- 13 hours ago
Is the NBA's tanking problem getting out of hand? Steiny and Evan Giddings break down a head-scratching sequence from last night's Kings-Warriors game that left Draymond Green and the rest of the league stunned. From draft lottery odds to the "uselessness" of the Play-In tournament, the guys dive deep into why teams like the Kings, Jazz, and Wizards might find it more advantageous to lose than to compete for a postseason spot.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00All right, thanks, Tim Roy.
00:01Evan Giddings in for Daryl, the Guru Johnson,
00:03and the Warriors win a game last night, 110-105.
00:06Curry played again.
00:10He hit the next shot.
00:11He did.
00:11He tied it up at 104 with a three.
00:18Sacramento was up one with three minutes and 15 seconds to go.
00:23And Doug Christie told, it's Doug McDermott, right?
00:28Dougie, Dougie, Dougie McBuckett.
00:30And he intentionally fouls Seth Curry, giving the Warriors a point.
00:35Should have been two.
00:38And the question is, why did he do that?
00:41And there's only two answers.
00:43One is, he didn't want to win the game.
00:47And two is, is there any chance he didn't know they were in the bonus?
00:52Is there any chance he didn't know they were in the bonus?
00:55And which one's more egregious?
00:57I have to believe, Siney, that Doug Christie, he played in the league for over a decade, right?
01:06Yeah.
01:06As a player.
01:07Yep.
01:07He's been a head coach before.
01:09He's been in the front office.
01:11I think he's been a broadcaster.
01:12I mean, he's had, he's had just about every single role there is in the NBA.
01:19I have to imagine he knew they were in the bonus.
01:23Like, seriously.
01:26That, I don't think he's a great head coach.
01:29I mean, I think he's there probably to, to achieve what they did last night, which was losing a game.
01:34But, I don't think Doug Christie's that bad or that unaware of an NBA mind to not know that they
01:42had four team fouls before he asked Doug.
01:45By the way, even if you had three, let's, let's say, let's say the Warriors were not in the bonus.
01:54Right.
01:54Why are you intentionally fouling when the ball is 80 feet away from the play?
02:00Even if.
02:02So, the only, the only explanation, and, and Draymond called it out.
02:06Was Draymond on the floor at the time?
02:09Yes.
02:09I think, I want to say he was.
02:10Yeah, he was.
02:11So, why would you foul Seth Curry if you're even going to go that route?
02:14Why do you think?
02:17I mean, if you're, if you're, if it's a strategy, aren't you going after Draymond?
02:21It is a strategy, but not a strategy to win.
02:24It's a strategy to lose.
02:26Seth Curry's, all right, you, you know what he's shooting from, from the free throw line this season?
02:31Seth?
02:31Yeah.
02:32Oh, I don't know.
02:3288.
02:3390.
02:34Okay.
02:34Know what he's first career?
02:36Oh, 88?
02:3786.
02:37Okay.
02:38Both those should be going down.
02:39Like, you are fouling him because you're assuming that he's making both.
02:44That's, like, and I texted you guys this, but I didn't actually think, you know, I, I have fun, right?
02:49You were at the Wizards game the other week, and in the fourth quarter, the Warriors were down, and I
02:53text you, all right,
02:54Schlenk's going to make a call.
02:55Wizards keeps pulling the plug because it's just, it's so blatantly obvious.
03:01And this isn't a Sacramento problem, by the way.
03:04This is a league-wide problem.
03:06The, the Nets took their guys out in the fourth quarter against the Warriors.
03:10The Jazz have been doing it until they eventually just decided that, because they got fined,
03:14they're one of the two teams that have been fined, $500,000.
03:16They finally just decided, yeah, we're going to shut down Markin, and we're going to shut down JJJ,
03:21because at least that way, we don't have to hide it in front of your faces.
03:25This is a league-wide problem, and teams are getting away with it night in and night out.
03:30And so much to the point that Christie and the Kings took it to a new level.
03:36Like, that is, that is the most egregious form of tanking that I have ever seen.
03:42So much so, that I think the majority of the people didn't catch it in the moment outside of Draymond
03:49Green.
03:50Because no one could figure out why he would foul in the bonus up by one point with three minutes
03:55left in the ballgame
03:56for a guy that is a career 90% free-throw shooter.
04:00And here's another level of intrigue, if you don't, if you don't buy it.
04:06So, the top, I should say, the worst three teams in the NBA have a 14% chance to get
04:14the number one pick.
04:15All right?
04:16Right now, the worst three teams, and it looks like they're all going to hold their position,
04:22is Indiana, Brooklyn, and Washington.
04:24So, those three teams are going to have the highest percentage to win the lottery.
04:29Now, the Kings, right now, are tied for the fourth worst record with the Utah Jazz.
04:39And I didn't even realize this, the Jazz lose, they win that, right?
04:43They win the quote-unquote tiebreaker.
04:45Okay, so...
04:46Because the Kings have a better conference record.
04:49They're tied 2-2 head-to-head, but the Kings have two more wins in the conference column.
04:53So, in other words, if the Kings and the Jazz finish tied, the Kings get the better pick.
04:58Yeah, I...
04:59Okay, so...
05:00No, no, no.
05:00The Jazz, right now, are in the bottom four.
05:04The Kings are outside.
05:05They have to clear them by a loss.
05:08Oh, I see what you're saying.
05:08And they have two games left to do it.
05:10If they had won that game last night, they would be effectively eliminated from a bottom four seat.
05:16Right, and what we're talking about here is the difference between a 12.5% chance for the Kings to
05:23get the number one spot if they were in the fourth,
05:25and it drops to 10.5% if they drop to fifth.
05:30So, we're talking about two percentage points, and I guess the Kings didn't want to take any chances.
05:38They didn't want to take any chances that they might win that game and drop to five.
05:45And Draymond Green kind of got on one last night, and he started talking about the play-in.
05:53And, you know, he talked about the play-in might not have been a bad idea at the time,
05:59but now it's already outlived its usefulness, and it's playing into this tanking.
06:04It's not exciting.
06:05It's not.
06:06But, you know, I'm a competitor, so going to the game, I'm going to do all I can to win,
06:10but it's not that exciting.
06:12Do you think you'll be excited next week when you have two do-or-die road games that, you know,
06:15they'll be on big stages?
06:17Well, listen, you go on the road in a game that you need to win, I think, you know, as
06:22a competitor,
06:23you're going to rush to the challenge, you know.
06:25But I'm not going to sleep tomorrow night like, man, we got to play in next week.
06:29Got to get my rest.
06:30Like, no, it ain't that exciting.
06:33I mean.
06:33That was him talking about the play-in.
06:35Right.
06:36But, like, this is what the league just doesn't want to hear, even if it's true.
06:42Like, Draymond Green, yeah, he'll get up for the game next week, but he's not excited about playing in a
06:48play-in right now.
06:50Well, he's not because he's played in, what, six NBA finals?
06:54Yeah.
06:54I mean, I don't think there's a ton of players that are excited about the opportunity to win two games
06:59just to get a first-round series against the best team in their conference.
07:03You know, but I think, and he explained it further, which is true, it's, part of the problem is that
07:09the Warriors have bottomed out so much to the point that they were the 10 whether they like it or
07:15not.
07:16Right.
07:17Draymond said it, they could have lost 15 games in a row and they still would be the 10.
07:23So, I think Draymond's excitement, if he felt like they had a legitimate shot, which is also what we've been
07:28feeling.
07:28Like, when I heard that quote, I actually felt like, Sonia, it gave validity to a lot of the fans
07:34who are saying, well, just lose out and get a pick.
07:37Right.
07:37Like, just lose out and get a pick.
07:38Because Draymond Green's not even excited about the game.
07:40Right.
07:40And when he gets there, you know, he's going to play hard and maybe they'll win, maybe they won't.
07:45But one of the spokespeople for your team doesn't give a crap about the 9-10 playing.
07:51Right.
07:51That's a problem.
07:52Yeah.
07:53This is more Draymond on, you know, he's kind of going a little back and forth here, but this is
07:58when he was asked about or talked about, he brought it up.
08:02Doug Christie telling his team to foul Seth Curry.
08:06I saw a team tonight foul Seth Curry with three minutes to go in the game for no reason.
08:13It ain't the penalty.
08:14It ain't working.
08:16Right.
08:16So, but, you know, we want to make the playoffs, so it works, I guess.
08:22All right.
08:22So what he's saying there is that it's not working.
08:27The play-in's not working.
08:29Because the Sacramento King, he said, you know, teams that are 12 and 13, they built the play-in to
08:36try to make them more, you know, interested in winning later in a season.
08:40And what's happening is the exact opposite.
08:42That if you're outside of 10 and it's midway or two-thirds of the way through the season, there's no
08:48reason to try to climb to 10.
08:49Like, why would you try to climb to 10 when that guarantees nothing but a play-in game and then
08:57possibly, if it goes well, you lose your pick.
09:02And it's kind of backwards right now.
09:05And there are a lot of teams that just aren't interested in winning.
09:09And some teams do a much better job than others of camouflaging it.
09:14They just do.
09:16You know, the Pacers, I get it, but they probably weren't as bad a team as they, you know, they
09:23were a better team than their record indicated.
09:25But without Halliburton, what do they have to play for?
09:27But, I mean, just think about this.
09:29If you're in Indiana, and I get it, Halliburton's hurt.
09:31I mean, what a waste of a year.
09:34Now, I guess if they get to Boncha, they're sitting pretty.
09:37But, you know, fans had to endure a year in Indiana where their team's going to win 17, 18 games.
09:44I mean, there's the way that the Pacers did it, and there's the way that the Celtics did it.
09:49You know, I think the Celtics probably came into the season not expecting to compete for a championship.
09:54But you had enough internal stability to keep your team, not just competitive, but keep them really good.
10:02You know, if the Celtics had chose to tank or to bottom out, I don't think that Jason Tatum would
10:07be back on the floor.
10:08I mean, maybe he would because he loves basketball.
10:11But I doubt it.
10:12And, you know, but at least Indiana, it's like the Warriors were in 2020.
10:18You know, they knew that was going to be a sunk year, especially the moment Curry broke his hand three
10:22games into the season.
10:23So, Indiana, by the way, still went out and traded for Zubats.
10:30They gave up two first-round picks this year for a player they expect to help them compete next season.
10:34So, Indiana, I have a little more respect for just because, at the very least, there's a vision there.
10:41But the reality is, and I think it was the regulator who brought this up in the YouTube chat, and
10:44he or she is completely right.
10:47That's not Doug Christie's fault last night.
10:50It might be his fault for trying to think that he could hoodwink all of us by doing something so
10:56blatantly obvious that he could just sweep it under the rug.
10:58Like, that's his choice to try and lose that.
11:01But he has, he clearly has a directive from his boss, from the front office of the Sacramento Kings.
11:09Because the reality is what, I know no one pays attention to what happened in Sac.
11:14They won two games last week.
11:16Two games they were not supposed to win.
11:18They beat the Raptors, and I believe they beat the Pelicans.
11:22If they lose those games, they're right where they need to be in the bottom four.
11:26But because they won those basketball games, because Doug Christie probably was coaching in those games and doing what he
11:31believes is actually right, morally, as a former basketball player,
11:36then he's in a position to where his boss goes to him and says, hey, we got three games left.
11:41You ain't winning any of them.
11:43Right.
11:43Because if you do, maybe, I don't know, maybe it's a you lose your job kind of situation.
11:48Like, that's on Scott Perry, that game last night.
11:51Or whoever is running the Sacramento Kings, all the way up to ownership.
11:55It's just, it's disgusting.
11:58Because you're telling people that you don't care, you care more about the chance to get a player than you
12:06do about treating the game with respect.
12:08And that to me is, again, I don't think it's on Doug Christie.
12:12He's just doing what he's told.
12:13Well, it also is, you know, for all the talk about the Warriors don't tank, you know, they're under the
12:25impression that they're doing the right thing by not tanking.
12:28And the reality of the situation is, like, everybody knows tanking is probably not the right thing to do, but
12:35it may be the best thing to do.
12:36And that's the conundrum the NBA has.
12:40And this is Draymond, you know, he kind of got warmed up with the first two and then dropping this.
12:48I get fined when I do wrong.
12:50Just fining the hell out of people.
12:52You know, we love taking money from players.
12:54Keep fining the teams.
12:55I've seen two fines.
12:57And we all know everybody take it.
12:59But you've seen two fines.
13:01You know?
13:01If it was players, we snatched that money in a heartbeat.
13:04Why isn't it the same?
13:05Everybody loves money.
13:07So, you know, the punishment for players is always, let's take the money.
13:11Well, now it becomes time to punish teams and all of a sudden nobody don't know what to do.
13:15Why not?
13:16We know exactly what to do when somebody gets a technical file or suspended for a game.
13:22We know exactly what to do.
13:23All of a sudden we got team issues.
13:25We don't know what to do.
13:26What happened to the whole take the money stuff?
13:29Everybody else trying to reach a quarter or two.
13:31But when it comes to player discipline, we want to snatch the money as fast as we can.
13:36Come to team discipline, and we see 12 teams thinking, we've seen two fines.
13:42My math serves me correctly.
13:43That's a 10 that ain't been fined.
13:45Just some quick math.
13:47It could be wrong, so don't judge me if it's wrong.
13:49But we don't keep that same energy when it comes to teams, when it comes to officials, when it comes
13:54to everybody but players.
13:55We don't keep that same energy.
13:57But it's a player's league.
13:58All right, what he's saying is that he would start really fining teams left and right for doing what they're
14:05doing.
14:05I mean, let me ask you this.
14:07And maybe we'll see some news about it today.
14:11I mean, is the NBA going to do, like, are they going to penalize the Sacramento Kings for fouling last
14:17night with three?
14:18Like, can you do that?
14:20Well, I think you can do whatever you want.
14:22But, like, they find the jazz for taking their players out in the fourth quarter, you know, unless Doug Christie's
14:30going to walk to the podium and say, my bad, there's a logical explanation for this.
14:35I didn't know we had five fouls, or I wanted a timeout, and we only, you know, like, if there's
14:40a logical explanation for it and he wants to explain himself, he can do that.
14:44Right.
14:44But, again, it's not, and I don't want to make this just about crapping on Sacramento because I don't think
14:49they're the only ones that are doing this.
14:51They just took it to a whole other level last night because, again, I think that they won two games
14:57they weren't supposed to.
14:59They're now sitting outside of the top four.
15:00They don't have the tiebreaker, and they have to do everything possible in their minds to get back in.
15:05But Utah's doing the same thing.
15:08Brooklyn's doing the same thing.
15:11Washington is doing the same thing.
15:13And you could speak to that better than anybody, and I'm not asking you to, but, like, you know what
15:19they're doing there.
15:20There's a reason why Anthony Davis is doing a TV show right now, and Draymond Green's, like, we're talking more
15:26about Anthony Davis on some gotcha TV show, some gotcha reality TV show, than we are about him getting back
15:34onto the court.
15:34I haven't heard an injury update about Anthony Davis since the moment he got traded to Washington.
15:39And there's a reason for that because they don't have any intention of bringing him back, working him back, and
15:44they're just going to throw a bunch of guys out there, lose a bunch of basketball games, get a top
15:48pick or not.
15:49The thing that I need your help with, Stiney, is that it feels like, and I was just looking at
15:55the amount of teams that have lost less than 30 games the last, really since the play-in tournament started.
16:00All right.
16:00So, in 2022-23, there were four teams that were under 30 wins.
16:082023-24, two years ago, there were seven teams, so it increased.
16:14And then last season, there were six, so it was about the same.
16:18But it feels like this year, and by the way, there are eight teams that have less than 30 wins.
16:26And at 30 right now, there's nine because the Bulls technically have 30 wins.
16:29So, more teams have dug in on this idea of losing, even after the team with the worst lottery odds
16:38got the number one overall pick.
16:40The whole point of the lottery, at least in my mind last year, it showed you that just because you
16:46suck all year doesn't mean you're going to get what you want.
16:50And yet teams this year, more than any year before during this play-in era, if you want to call
16:55it, had decided to suck even more.
16:58Can you help me figure that out?
17:00Well, there can be a reward at the end of the rainbow.
17:05I mean, this goes way back to, you know, when Patrick Ewing came out in 1985 and the Warriors fell
17:15to, I think, seven.
17:17The reality of the situation is that the year that Wembenyama came out, who wouldn't have wanted to be the
17:25worst team in the league?
17:26That's the thing.
17:27If you have a Cooper flag, or you have a Wembenyama, or even a year like this year where you
17:33think you might have two or three, maybe four difference makers.
17:39I mean, if you're the Washington Wizards and you can, or you're the, you know, I don't want to use
17:44that one team in particular,
17:45but if you're one of the worst teams in the league and you think you can manipulate your season and
17:49think to yourself,
17:51well, if a lot of things go right, we'll probably win 30 games.
17:54So let's just win 20.
17:57That's really not hard to do.
17:59And I think every team's, every team's doing that.
18:03And the other thing about, the other thing about it too now is I, even though we're seeing it,
18:07I think you can almost camouflage it more because the game's just up and down and a team that, you
18:14know,
18:14on a team that's not committed, they're just going to look like they're running up and down and they lose
18:19a game by 24.
18:20Cause they're not very good, which is probably the case anyway.
18:24But I, I mean, the tanking is a problem, but it is always been kind of part of the NBA
18:32process.
18:34I feel like it's kind of like the three pointer, you know, the three, the three pointer came in like
18:39the lottery.
18:40But when the three pointer came in, people started shooting it a little, then people started shooting it a little
18:44more.
18:45And now here we are, you know, 20 or 30 years later and someone's done the, the math of the
18:51advanced math, you know,
18:53enough to say, Hey, it's, it's worth it, you know, to shoot 53s a game.
18:58And that's the way I feel about the lottery.
19:00You know, in the beginning it's, you know, we will just take, we'll just take our chances.
19:04And then over the course of time, you realize that you can put yourself in a more advantageous position if
19:10you lose more games.
19:12And now teams are beginning to take that, take that more seriously, you know, not winning more games in a
19:20particular year.
19:21Yeah. I mean, look, if you give someone an inch, they'll take a mile.
19:24It just felt like last night at Chase Center, Doug Christie showed us what the mile looked like.
19:31You know what I mean?
19:32Yeah.
19:32I mean, that was, that was as bad as, as we've seen it.
19:36And so much to the point where Draymond, you may like him, you may dislike him.
19:40It felt like he was the only guy that really connected the dots in real time of what he was
19:44seeing.
19:46And I'm glad that he spoke on it because we can have a conversation about it.
19:49And it's about highlighting it more than anything else to the extent that I feel like you've covered the league
19:56longer than I've been watching basketball.
19:59I don't mean to date you, but the point is,
20:01have you seen a season where we're talking more about teams jockeying for position of the bottom seed than the
20:11top seed?
20:11Like there's been more competition for the worst record in the league than the best record in the league.
20:17And that I cannot recall.
20:19I think it's a confluence of a lot of things.
20:21And one of the things is, you know, over time, teams have been looking at tanking and realizing that, you
20:29know, it can be a benefit if you do it in a particular year.
20:33I also think what's happened this year is that everybody's on to the fact that there may be some really
20:39good players, let's say, in the top five.
20:41So I think this is one of those drafts where teams aren't necessarily tanking for the top pick because I
20:49don't even know if there's a consensus top pick.
20:51But there's a consensus top four.
20:53And if you get into that top four, basketball people seem to believe that there are going to be some
21:01players in this draft that are going to really be able to help turn some franchises around.
21:06And, you know, if you can get one player like a Cooper Flagg or a Wembenyama who can guarantee, and
21:13I'm not saying Cooper Flagg's there yet,
21:15but guarantee that your team's going to have success for the next decade.
21:18I mean, what's one year?
21:20Sure. That's it. It's just one year.
21:22And, you know, again, like I look at I look at Washington.
21:26All right.
21:28They stink.
21:29But could they be good next year if they have Anthony Davis and Trey Young and they get a top
21:35three pick?
21:36They should be.
21:37Yeah, they should be a lot better.
21:38Like, you know, in one year they should.
21:41I don't know how many games they'll win, but they should be in the 30s, I would think, at least
21:44if everybody can stay healthy.
21:46And so the question then for the Wizards fans is, were the last two years worth it?
21:52I know that wouldn't go over well now with the Golden State Warrior fans.
21:57Obviously, they have Steph Curry, so it's out of the question.
21:59But I'm not sure that Warrior fans, after Steph Curry leaves, would support a year or two like the Washington
22:08Wizards just had.
22:09I kind of feel like this year has been confirmation.
22:12Maybe not the majority, but I think there's a lot of people that are coming around to that sort of
22:17strategy.
22:17Because all we've talked about is them losing the play-in to get potentially one of these highly coveted picks
22:24that you're talking about.
Comments