OT Adam Silver Warns Teams About Tanking, Says NBA Will Closely Monitor Their Play

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by BigGameDamian, Feb 28, 2018.

  1. BigGameDamian

    BigGameDamian Well-Known Member

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    https://www.google.com/amp/s/syndic...-nba-will-closely-monitor-their-play.amp.html

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    NBA commissioner Adam Silver sent a memo to teams last week stating the league is going to "monitor closely the play of all teams during the remainder of the season" to ensure there's no blatant tanking.

    On Wednesday, Sam Amick of USA Today provided details of the letter, which discussed the importance of every organization trying to win each game:

    "The integrity of the competition on the playing court is the cornerstone of our league. It is our pact with the fans and with each other, the fundamental reason we exist as a preeminent sporting organization, the very product that we sell. With everything else changing around us, it is the one thing in our league that can never change. We must do everything in our power to protect the actual and perceived integrity of the game."

    Silver sent the memo after Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made public comments about tanking, for which he received a $600,000 fine from the NBA.

    Cuban appeared on the House Call with Dr. J podcast with Hall of Fame forward Julius Erving and admitted he had a conversation with Mavs players about the franchise's best route to future success, per ESPN.com:

    "I'm probably not supposed to say this, but, like, I just had dinner with a bunch of our guys the other night, and here we are, you know, we weren't competing for the playoffs. I was like, 'Look, losing is our best option.' Adam would hate hearing that, but I at least sat down and I explained it to them. And I explained what our plans were going to be this summer, that we're not going to tank again. This was, like, a year-and-a-half tanking, and that was too brutal for me. But being transparent, I think that's the key to being kind of a players owner and having stability."

    It marked the second straight year Cuban openly discussed the team's desire to lose games in order to improve its odds in the draft lottery. He did so on the Dan Patrick Show last May:



    Silver explained in the memo a rebuilding effort is a "legitimate strategy to construct a successful team within the confines of league rules," but outright tanking has "no place in our game," per Amick.

    "If we ever received evidence that players or coaches were attempting to lose or otherwise taking steps to cause any game to result otherwise than on its competitive merits, that conduct would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office," Silver wrote.

    The bottom five teams in the standings—the Memphis Grizzlies, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, Atlanta Hawks and Phoenix Suns—have combined to lose their last 35 games in what seems like an intense race to the bottom.
     
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  2. Boob-No-More

    Boob-No-More Why you no hire big man coach?

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    The only way to prevent tanking is to stop rewarding it.

    Monitoring the teams closely? What the fuck does that mean? All a team has to do once they are eliminated from the playoffs is rest their veterans and start playing the young guys at the end of the bench. They can just say it's for development purposes, not tanking. How can the league prove otherwise? After Cuban's $600K fine, no coach, owner or GM is going to admit to tanking. The burden of proof is therefore on the league, and without a direct quote, how can they prove intent?

    BNM
     
  3. blue9

    blue9 Well-Known Member

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    And regardless of whether it leads to wins or losses, development is the most important thing if you're not in the POs. As a fan I would be PISSED if our line-ups and rotations didn't change after being eliminated - I'd want to see Aminu and Ed riding pine while Zach and Caleb get 30+ minutes.
     
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  4. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    I don't think they can....good point
     
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  5. Boob-No-More

    Boob-No-More Why you no hire big man coach?

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    "We're not losing on purpose, we just suck" meets the definition of plausible deniability.

    BNM
     
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  6. SportsAndWhine

    SportsAndWhine Dumbass For Hire

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    You have to reward the results you want to see, which is teams fighting for playoff contention.

    Expand the lottery to include the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th seeded teams, then inverse the lottery odds, and flatten them a lot. 5th and 6th seeded teams would each have a 1% higher chance of getting one of the top 5 picks over 7th and 8th seeded teams, and 2% over non-playoff teams; 7th and 8th would have 1% better odds over non playoff teams, but otherwise the entire lotto would be flat odds, equal among non-playoff teams.

    So you end up with:

    Bottom 14 teams: 4% chance of winning the lottery each
    Next 4 teams (7th and 8th seed): 5% chance of winning the lottery each
    Next 4 teams (5th and 6th seed): 6% chance of winning the lottery each
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2018
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  7. BlazerBeav

    BlazerBeav Well-Known Member

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    I'm still surprised that Carter and Z-Bo played as much as they did last night - Sacramento was trying to win, kudos to them.
     
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  8. Mediocre Man

    Mediocre Man Mr. SportsTwo

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    Man I wish I could find the tweet, but either yesterday or the day before someone tweeted out an 0 for some large number stat of the bottom 5 teams, I think....in the NBA since Feb 13th or something like that
     
  9. PtldPlatypus

    PtldPlatypus Let's go Baby Blazers! Staff Member Global Moderator Moderator

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    Don't know about a tweet, but the OP finished with this nugget.

    upload_2018-2-28_10-32-27.png
     
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  10. SportsAndWhine

    SportsAndWhine Dumbass For Hire

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    Since February 13th (i.e., 2/14 onward), the bottom five teams are 0-20. In February total, the bottom five teams are 8-42.
     
  11. Jon

    Jon mr. 300

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    im sorry, but if he keeps allowing teams to form superteams, why not tank? it's not like the shitty teams can win anyways....
     
  12. e_blazer

    e_blazer Rip City Fan

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    I have to say that the Suns sure seemed like they were trying to beat the Blazers last week. I didn't notice the Kings doing anything blatant to lose last night, either. Sometimes when your team sucks, losing just happens.
     
  13. -Ace-

    -Ace- Mostly lurking

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    Sure they will. Just like they monitor flopping, travels, rip-throughs, closeouts, moving screens....
     
  14. SportsAndWhine

    SportsAndWhine Dumbass For Hire

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    :lol: exactly

    Though you could use all that machine learning and camera data to see if players on those teams are missing shots differently than they normally miss, from a basketball trajectory standpoint. If they do that might indicate they’ve been told to miss on purpose.
     
  15. blue9

    blue9 Well-Known Member

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    No player is going to willingly make their stats worse. Players don't tank, management tanks.
     
  16. hoopsjock

    hoopsjock Well-Known Member

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    Don't forget free throw lane violations!
     
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  17. 42N8Bounce

    42N8Bounce Red Hot And Rebuilding

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    Here are the current odd -

    upload_2018-2-28_13-4-34.png

    I think the incentive to tanking needs to be removed.
    - Expand the lottery to include the teams in the Playoffs without home-court advantage (adds 8 more teams).
    - Flatten the odds. 14 current teams + 8 as noted above = 22 total. 1/22 = 4.5% chance of winning for every team in the lottery.
    - Lottery every pick (currently just the top 3 picks are done on the lottery).
    - The most a team could drop is 7 spots. (The team with the worst record would be guaranteed a top 8 pick. The team with the second worst record would be guaranteed a top 9 pick.....)
    --- This would be the only 'incentive' to lose.
     
    Last edited: Feb 28, 2018
  18. hoopsjock

    hoopsjock Well-Known Member

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    Brian Windhorst said the other day that some teams are using analytics to tank. There are analytics that show what the best lineups are for each team, well he said there are multiple teams using that same information to play the worst lineups possible. That is pretty funny.
     
  19. -Ace-

    -Ace- Mostly lurking

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    I don't remember them mentioning that over the last few years as something they were "monitoring," or else I would have included it.
     
  20. THE HCP

    THE HCP NorthEastPortland'sFinest

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    You mean THIS guy?

    BB9DEC70-3C98-4C04-A099-DA0C3640494C.jpeg
     

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