The Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz are showing that there are levels to tanking.
This past weekend, the Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz put on a tanking clinic.
The Raptors have repeatedly benched Scottie Barnes early in the fourth quarter of competitive games in recent weeks, including Sunday’s 105-102 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in which they gave up a game-ending 16-7 run. Meanwhile, the Jazz played Lauri Markkanen for 19 minutes in the first half of Friday’s loss to the Raptors on Friday, only to sit him for the entire second half. Third-year center Walker Kessler was in uniform for Friday’s loss and wasn’t on the injury report, but he never saw the court at all.
The Sixers have yet to embrace that level of tanking. In Sunday’s win over the Dallas Mavericks, they were up 118-107 when they brought Quentin Grimes back with 5:02 left in the fourth quarter. Grimes scored five of their final nine points, including two free throws that gave them a three-point lead with 25.1 seconds left. They also played Guerschon Yabusele for the final 8:15 of that game.
To some extent, it makes sense why the Sixers aren’t benching Grimes in crunch time like the Raptors have with Barnes and their other starters in recent games. Grimes is heading into restricted free agency this offseason, so he’d presumably like every chance he can get to make a positive impression both on the Sixers and other potential free-agent suitors. Icing a game in crunch time might only drive his price tag up this offseason. Meanwhile, the Sixers might want to test his viability in those late-game situations before committing long-term to him, especially since that could wind up costing them Yabusele.
However, the Raptors have full control over their first-round pick this season. The Jazz owe theirs to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls outside the top 10, but there’s roughly a zero chance of them finishing outside of the bottom six. And both are still pulling their best players in the pursuit of more ping-pong-ball combinations on lottery night.
Meanwhile, the Sixers will send their first-round pick to OKC this year if it falls outside of the top six. As Liberty Ballers’ Erin Grugan covered in mid-January, they’ll have a 63.9 percent chance of keeping it if they finish with the league’s fifth-worst record, a 45.8 percent chance with the sixth-worst record and a 31.9 percent chance with the seventh-worst record. That’s a greater-than-30-percent swing between the fifth- and seventh-worst records.
The Jazz, Charlotte Hornets, Washington Wizards and New Orleans Pelicans all have 18 or fewer wins heading into Monday. The Sixers and Brooklyn Nets are tied at 23 wins apiece, while the Raptors are a half-game ahead of the Sixers at 24-44. The San Antonio Spurs (28-38) could be in free fall with both Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox done for the year, although they’re far enough ahead of the Raptors, Sixers and Nets not to be an imminent threat (for now, anyway).
The Sixers should get annihilated by the Houston Rockets on Monday and Oklahoma City on Wednesday, but they have a dangerous six-game slate starting Friday that could determine which slot they wind up earning. They begin with a trip to the Spurs, followed by road games against the Atlanta Hawks and Pelicans, and they finish it out with three home games against the Wizards, Miami Heat and Raptors.
The Raptors still have by far the easiest remaining schedule in the NBA, according to Tankathon, and they had won six of their past seven games before Sunday’s shameless tanking against Portland. The Sixers have the seventh-easiest remaining schedule, while the Nets are at 11th. The Nets did just lose leading scorer Cam Thomas to a season-ending hamstring injury, but they haven’t been committing in-game chicanery with their lineups and rotations. They’re conducting an ethical tank, unlike the Raptors and Jazz.
The league office has recently begun cracking down on violations of the NBA’s player participation policy, which could give the Sixers some pause. The Jazz recently received a $100,000 fine for making Markkanen unavailable against the Wizards on March 5, “as well as other recent games.” On Friday, ESPN’s Shams Charania revealed that the league is also investigating the Oklahoma City Thunder for sitting their entire starting five against the Portland Trail Blazers on March 7, and it’s “looking into” the Sixers for the recent absences of Paul George and Tyrese Maxey.
The player participation policy is aimed at star players — defined as anyone who made an All-Star or All-NBA team within the past three seasons — which explains why Maxey and George would be subject to different rules than Kessler. However, the likes of Grimes, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Guerschon Yabusele haven’t been All-Stars before, so the Sixers should have more flexibility to rest them as they see fit. Besides, if the league hasn’t fined the Raptors and Jazz for their recent fourth-quarter/second-half benchings of Barnes and Markkanen, it would have no standing to do so to the Sixers for a non-star. (Then again, Adam Silver hates the Process, so.)
From here on out, the Sixers need to embrace the shamelessness of the Raptors and Jazz, especially since the Raptors are one of their biggest threats for a bottom-six record. They can leave the ethical tanking to the Nets, who have full control over their own first-round pick.
If the league does fine them for benching Grimes, Yabusele or Oubre down the stretch, they have an eight-figure payout on the way after they ducked below the luxury-tax threshold at the trade deadline. Spending $250,000 of that to make a point about the hypocrisy of the NBA’s handling of the player participation policy would be worth every penny.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Salary Swish and salary-cap information via RealGM.
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