2025-26 Team Developments: Trades / Free Agents / News / Rumors / Ideas

You need relegation but these rich f***s are too busy ripping off taxpayers to build stadiums to risk their investments.
There is momentum to base lottery odds on the teams with most wins after "hidden/random" date - this maybe an elegant situation

 

yeah I saw that but my dad pointed out that sensible dates there are so late…

 

What time did the NBA all star festivities start 12pm? Pacific???

lol.

 

The dunk contest is the only event worth watching out if the entire weekend.
The three point contest was okay today.

 

Easy way to catch tanking. Injuries.

have an independent doctor check the player. If the scratch is healthy. Million dollar fine. Loss of 1st round draft pick.

this for the guys with the sore ankles.

or when you’re sitting your star players for a whole 4th quarter.

Silver knows what winning and trying to lose is.

we watched the Lakers play all our stars in the 4th Quarter playoff game against the Timberwolves. Trying to win.

then this season we watched the Jazz sit all of their star players in the 4th Quarter trying to lose.

 

Also Silver said today those Tanking teams have been put on notice.

 

I like this idea. They should just make the date the last day of the trade deadline. Most teams start to tank hard around this time every season.

 

That means absolutely nothing.
That’s basically saying, “I’ll keep my eye on you in the future.”
There are zero stated penalties. Until there are, he can just be paid off by any Franchise.

 

bobby marks was quoting some gms saying the fines will be well worth it because they think the top of this draft is that good. i'm not as sure about this specific draft, but i agree with the general premise that any punishment short of losing the pick is worth it for some of these teams.

i mean, you're watching okc and SA be the best young teams in the league due to successful short-term tank jobs (paired with some serious luck). it's the easiet (and maybe only?) path to multi-year contention: drafting a ready-made superstar.

can you imagine if we had drafted luka? how many bites at the apple we'd already have had?

anyway, i don't believe there's a way to enforce anti-tanking measures that wouldn't be reasonably challengeable by the offending party. like, who says my ankle doesn't hurt? if i'm the owner, and i'm paying the bills, what's it to you that i want to protect my player's health a la kawhi?

they've already flattened the lotto odds and added a slot (it's 4 now instead of 3). i suppose you could keep it pretty flat and bump it to 5, as i think statistically/historically, there's a real dropoff in expected value right around that spot.

but i just can't see an easy way to determine what's unethical tanking in an official sense.

 

I don’t think there is any solution to tanking because the core issue is that you only have 5 basketball players on the court at once. Having one of the handful of elite players in the NBA is a greater advantage than in any other sport. So long as that remains true, teams will do whatever they can to try to acquire one of those guys.

Maybe I’m in the minority, but tanking like what the Jazz have been doing doesn’t really bother me. Ideally yeah every team would be trying to win every game, but that’s just never been true. The load management stuff annoys me much more.

 

i also think the players on the floor are trying to win. though that may be why some of what utah's done bothers me. if i were their coach--who everyone says is good and i believe it--i'd feel icky.

and where's brett brown right now?

anyway, i digress. agree with sk that it's the nature of the sport--that bc one or two players mean so much and getting those guys is so hard--that creates tanking.

as such, my weird anti-tanking idea is outlawing extensions. keep bird rights, etc., but you can't sign a new contract until your current one's up. this kind of possible player movement means finding a star outside of drafting them into indentured servitude is possible.

of course, my special rider to this is to remove the max, too. let the owners shoot themselves in the foot. they're good for it. and the system will self-correct, right, market-forces billionaires?

 

MLB this mf…

 

Tanking doesn’t really bother me as I feel like most teams tank for literally years and most have very little to show for it.

However, I do find Silver threatening to do away with the draft altogether interesting. The small market owners would never let that happen but the threat of it is likely a shot across the bow to let the teams know he is serious about trying to change things. I’ve been vocal that I’m not a lottery guy and would be content with just basing the draft order on each team’s record and calling it a day. They could tweak it do you can’t get a top 3 or 5 pick back to back years or something.

it will be interesting to see what they come up with.

 

Uh oh, someone found another one of KD's burner accounts:

Spoiler: Language

Lmao his handle name. I don't think this guy has many good relationships left with his old teammates. Comparing Vogel/Booker and Stalin and Hitler! What an insecure narcissistic acting like a victim.

 

No All Star game discussions?
I actually watched the first three games of the tournament live and this setup did encourage each squad to play a little defense, but not enough.
The cajones of Antman to go up against Wemby twice for the jump ball was hilarious. I appreciate the confidence in this young pup, but c’mon man, you had absolutely no chance.
On the other hand, his youth filled squad absolutely cooked the old guard team led by LeBron, KD, and RoboticCornrows.

 

jesus - he's "lowkey r*******". ouch that's quite a statement about a current teammate

 

say what you want about lebron, but he's always represented the lakers brand well since he got here

 

That was the best All Star game I’ve seen in 5 years since 2020. Kawhi went off!!!!!!! LeBron Durant Edwards Wemby great game.

the players actually cared tonight. I can get behind this.

 

no way that’s KD. He couldn’t be that stupid.