract more, and cater to the casual fans, but it waters down the value of every basket scored and makes it look like no defence was played – which is true more often than I want to admit.
Corruption, gambling or fixing is still a concern in the NBA. Only earlier this season former NBA champion and current coach Chauncey Billups along with player Terry Rozier got arrested for their roles in an illegal betting and gambling investigation by the FBI. It seems some people will always want more money, but it’s more than that. When LeBron left Cleveland in 2010, the Cavs “lucked out” 1st overall draft picks in three of the next four years. Something similar happened this season after the Dallas Mavericks traded superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers and then fortuitously ended up with the number one pick which just happened to be Duke generational talent Cooper Flagg. It leaves a lot of people shrugging, scratching their heads or just laughing at how obvious it looks.
Having said all this, the playoffs look to be very interesting this year – see, some positivity haha. I’ll do my usual detailed predictions once we finally know who the eight from each conference are (Friday night US time, for me Saturday midday). As I mentioned, my Spurs clinched the second seed in the West and will return to the post-season for the first time since 2019. I really hope we can do well, but it’s going to be a challenge beating the likes of OKC and Denver. We’ve got a great young core centred around “alien” Victor Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper and Devin Vassell with former all-star De’Aaron Fox running point and a bunch of other savvy vets and young role players. LeBron joked that going forward ‘Wemby’ is a lock for MVP for the next 100,000 years haha and if that’s the case, the league is in good hands with this level-headed, mature-beyond-his-years Frenchman leading the way.
The NBA is going through a period of change in a number of ways, as it will soon say goodbye to the trio that has largely been at the forefront of basketball for the past 15+ years: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry. In an ever-changing world the NBA is trying to stay in the top echelon of professional sports and maintain that level of interest for so many fans around the world. It’s a difficult task with so much fighting for our limited time and money (and even more limited attention) and all sporting leagues face this. I’d be lying if I didn’t say my interest in the sport hasn’t waned over the years, but I still care deeply about it – evident by this article. However, the product has changed and is no longer designed with me as the target audience – much like Formula 1 – and this takes a bit to get used to, although I’m not ready to give up on it just yet.
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