Will It Work? NBA FINALLY Addresses Tanking Teams

The NBA offered small fines to the Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz for recent “roster management” controversies.

The NBA finally let two of its squads know it can’t bank on the tank.

The Association announced that the Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz had been fined six figures each for issues “related to the management of their rosters for recent games.” Utah was penalized to the tune of $500,000 while Indiana parts ways with $100,000.

Those may seem like measly finest for such organizations, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver hinted that further actions to combat the recent epidemic of apparent tanking will be taken in the near future.

“Overt behavior like this that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition and we will respond accordingly to any further actions that compromise the integrity of our games,” Silver said. “Additionally, we are working with our Competition Committee and Board of Governors to implement further measures to root out this type of conduct.”

The following has been released by the NBA. pic.twitter.com/0JFQpOnOmF

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) February 13, 2026

Tanking has been a long-standing practice in both the NBA and its professional counterparts, one where teams go as far as they legally can to accept losses in the name of landing a better draft pick.

Recent roster decisions in Utah (18-37) have been viewed as particularly egregious in that cause, as two incidents were mentioned in the NBA statement.

During a Feb. 7 in Orlando, the Jazz led the hosting Magic by seven entering the final period. However, the Jazz sat top attractions Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen (as well as their fellow starters Keyonte George and Jusuf Nurkic) for the entire fourth quarter, allowing Orlando to stage a comeback en route to a 120-117 win.

Two nights later, the Jazz repeated the practice with Jackson, Markkanen, and Nurkic missing the last dozen minutes in Miami. George was already out with an ankle sprain, but the plan “backfired” to the tune of a 115-111 win. Asked afterward how close he was to putting Jackson or Markkanen back in the game, Jazz head coach Will Hardy bluntly replied “I wasn’t.”

Asked Jazz coach Will Hardy how close he was to putting Lauri Markkanen or Jaren Jackson Jr. in the game in the fourth quarter.

“I wasn’t.” pic.twitter.com/bZcEkCo8WA

— Five Reasons Sports (@5ReasonsSports) February 10, 2026

Utah won on Wednesday night against Sacramento but shortly before it faced the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday, announced that Jackson, an All-Star acquired in a deadline deal with the Memphis Grizzlies, would miss the rest of the season to undergo surgery that would remove a growth in his knee.

The Pacers (15-40) are being penalized for a Feb. 3 incident against the Jazz, ironically enough. On that night, All-Star Pascal Siakam was held out due to rest alongside “two other Pacers starters.” While the other men in question were not revealed, it’s likely the report was referring to Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith, both of who have been starting five staples in both last season’s NBA Finals run and this dreary, Tyrese Haliburton-free follow-up.

Holding out Siakam, the league explained, led to the Pacers violating the Player Participation Policy, which mandates that team maximize the availability of “star” players. Siakam qualifies in that department as a recurring All-Star.

“Following an investigation, including review by an independent physician, the NBA determined that Pascal Siakam, a star player under the Policy, and two other Pacers starters, neither of whom participated in the game, could have played under the medical standard in the Policy, including by playing reduced minutes,” the statement declares. “Alternatively, the team could have held the players out of other games in a way that would have better promoted compliance with the Policy.”

Though unmentioned in the statement, the Pacers may have drawn further ire from the league for further activity (or lack thereof) this week: following an upset win over the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, the Pacers rested four participants in another win in Brooklyn the next night. Another deadline addition, former Los Angeles Clipper Ivica Zubac, has yet to take the floor due to an ankle sprain.

For all their apparent attempts to lose, Utah and Indiana do not own the best lottery odds yet, with that so-called “honor” belonging to the Sacramento Kings. The Pacers place 27th on the current league leaderboard with the Jazz two spots ahead. That would granted them the respective fourth and sixth-best odds to land the top pick in this summer’s NBA Draft. The Pacers’ case is particularly perilous: if the pick lands in the fifth through ninth slots, it will transfer to the Clippers as part of the Zubac deal.

Jazz owner Ryan Smith’s response to his team’s $500k fine due to the management of the rosters pic.twitter.com/R9H15iHa62

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 13, 2026

Jazz owner Ryan Smith came out on social media and responded to the league’s announcement of fines, saying he did not agree with the levied penalties. Irregardless of Smith’s post, that the league had to address this issue with a public statement tells everyone with a pulse what message is being sent.

The fact of the matter is that the NBA has done little to truly penalize tanking: look no further than the early-to-mid 2010s antics of the Philadelphia 76ers, who infamous “trusted the process” over several years to inch back toward contention. Time will tell if the NBA’s fines, nominal for the time being, prove to stop the siege of losing.

More than the fines, the NBA’s league office realizes something must be done, publicly, to re-assure fans that it realizes its own credibility issue when it comes to the issue of tanking. It remains to be seen what will be done, privately, by the league in order to protect its long-term viability.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags