In the stretch run of the 2025-26 season, NBA teams at the foot of the standings are deploying increasingly bold tactics to improve their lottery position, intensifying league concerns about competitive integrity.
G League call-ups used as accelerants
On 4 March, the Utah Jazz signed defensive specialist Andersson Garcia to a 10-day contract. The former Mexico City Capitanes reserve logged 25, 29, 43, 24 and 48 minutes in five games and was released after Utah was outscored by 69 points during his 169 minutes. The club added Bez Mbeng on 13 March and has been outscored by 146 points with the guard on court this month.
The Memphis Grizzlies, losers of 15 of their past 17, have started an NBA-record 25 different players and recently gave heavy minutes to Lucas Williamson, Adama Bal and Lawson Lovering. League executives say the model traces back to Oklahoma City’s 2021-22 season, when the Thunder signed Georgios Kalaitzakis, Melvin Frazier and Zavier Simpson for the final four games. Oklahoma City finished 24-58, edged Indiana by one loss for the fourth-worst record, vaulted to No. 2 in the lottery and selected Chet Holmgren, now a starter on last year’s championship roster.
Coaches, players and executives decry the practice
Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr called tanking “a strange phenomenon” after a 27 March meeting with the Washington Wizards, one of seven games that night featuring a team incentivized to lose. Washington, trying to keep a top-eight protected pick owed to New York, sat stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis. Center Alex Sarr fouled out with 5:31 left in the third quarter, and coach Brian Keefe never reinserted key youngsters Bilal Coulibaly or Bub Carrington, turning a five-point lead into a five-point defeat.
Utah was fined $500,000 in February for benching Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. late in close games. No subsequent fines have been issued despite a rise in similar maneuvers. “Just fine the hell out of people,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said. “They love taking money from players.”
League metrics at historic levels
The average margin of victory this season is 13.1 points, the highest ever recorded, and 89 contests have ended with 30-point spreads. Three clubs—Brooklyn, Washington and Utah—opened the year with preseason win totals under 21, the most in three decades. Point spreads of 15 or more have appeared 77 times, also a 35-season high.
Past penalties and lingering player fallout
Mark Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks were fined $600,000 in 2018 for publicly acknowledging a tanking plan and again in 2023 for resting starters to preserve a top-10 protected pick that became Dereck Lively II. Players say careers can suffer collateral damage. Buddy Hield contends Indiana’s late-season rotation change in 2023 hurt his extension talks: “Tanking just messed everything up for everybody.”
Commissioner vows “extreme” reform
Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters in late March that distinguishing a “rebuild with integrity” from blatant tanking has become nearly impossible. The league has floated three proposals—each expanding the lottery to 18 teams and flattening odds, including one that factors records over two seasons and another “five-by-five” plan giving identical odds to the bottom five clubs. Governors have shown little enthusiasm, but Silver pledged to have new rules in place before the 2026 draft and free agency: “We are going to fix it. Full stop.”
Source: ESPN
