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MIAMI — The tanking debate is one that could well come to define the 2025-26 NBA regular season, with Commissioner Adam Silver as recently as Friday at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston acknowledging the perils for the league of the ongoing race to the bottom by several teams.
Mostly, though, the debate is about the tanking teams, themselves, and the way they have prioritized lottery positioning over winning.
For his part, in a recent social-media string, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who still has a stake in the team, said the practice can work for teams when utilized selectively.
Responding to those posts, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia rebuked the notion of losing ever as an acceptable means of future success.
And then there was former Heat forward Kyle Anderson, who left little doubt about what currently is at play, when he spoke about his time this season with the Utah Jazz — as in the team fined $500,000 by Silver ostensibly for tanking by not fully utilizing their roster resources — before moving on to the contending Minnesota Timberwolves on the buyout market.
“I don’t even want to get into it, honestly,” Anderson said. “I had a lot of fun in the organization, and everybody in the organization was awesome. Obviously, you know, playing not to win games gets a little tricky and tough. I didn’t enjoy it personally.”
Except tanking is not only about the tankers, not only about those involved in the race to the bottom.
It’s also about the impact on the play-in/playoff races these final five weeks of the season, how the playing field can be sloped to an untenable degree.
Consider it the ancillary impact of tanking, the adjacent impact of tanking, games where teams vying for postseason positioning are having to live the reality of how the tankers can upend the playoff race.
Take the Heat this past week, when the schedule — perhaps to the consternation with those in the Heat portion of the standings — effectively read “bye” and “bye,” with the Tuesday-Thursday set against the Brooklyn Nets.
Then consider a team the Heat are chasing, the Philadelphia 76ers, who on Wednesday night effectively had a bye of their own, when they faced the Jazz, Philadelphia winning that game even in the absences of Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe.
That’s where this gets messy, and for more than a subset of the standings playing to lose. The problem is those teams also are playing against teams involved in tight playoff races. And, yet, on some nights, those teams in those playoff races effectively are being gifted with opponents more closely resembling the G League Salt Lake City Stars, Long Island Nets, Capital City Go-Go, Stockton Kings, Memphis Hustle or Noblesville Boom.
Happiness might be Brooklyn, Washington, Indiana, Chicago, Utah, Memphis or Sacramento on your remaining schedule, but there also is the consternation of seeing those teams on the upcoming schedules of the teams you are chasing.
The games this past week against the Nets were gifts for the Heat, as potentially are the Heat’s three remaining games against the Wizards.
But there also will be nights when the Heat will be going against the likes of the Lakers, Rockets, Spurs, Cavaliers and Celtics, only to see the teams they are battling for playoff position going against teams that have made it clear the priority is losing.
That is why tanking is a disgrace, and for more than the comments from Ishbia and Anderson.
Because now it also is polluting a playoff race, impacting teams that actually dare to care about winning.
As for the Heat, how could the tankers impact their postseason plans?
A look at the remaining times when they and teams in their portion of the playoff race will have the opportunities for walkovers, based on teams that have fully made it clear by now it will be tank or bust:
Toronto Raptors (5): March 18 at Bulls, March 23 at Jazz, April 1 vs. Kings, April 3 at Grizzlies, April 12 vs. Nets.
Philadelphia 76ers (7): March 10 vs. Grizzlies, March 14 vs. Nets, March 19 at Kings, March 21 at Jazz, March 25 vs. Bulls, April 1 vs. Wizards, April 10 at Pacers.
Orlando Magic (4): March 12 vs. Wizards, March 23 vs. Pacers, March 26 vs. Kings, April 10 at Bulls.
Miami Heat (4): March 10 home vs. Wizards, March 20 at Indiana, April 4 home vs. Wizards, April 10 at Wizards.
Charlotte Hornets (5): March 11 at Kings, March 21 vs. Grizzlies, March 24 vs. Kings, March 31 at Nets, April 3 vs. Pacers.
Atlanta Hawks (4): March 12 vs. Nets, March 23 vs. Grizzlies, March 28 vs. Kings, April 3 at Nets.
THE COACHING COST: Speaking of tanking, former Heat assistant coach David Fizdale recently addressed the coaching cost of the process, never fully able to recover his coaching reputation after going 17-65 while leading the Knicks in 2018-19. “If I was doing it over again, I would have fought more to build a team early on and not cash in my record,” Fizdale said on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back. “That’s the hard part for coaches when you agree to the, you know, I’m just gonna say it, tanking. When you tank, you’re supposed to tank to build something bigger. It’s not supposed to be a tank to whatever happens.” The Knicks, whose tank job that season was in the hope of landing No. 1 pick Zion Williamson, wound up drafting R.J. Barrett at No. 3 after that season. Fizdale summed up that process as “donating my record.” Erik Spoelstra‘s longtime lead Heat assistant has not worked as a head coach since that Knicks tenure, although he did go on to work as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, as well as a stint as the Utah Jazz’s associate general manager, now doing broadcast work. His career coaching record, including his time leading the Memphis Grizzlies, stands at 71-134.
HEAT REUNION: With the Brooklyn Nets’ two-game set at Kaseya Center this past week, it allowed for a reunion with former Heat player and assistant coach Juwan Howard, who now is a Nets assistant. That had several from the Heat embracing Howard after Thursday night’s close of the season series, including Spoelstra and Bam Adebayo. Before that game, Nets coach Jordi Fernandez stressed the importance of Howard working with the Nets’ young players. “They have that voice right there that helps them every day,” Fernandez said. “But the most important thing, it holds them accountable and it challenges them every day.” Fernandez also downplayed his team being in South Florida for most of the week. “Work and have fun,” he said, “and if you have fun together, it’s even better. So I think that brings them together. That team chemistry is important. When you travel and you’re on the road is when you spend time together. So I always encourage the guys that if they have to go to dinner, whatever they want to do, I think those things build relationships and chemistry.”
STARTING OVER: There was a time when Omer Yurtseven was Kel’el Ware, routinely filling Miami Heat box scores with double-doubles. In fact, with so many of Yurtseven’s Heat statistics standing as mostly empty calories, it arguably is why the Heat have emphasized winning play from Ware as their metric of preference, unfairly or otherwise. For Yurtseven, his Heat breakout in 2021-22 turned into little of note, only a minimal-scale contract with the Utah Jazz in 2023 free agency and such limited success in his return to Europe that he was waived recently by Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos in favor of Richaun Holmes and Mathias Lessort. That led to this past week’s news that Yurtseven, 27, will now attempt his latest comeback with the G League Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the affiliate of the Houston Rockets. With Panathinaikos, Yurtseven averaged 6.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 19 Euroleague games, six of them as a starter, before being released.
THE FLIP SIDE: And then there are the stories of enduring perseverance by Heat developmental projects, with former Heat guard Jamaree Bouyea, who had several stints with the Heat’s G League affiliate, last week landing a standard contract with the Phoenix Suns, his first standard deal after previous NBA stints (Heat, Washington Wizards, Portland Trail Blazers, Milwaukee Bucks) only on 10-day or two-way deals. The spot for Bouyea opened when the Suns waived guard Cole Anthony. At 26, Bouyea found himself at a crossroads, with this final season of eligibility for a two-way contract. “My whole journey has been a little up and down,” Bouyea said to the Arizona Republic. “Just believing in myself and staying with the grind. You’re on two-ways a lot, 10 days, the ultimate goal is to get on a standard deal.”
15. Years since the Heat last had a pair of players with at least 20 double-doubles in the same season, something Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware already have done this season. The last time it happened was in 2010-11, when LeBron James (31 double-doubles) and Chris Bosh (28) did it. Twice in team history, the Heat have had three players with at least 20 double-doubles in the same season, with Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning and P.J. Brown doing it in 1996-97 and ’97-98.
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Mostly, though, the debate is about the tanking teams, themselves, and the way they have prioritized lottery positioning over winning.
For his part, in a recent social-media string, former Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who still has a stake in the team, said the practice can work for teams when utilized selectively.
Responding to those posts, Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia rebuked the notion of losing ever as an acceptable means of future success.
And then there was former Heat forward Kyle Anderson, who left little doubt about what currently is at play, when he spoke about his time this season with the Utah Jazz — as in the team fined $500,000 by Silver ostensibly for tanking by not fully utilizing their roster resources — before moving on to the contending Minnesota Timberwolves on the buyout market.
“I don’t even want to get into it, honestly,” Anderson said. “I had a lot of fun in the organization, and everybody in the organization was awesome. Obviously, you know, playing not to win games gets a little tricky and tough. I didn’t enjoy it personally.”
Except tanking is not only about the tankers, not only about those involved in the race to the bottom.
It’s also about the impact on the play-in/playoff races these final five weeks of the season, how the playing field can be sloped to an untenable degree.
Consider it the ancillary impact of tanking, the adjacent impact of tanking, games where teams vying for postseason positioning are having to live the reality of how the tankers can upend the playoff race.
Take the Heat this past week, when the schedule — perhaps to the consternation with those in the Heat portion of the standings — effectively read “bye” and “bye,” with the Tuesday-Thursday set against the Brooklyn Nets.
Then consider a team the Heat are chasing, the Philadelphia 76ers, who on Wednesday night effectively had a bye of their own, when they faced the Jazz, Philadelphia winning that game even in the absences of Joel Embiid and VJ Edgecombe.
That’s where this gets messy, and for more than a subset of the standings playing to lose. The problem is those teams also are playing against teams involved in tight playoff races. And, yet, on some nights, those teams in those playoff races effectively are being gifted with opponents more closely resembling the G League Salt Lake City Stars, Long Island Nets, Capital City Go-Go, Stockton Kings, Memphis Hustle or Noblesville Boom.
Happiness might be Brooklyn, Washington, Indiana, Chicago, Utah, Memphis or Sacramento on your remaining schedule, but there also is the consternation of seeing those teams on the upcoming schedules of the teams you are chasing.
The games this past week against the Nets were gifts for the Heat, as potentially are the Heat’s three remaining games against the Wizards.
But there also will be nights when the Heat will be going against the likes of the Lakers, Rockets, Spurs, Cavaliers and Celtics, only to see the teams they are battling for playoff position going against teams that have made it clear the priority is losing.
That is why tanking is a disgrace, and for more than the comments from Ishbia and Anderson.
Because now it also is polluting a playoff race, impacting teams that actually dare to care about winning.
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As for the Heat, how could the tankers impact their postseason plans?
A look at the remaining times when they and teams in their portion of the playoff race will have the opportunities for walkovers, based on teams that have fully made it clear by now it will be tank or bust:
Toronto Raptors (5): March 18 at Bulls, March 23 at Jazz, April 1 vs. Kings, April 3 at Grizzlies, April 12 vs. Nets.
Philadelphia 76ers (7): March 10 vs. Grizzlies, March 14 vs. Nets, March 19 at Kings, March 21 at Jazz, March 25 vs. Bulls, April 1 vs. Wizards, April 10 at Pacers.
Orlando Magic (4): March 12 vs. Wizards, March 23 vs. Pacers, March 26 vs. Kings, April 10 at Bulls.
Miami Heat (4): March 10 home vs. Wizards, March 20 at Indiana, April 4 home vs. Wizards, April 10 at Wizards.
Charlotte Hornets (5): March 11 at Kings, March 21 vs. Grizzlies, March 24 vs. Kings, March 31 at Nets, April 3 vs. Pacers.
Atlanta Hawks (4): March 12 vs. Nets, March 23 vs. Grizzlies, March 28 vs. Kings, April 3 at Nets.
IN THE LANE
THE COACHING COST: Speaking of tanking, former Heat assistant coach David Fizdale recently addressed the coaching cost of the process, never fully able to recover his coaching reputation after going 17-65 while leading the Knicks in 2018-19. “If I was doing it over again, I would have fought more to build a team early on and not cash in my record,” Fizdale said on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back. “That’s the hard part for coaches when you agree to the, you know, I’m just gonna say it, tanking. When you tank, you’re supposed to tank to build something bigger. It’s not supposed to be a tank to whatever happens.” The Knicks, whose tank job that season was in the hope of landing No. 1 pick Zion Williamson, wound up drafting R.J. Barrett at No. 3 after that season. Fizdale summed up that process as “donating my record.” Erik Spoelstra‘s longtime lead Heat assistant has not worked as a head coach since that Knicks tenure, although he did go on to work as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns, as well as a stint as the Utah Jazz’s associate general manager, now doing broadcast work. His career coaching record, including his time leading the Memphis Grizzlies, stands at 71-134.
HEAT REUNION: With the Brooklyn Nets’ two-game set at Kaseya Center this past week, it allowed for a reunion with former Heat player and assistant coach Juwan Howard, who now is a Nets assistant. That had several from the Heat embracing Howard after Thursday night’s close of the season series, including Spoelstra and Bam Adebayo. Before that game, Nets coach Jordi Fernandez stressed the importance of Howard working with the Nets’ young players. “They have that voice right there that helps them every day,” Fernandez said. “But the most important thing, it holds them accountable and it challenges them every day.” Fernandez also downplayed his team being in South Florida for most of the week. “Work and have fun,” he said, “and if you have fun together, it’s even better. So I think that brings them together. That team chemistry is important. When you travel and you’re on the road is when you spend time together. So I always encourage the guys that if they have to go to dinner, whatever they want to do, I think those things build relationships and chemistry.”
STARTING OVER: There was a time when Omer Yurtseven was Kel’el Ware, routinely filling Miami Heat box scores with double-doubles. In fact, with so many of Yurtseven’s Heat statistics standing as mostly empty calories, it arguably is why the Heat have emphasized winning play from Ware as their metric of preference, unfairly or otherwise. For Yurtseven, his Heat breakout in 2021-22 turned into little of note, only a minimal-scale contract with the Utah Jazz in 2023 free agency and such limited success in his return to Europe that he was waived recently by Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos in favor of Richaun Holmes and Mathias Lessort. That led to this past week’s news that Yurtseven, 27, will now attempt his latest comeback with the G League Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the affiliate of the Houston Rockets. With Panathinaikos, Yurtseven averaged 6.3 points and 3.5 rebounds in 19 Euroleague games, six of them as a starter, before being released.
THE FLIP SIDE: And then there are the stories of enduring perseverance by Heat developmental projects, with former Heat guard Jamaree Bouyea, who had several stints with the Heat’s G League affiliate, last week landing a standard contract with the Phoenix Suns, his first standard deal after previous NBA stints (Heat, Washington Wizards, Portland Trail Blazers, Milwaukee Bucks) only on 10-day or two-way deals. The spot for Bouyea opened when the Suns waived guard Cole Anthony. At 26, Bouyea found himself at a crossroads, with this final season of eligibility for a two-way contract. “My whole journey has been a little up and down,” Bouyea said to the Arizona Republic. “Just believing in myself and staying with the grind. You’re on two-ways a lot, 10 days, the ultimate goal is to get on a standard deal.”
NUMBER
15. Years since the Heat last had a pair of players with at least 20 double-doubles in the same season, something Bam Adebayo and Kel’el Ware already have done this season. The last time it happened was in 2010-11, when LeBron James (31 double-doubles) and Chris Bosh (28) did it. Twice in team history, the Heat have had three players with at least 20 double-doubles in the same season, with Tim Hardaway, Alonzo Mourning and P.J. Brown doing it in 1996-97 and ’97-98.
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