INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Tanking was the word at All-Star Weekend, at least until the part where Anthony Edwards, Kawhi Leonard and Victor Wembanyama conspired to save it with their brilliant and, shall we say, surprisingly inspired play in the main event on Sunday night.
Until that point, however, it was the only thing people were talking about in side conversations in the hallways of the Intuit Dome, in the stands in El Segundo where execs and scouts eyeballed the Basketball Without Borders camp, and in hotel lobbies scattered across the sprawl of greater Los Angeles.
As everyone watched teams become increasingly brazen about withholding healthy players from games, pulling starters in close fourth quarters, and otherwise attempting to manipulate outcomes in order to maximize their draft odds, the questions only magnified.
Even the league’s first strong step toward disciplining brazen tanking efforts — fining Utah $500,000 for removing starters in fourth quarters — may have inadvertently raised more questions than it answered.
At least Utah’s guys played. What of the teams like the Wizards and Pacers who are withholding newly acquired players that previously were playing and seemed totally fine? (As a reminder: Trae Young played 121 minutes across four straight games, including a back-to-back, before being traded to the Wizards a month ago, and hasn’t been on the court since; Ivica Zubac played 15 of 16 games, including three back-to-back sets, before his trade to Indiana and has yet to play as a Pacer.)
Thus, the questions, and the scraping and clawing for answers:
What we can the league do about it?
Does the system need changing?
Should commissioner Adam Silver do more and hammer these guys, or just fine them, wink and nod?
And finally: Even if the league tries to make more rules, is there anything a league can truly do to stop a team that is determined to lose?
The Great Tanking Debate stands as a particularly sobering tale in light of the events of this weekend. To wit, Victor Wembanyama tried harder to win a game that doesn’t matter than the Wizards and Kings are to win games that actually count.
Increasingly, that dichotomy will be noticeable on the court over the league’s seven-week sprint to the finish line. So, before I launch into some inventive tanking solutions that the league might consider for future seasons, I wanted to tackle the here-and-now issue of how tanking will clearly impact the current season.
Everyone is focused on the lottery odds, but the other half of this is the playoff race. All schedules are not created equal, and a second-half slate padded with tankers can grease a team’s run into a high playoff seed. Simply put, you would much rather face a team like Memphis or Utah after they’ve already given up on the season than in November with all their key guys playing. This has been true every season, but the sheer number of teams entering the tanking fray and the fervor with which they’ve done so has the chance to create a much greater difference in schedule quality.
How much of a difference? Let’s take a look. For starters, I defined the problem by separating the bottom 10 teams in the standings into three classes: The ones who are still basically trying, the ones who managed their roster into “soft tanking” but aren’t brazenly pursuing every loss, and finally, the elite tier of all-in shamelessness.
Fighting the good fight: Milwaukee and New Orleans
Maybe everyone should trade their draft pick? The Pels are 15-41, but a much more respectable 7-10 over the past 17 games.
Meanwhile, even with Giannis Antetokounmpo injured and a mild tanking incentive, the Bucks have been frisky of late. Milwaukee won five out of six before the All-Star break, even hammering Oklahoma City 110-93 on Thursday in what was arguably the greatest “Ousmane Dieng Revenge Game” in the history of the genre.
Soft tanking: Chicago and Dallas
Proud owners of a six-game losing streak after re-engineering their roster to have 37 guards but virtually no shooting or tall people, the Bulls have the toughest remaining schedule of any likely lottery team and seem willing to break with the past and at least somewhat enthusiastically chase better lottery positioning.
Dallas has lost nine games in a row, but the Mavs haven’t played a bad team in over a month. The vets are still mostly playing, as is rookie sensation Cooper Flagg, and Kyrie Irving may yet return during the final month to test his ACL.
Leaning into it: Memphis and Indiana
The Grizzlies traded Jaren Jackson Jr. at the trade deadline. Injuries have made them bad, we’ve seen some questionable fourth-quarter lineups already, and I’m not sure how much we’ll see of Ja Morant the rest of the way.
Indiana’s tank thus far has been amazingly ethical, with a 5-5 record in the Pacers’ last 10 games and All-Star Pascal Siakam playing 50 of the first 54 games. That seems headed for change, with Zubac shut down and Siakam seeming a likely candidate for some “tendinitis” in his future.
Riding the L Train: Brooklyn, Utah, Washington, and Sacramento
Utah’s biggest mistake might have been not embracing the tank earlier; Lauri Markkanen played the first 22 games and his first rest came against mighty Oklahoma City, while breakout guard Keyonte George played 47 of 49 before legitimately spraining his ankle against Brooklyn.
With 18 banked wins and a top-eight protected pick owed to Oklahoma City, the Jazz now need to redouble their efforts just to ensure they don’t “catch” Dallas or Memphis and move out of the bottom six in the standings.
Washington still hasn’t played Young and apparently has no intention of playing Anthony Davis. The Wizards’ younger players are getting development minutes while, in several cases, doubling as tank commanders, and Washington already sent out vets like C.J. McCollum, Khris Middleton and Corey Kispert.
Ditto for Brooklyn, which has leaned into resting Michael Porter Jr. more often and playing all five of their rookies; the Nets also released Cam Thomas, Haywood Highsmith and Tyrese Martin at the deadline. You can’t get fined for benching them if they’re not on your team!
Finally, the 12-43 Kings have shut down Zach LaVine and started playing some dubious fourth-quarter lineups in close games. Will we see much of Domantas Sabonis or Keegan Murray the rest of the way?
Sizing up the schedules
So, now that we’ve defined the problem, let’s look at the schedules most closely.
The eight teams I’ve listed that are leaning at least somewhat into the tank have 221 games left, including 166 from the “Egregious Six,” the inner core of teams that seem to be tanking the hardest.
Here’s how often each of the good teams play them. See if you can spot how it might impact the playoff race in the East.
East “Tank Games” Remaining
TeamE-6Total
Philadelphia
8
9
Atlanta
7
9
Charlotte
7
9
Cleveland
6
9
New York
6
8
Orlando
5
8
Toronto
5
8
Miami
7
7
Detroit
6
7
Boston
3
4
Everything seems pretty fair unless you’re a Celtics fan, huh? Boston only has four games left against the eight tankers, the lowest total in the league. Meanwhile, the Celtics’ most likely competition for the second seed, New York and Cleveland, have eight and nine respectively. To be clear, they would be favored in most of this games regardless of when they were played; however, the odds are now even more dramatically in their favor.
Wait, it gets worse: Included in that total for the Celtics is a home game against Dallas on Mar. 6. For Maine native Flagg, it’s his only game in New England this season. Surely he’s playing that night.
With only 1.5 games separating the three teams, it seems very likely that all the uncontested layups on Cleveland and New York’s slate could materially impact who ends up in seeds two, three and four in the East. This feels like a big deal; historically a top-3 seed is a key bar for winning a championship.
Looking deeper, Philadelphia has a league-high eight games left against the Egregious Six, while the Raptors team it’s chasing for the fifth seed only has five. There’s a chance that ends up mattering for fifth, and landing fifth definitely matters; historically, fifth seeds advance in the playoffs far more often than six seeds.
Now, for the West:
West “Tank Games” Remaining
TeamE-6Total
Portland
8
10
Golden St.
7
9
LA Clippers
5
8
LA Lakers
6
8
Houston
6
7
S. Antonio
5
7
Okla. City
4
7
Phoenix
4
7
Denver
5
6
Minnesota
3
5
Again, a tight playoff race looks it will be materially impacted.
If Minnesota is going to land near the top of the five-team scramble between third and seventh in the West, the Wolves will have to earn it. Minnesota only has three games left against the Egregious Six and five tank games overall, the fewest of any of those teams (Denver, Houston, Phoenix and the Lakers are the others), with just three games separating the quintet at the All-Star break.
Of particular note: The Wolves and Lakers are effectively tied for fifth in the standings right now, but the Lakers’ remaining slate comes with extra padding in the form of two games against the Pacers and one each against the Wizards, Jazz, Nets and Kings. As with Philly and Toronto above, this difference could really matter.
However, for the real fun, you have to go further down the West ladder, because it appears the Clippers may have an unforeseen obstacle in their efforts to reel in Portland and Golden State to move into the top eight: The Blazers’ comical schedule. (Portland’s overall remaining schedule also has the lowest winning percentage, but that part is fair — it means they played the toughest teams so far and will even out.)
The Blazers have a league-high 10 games against the tank teams, including a league-high eight versus the Egregious Six. If they win all 10 and split the other 16, they’ll end up with 45 wins. That’s a tough bar for the Clippers to clear, even with a fair number softies on their own slate. (The Clips’ slate also includes three games against the Pelicans, who are definitely not tanking.)
I should note that the easy games for Portland could also make life difficult for a shorthanded Golden State team, whose schedule strength includes nine tank games but is otherwise loaded with strong opposition.
What if we get Clippers-Warriors in the 9-10 Play-In game? The schedule could make it possible. Always remember: Tanking isn’t just about the tankers.
Cap geekery: Two-way upgrades
With the advent of the 2-way and the evolution into its current form (a 50-game eligibility limit) in the 2023 CBA, we now have a new event on the NBA transactional calendar: Conversion season.
Even with productive 2-way players, most teams will wait until February to convert the best ones to a standard contract. That’s for two reasons: First, teams don’t want to occupy a roster spot with a 2-way conversion that they may need on deadline day to complete a trade. Second, most players don’t start hitting that 50-game limit until right around the trade deadline; Milwaukee and Memphis played their respective 50th games the day after the trade deadline, while every other team had hit the half-century mark in the preceding few days.
However, in the week following the trade deadline, we saw eight conversions. Cleveland’s Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Philadelphia’s Don Barlow and Jabari Walker, Detroit’s Daniss Jenkins, Boston’s Amari Williams, Sacramento’s Dylan Cardwell, the Clippers’ Kobe Sanders and Golden State’s Pat Spencer all got new deals.
We’re likely to have more, as more players hit the 50-game limit and trigger possible actions by their teams to keep them eligible. A few notable productive 2-ways who are at least somewhat likely to see promotions include Philadelphia’s Jabari Walker Jr., Phoenix’s Jamaree Bouyea, Portland’s Caleb Love and Sidy Cissoko and Memphis’s Javon Small. For salary cap reasons, Boston’s Max Shulga and John Tonje also are very likely to get roster contracts (this is part of a much longer, nerdier discussion, but it’s the only way the Celtics can stay under the luxury tax).
Teams can just unilaterally convert a 2-way into a rest-of-season deal for the minimum — something Golden State appears to have done with Spencer — but usually this isn’t wise since it immediately exposes the player to free agency. Thus, nearly all these deals are signed as longer contracts with more flexibility on the team side.
In some cases, they paid to do it. Observant cap geeks will notice that a few of the new conversions seem set up to throw players some money up front in exchange for being able to keep them on a deal with good terms for longer. Detroit gave Jenkins $3.9 million rather than the minimum, and Philly gave Barlow $3.4 million.
Those two are also set up for their teams to have flexibility in free agency, because each has a team option for 2026-27 that pays similar money.
There’s a good reason for that: A few 2-ways, such as the ones I mentioned, have played so well that they’re likely to have suitors in free agency above the minimum. Signing a larger contract now with a team option ensures them against flight risk, yes. But also, it still sets the teams up to do a “decline and re-sign” maneuver that can allow those players to re-sign as non-Bird free agents for up to four years and up to a 20 percent raise on their previous deal.
Take Barlow, for example. Because the Sixers signed him for a pro-rated $3.4 million for the rest of this year, they can decline his option and sign him for up to four years and $18.3 million in the offseason … without using any of their taxpayer midlevel exception money. Going above that mark would require tapping into the MLE; they’d probably just pick up the team option rather than do so.
Detroit is an even better position with Jenkins since he played parts of two seasons on his 2-way and thus would be an Early Bird Rights free agent. The Pistons could decline the option and pay him any amount up to the league average salary (an estimated $15 million) on a four-year deal, although realistically they’d probably just pick up the team option rather than sign anything too far above what he’s currently making. Either way, it won’t mess with Detroit’s nontaxpayer midlevel exception.
Others are similar, if for less money. Sanders, Walker and Williams signed classic “decline and re-sign” deals for the minimum. Tomlin’s deal is a guaranteed minimum for next year, but that makes sense for Cleveland since the Cavs can’t pay him any more than that with their tax situation. The only outlier is Cardwell, because the Kings had enough room with their MLE to sign him to a four-year deal right away.
Klark-Luca Riethauser drives to the basket during the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup last July. Riethauser impressed John Hollinger at a recent Basketball Without Borders camp. (Milad Payami/FIBA via Getty Images)
International Prospect of the Week: Klark-Luca Riethauser, 6-8 SF, Chalon (France)
As they do every All-Star weekend, the league brought together many of the best international 17-year-olds to its Basketball Without Borders camp, and it was a magnet for league execs and scouts to quickly get eyes on a wide swath of players. While many of them are already playing at schools in the U.S., the list included several potential 2027 and 2028 draft prospects who are based overseas.
Included in that list is Riethauser, who plays in France right now. Once I saw the list of campers and made a few calls and got word that a player from Switzerland was one of the key players to watch, you better believe I punctually got my Helvetian self over to the Lakers’ practice facility to check it out myself.
A native of Geneva who, despite his German-sounding name, speaks French as his first language, Riethauser is a 6-8 forward with guard skills. That’s a result of his playing guard most of his life before a recent growth spurt shot him up to his current height.
Reithuaser was blunt about wanting to play at a higher level than the Espoirs League in France, where he’s put up big numbers this season for Chalon’s youth team while playing against mostly teenagers. (A 21.9 PER, an eye-opening 4.2 percent steal rate, and 41.8 percent 3-point shooting).
“The level where I’m playing right now,” Riethauser told The Athletic. “It’s not going to make me progress like if I’m playing with the pros at the highest level.”
To that end, I should note that Riethauser mixed business with the basketball on his trip to the states, also stopping off for recruiting visits with Nebraska, Texas and USC. (Riethauser also has interest from the “Next Stars” program in Australia’s NBL; he told me he’s done a Zoom call with them but hasn’t yet taken the loooooooong flight Down Under.)
Scouts I talked to identified him as one of the most talented players at the camp — one called him a bigger version of Duke guard Dame Sarr — although he wasn’t selected for the weekend’s All-Star team. (Riethauser also told me he was dealing with tendinitis this week that made him less explosive.)
Naturally, as a forward who can handle the ball, Riethauser said Kevin Durant was a player he modeled his game after, especially in one-on-one situations. That’s his biggest area to focus on for improvement; Riethauser is a gazelle pushing the ball in transition and can shoot with his feet set but is still learning to put those two things together in the half court.
Closer to home, he also watches former Suns guard Élie Okobo, who is one of the best players in the French league.
“He’s a good shooter like me,” said Riethauser, ”and he’s really good in 1-v-1 and everything.”
And his other favorite, he said, was Jason Williams.
(Record scratch…)
Wait, the guy who retired in 2011, when Riethauser was 3? Yes, that Jason Williams.
“On TikTok,” said Riethauser of how his White Chocolate fandom came to be. “I (saw) him one day and I watched all of his highlights.”
Maybe some of that rubbed off; Riethauser’s best moments in half-court play were the unexpected passes he’d flip, sometimes without looking, to players across the court on secondary reads.
To land in the 2027 first round, Riethauser will need to lean into his big guard skills and become a more potent creator in the half court; I should note he was playing off the ball quite a bit this weekend, but his ceiling comes as an on-ball player. He also has to dial up his motor a bit, especially on defense, where he has great hands and length but needs to add strength and up his physicality. Again, landing in the right program could help accentuate these skills ahead of 2027.
While we’re here, I’ll mention a few others campers who caught my eye this week: Latvian 6-6 wing Ricards Aizpurs, 6-2 Qatari guard Abdulla Mousa, 6-8 Virgin Islands forward K’Nard Callendar, 6-5 Japanese guard Kenichiro Benedict, 6-5 Dutch guard Jayden Anike, and 7-0 Nigerian center Obinna Ekezie Jr. Hardcore fans might recognize that last name — his father starred at Maryland, was the 37th pick in the 1999 draft, and played four NBA seasons with five different teams.
The other overseas-based standout was 6-9 French big man Cameron Houindo, who plays for Cedevita in Croatia. The camp MVP, he had a dominant outing on Saturday in particular and looked like a potential 2027 lottery pick.