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Tanking affects betting
As the NBA tries to come up with a solution about the worst teams in the league tanking for draft position, one sports journalist has said that Commissioner Adam Silver is likely getting pressure from sports betting companies.
Appearing on the “Jim Rome Show,” former Washington Post reporter and current co-host of the “Greatest of All Talk” podcast Ben Golliver said that one reason Silver has begun issuing hefty fines to teams is to stave off the ire of gambling companies.
over-unders are at stake, player props are at stake”
“If you’re not playing guys in the fourth quarter, how many bets is that impacting, right?” said Golliver. “We know how much the NBA has gotten in bed with gambling. Over-unders are at stake, player props are at stake, if coaches are just willy-nilly not playing guys the entire game and they’re not letting people know in advance that they plan to do that, you’re going to have a lot of angry gamblers and a lot of angry gambling companies, as well.”
Teams have been fined
The specific tank job that Golliver is referencing is that of the Utah Jazz, who have the sixth-worst record in the NBA at 18-38 and have no realistic chance to make the playoffs. Last week, the league fined the Jazz $500,000 for sitting healthy players in two recent games. Specifically, All-Stars Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson, Jr. both stayed on the bench for the entire fourth quarter of both games, even though the contests were close (Utah won one and lost one).
Jazz coach Will Hardy said he never considered playing them more and explained their lack of late-game minutes was for medical reasons. Markkanen, Hardy said, was on a minutes restriction and Jackson had a growth discovered on his knee in early February. It was just announced last week that Jackson will have season-ending surgery.
The Indiana Pacers, sitting even lower than the Jazz at 15-40, were fined $100,000 for sitting All-Star Pascal Siakam and two other players against, coincidentally, the Jazz.
Draft lottery
As is the case in other US professional sports leagues, the teams that finish with the worst records get the highest draft picks. But because one single player can make such a heavy impact on a team that only has five players on the court at a time, the NBA has a draft lottery, giving every non-playoff team a chance at the top pick.
In the early days of the lottery, which began in 1985, each non-playoff team had an equal chance to get the first pick. It soon changed to only the first three picks determined by lottery. In 1990, the weighted lottery was introduced, giving the worst teams a better chance at the highest picks.
the worst team can pick no lower than fifth
In its current format, the worst three teams all have a 14% chance to win the top pick. Just the first four picks are determined by the lottery. After the top four, the rest of the teams are slotted in by reverse order of their regular-season record. Thus, the worst team can pick no lower than fifth. There is no lottery for the second round – it goes strictly by win-loss record, again, in reverse order.
This year’s draft class is supposed to be one of the best in years, so there is incentive for more teams to keep losing, as just being in the top half of the lottery could net a franchise-changing player.
Last year, the Dallas Mavericks won the lottery with just a 1.8% chance, selecting Duke’s Cooper Flagg with the first overall pick.
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