CLEVELAND, Ohio — The NBA has a tanking problem, and it’s getting worse. That was the clear message from the latest episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, voicing criticism of teams blatantly trying to lose games before the All-Star break.
As the Cavs prepare to face the Washington Wizards in their final game before the break, the podcast conversation turned to the absurdity of teams like the Wizards fielding lineups designed to fail.
“Tanking is at an all-time high,” declared Chris Fedor, cleveland.com’s Cavs beat reporter. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so rampant before the All-Star break. This is just blatant.”
The discussion highlighted how teams are no longer even trying to hide their intentions, with some organizations developing almost comical strategies to ensure losses. Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com columnist, specifically called out the Utah Jazz for their approach.
“The Utah Jazz are just playing Jaren Jackson Jr. And Lauri Markkanen for three quarters at a time and then pulling them. But during winning time, it’s losing time. Fourth quarter, it’s losing time for the Utah Jazz. Gotta take out our best players. Embarrassing Adam Silver. Fix it,” Watkins said with clear frustration.
This season’s tanking efforts have become so transparent that even players from other teams are calling it out.
Fedor mentioned how Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat publicly criticized teams after a loss, saying “we lost to a team that’s not even trying to win.”
What makes the situation even more bizarre is how some teams are finding increasingly creative ways to lose games they might accidentally win.
Fedor shared an anecdote from his time covering a recent game:
“I was sitting next to a scout from another team in Denver and we were watching some of the other scores during some of the stoppages and stuff and he actually said as he pulled it up on his phone, he said, ‘Chris, watch to see if the Jazz just try and throw this inbounds pass in the back court so that Miami can scoop it up and go the other way for a layup and purposely commit a turnover.’”
While that particular scenario didn’t play out exactly as predicted, Fedor noted that “you have other people from other organizations that are wondering what these teams are going to come up with in late game situations to throw away these potential wins and turn them into losses. It’s hilarious.”
The Wizards appear to be following a similar playbook ahead of their matchup with the Cavs.
Podcast host Ethan Sands pointed out that Anthony Davis is already ruled out with a left finger sprain, D’Angelo Russell isn’t with the team, and Trae Young has been dealing with a right knee MCL sprain and quad contusion.
“These teams, they know that the tanking rules are so loosely enforced that the Washington Wizards can kind of like double down on their tank or middle their tank a little bit where they can trade assets to get All-Star caliber players and know that it’s not going to hurt their draft pick positioning because no one’s going to make them play those guys.”
The podcast hosts concluded that while the upcoming draft is loaded with potential franchise-changing talent, the integrity of the regular season is being compromised by these tactics.
With commissioner Adam Silver apparently reluctant to crack down on the practice, fans are left watching what amounts to exhibition basketball rather than competitive games.
Want to hear more unfiltered takes on the NBA’s tanking problem and how it affects the Cavaliers as they face these deliberately undermanned teams? Listen to the complete episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast for the full discussion on this season’s race to the bottom.
Here’s the podcast for this week: