NBA sends memo to teams warning of tanking tactics

The NBA is serious about preventing tanking as the final quarter of the season ends. Adam Silver sent a stern memo to the league warning them against it.

The NBA is winding down. The All-Star Break is passing, the trade deadline is gone and many teams are angling for the Playoffs. And then there are the teams at the bottom.

The race to the bottom this year seems especially ripe for some shenanigans. The lottery odds formula is changing next year. The teams with the worst three records will all have the same odds for the top pick. And teams have to take advantage.

Plus, there are a lot of teams involved in the race to the bottom. Eight teams are within two games of the worst record and six teams within a half game.

Entering Thursday’s games, the Orlando Magic are tied for the worst record in the league. And despite coach Frank Vogel and his desire to see the team continue to push forward and try to win, the Magic continue to lose and fall in the standings.

Tanking is on everyone’s minds with the standings as bunched up as they are. And Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban threw some gasoline on that fire by admitting on a radio show he sat his veterans down and told them losing was the best path forward. That earned him a $600,000 fine.

It also brought with it a memo to the league from Adam Silver’s office.

According to Sam Amick of USA TODAY, Silver sent out a memo to all 30 NBA teams dated February 21 to remind them the league is watching out for obvious tanking moves. While the league respects teams putting a focus on the future, extremely fishy coaching and management decisions will get a special look from the league.

"“Throughout this period, we have been careful to distinguish between efforts teams may make to rebuild their rosters, including through personnel changes over the course of several seasons, and circumstances in which players or coaches on the floor take steps to lose games,” Silver said in the memo.“The former can be a legitimate strategy to construct a successful team within the confines of league rules; the latter — which we have not found and hope never to see in the NBA — has no place in our game. If we ever received evidence that players or coaches were attempting to lose or otherwise taking steps to cause any game to result otherwise than on its competitive merits, that conduct would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office.”"

It seems like a pro forma letter. The Mavericks are still opting to play a young lineup over their “best” statistical lineup in several recent close games. That could be argued that they are developing for their future. There is no substitute for experience.

For now, the NBA is rattling its saber. But finding that fine line between playing young guys for the sake of playing young guys and actually purposefully losing a game is a very tricky one to find.

The Magic, for all it is worth, continue to play their best players. Their rotation might feature a somewhat unwieldy 11 or 12 players. And Jonathan Isaac is set to return to the court Friday.

But they are playing most of their young players and giving their “best” players plenty of time. No one is confusing what the Magic are doing with tanking.

And they still have the worst record in the league.

The league is still trying to find ways to eliminate this practice. Or at least the perception that it exists.

At the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference last weekend, a panel of Chris Bosh, former Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin, Boston Celtics owner Steve Pagliuca and former Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie discussed the practice of tanking and how it has become prevalent in the NBA zeitgeist.

They seemed to agree teams should have a balance of good veterans, role players and draft picks is the way to build. A system of just focusing on the draft choices eventually hurts a franchise. The 76ers approach worked but it was also a product of a lot of good luck. And some other shrewd moves to be ready for free agents as their young players developed and matured.

The league’s changing odds for the Lottery will make teams less dependent wholly on the draft. Or at least that is the NBA’s bet. This is a battle of perception as much as reality. Fans likely still will want their team to tank.

Orlando’s management group has made it clear they have no intention to be back at the top of the draft next year. Both general manager John Hammond and president of basketball operations Jeff Weltman have said they do not want their team to tank. They value the culture that winning an build. Even at this stage of the season.

Next: Orlando Magic's defense leads to the same results

That appears to be the approach the team will take. Orlando is going to try to win games. Just how many wins they can get and where they finish… they will let those chips fall where they may.

If the league were really interested in eliminating tanking, they would even the odds out in the draft for every team that misses the Playoffs, or eliminate the draft completely.