As the 2026 NBA Draft draws near, many teams at the bottom of the league’s standings have already decided to punt this season and tank games. On Thursday, Suns owner Mat Ishbia condemned that practice.
“Tanking is a losing behavior done by losers.” Ishbia posted on his X account. “Purposely losing is something nobody should want to be associated with. Embarrassing for the league and for the organizations. … Purposely shutting down players and purposely losing games is a disgrace and impacts the integrity of the whole league.”
The 2026 draft class is being touted as one of the strongest in recent memory, with top-end talent consisting of Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Duke’s Cameron Boozer, so it’s no surprise that teams are already looking ahead to the draft.
While every team hopes to land a top pick, some have already taken strides to separate themselves from the pack. Not by pulling ahead, but by falling behind.
The idea of tanking, or intentionally trying to lose games to increase one’s chances of getting a higher draft pick, has long been a practice in the NBA.
Typically, bad teams will refrain from overtly tanking until the final few weeks of the season, though this season, several teams have shown signs of tanking with two months remaining in the regular season. Because of this, a new wave of social media discourse has arisen about the ethics of losing on purpose – a discourse that Ishbia joined.
To tank or not to tank: That is the question
Over time, the league has made efforts to disincentivize tanking, from implementing a draft lottery in 1985, to restructuring the lottery odds several times. Despite the numerous efforts made to dissuade teams from bottoming out, many fans feel that the prevalence of tanking is at an all-time high – something that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has also taken note of and discouraged.
“There is talk about every possible remedy now to stop this behavior,” Silver told reporters at the NBA All-Star Game. “It’s something that we’ve been spending a lot of time on with our competition committee, outside consultants, advanced analytics. … What we’re doing, what we’re seeing right now is not working. There’s no question about it.”
Recently, Silver fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000 for roster-management decisions. These fines came after Utah rested star players Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr. in the fourth quarter of a close game, and Indiana held out star Pascal Siakam for “rest,” when no injury was reported to the league offices.
Both of these teams own the rights to their own 2026 first-round picks, and with both teams hoping to land a blue-chip prospect, it seems that they have already decided to embrace the tank and rack up as many losses as they can as the season progresses.
In addition to these fines, Silver informed all 30 NBA general managers on Thursday that the league plans to implement strict “anti-tanking rules” that will be implemented ahead of the 2026-27 season.
These newly-proposed rules include the concept of freezing lottery odds at the trade deadline, no longer allowing teams to pick in the top-4 in consecutive years and a variety of other hypothetical solutions.
Multiple sources with knowledge of Thursday's GM meeting as well as a late January Competition Committee meeting told ESPN that the following concepts have been discussed to curb tanking:
•First-round picks can be protected only top-4 or top-14+
•Lottery odds freeze at the… https://t.co/Vk2n1cSzde— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 19, 2026
One notable advocate for tanking is Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban, who on Tuesday, took to X to explain why believes that the NBA should “embrace” tanking.
“The NBA has been misguided (in) thinking that fans want to see their teams compete every night with a chance to win,” Cuban wrote. “It’s never been that way. … Fans know their team can’t win every game. They know only one team can win a ring. What fans that care about their team’s record want is hope. Hope they will get better and have a chance to compete for the playoffs and then maybe a ring.”
“The one way to get closer to (hope) is via the draft. And trades. And (salary cap) room. You have a better chance of improving via all three when you tank. (The Mavericks) didn’t tank often. Only a few times over 23 years, but when we did, our fans appreciated it. And it got us to where we could improve, trade up to get (Luka Doncic) and improve our team.”
Following multiple conference finals appearances under Doncic, the shocking trade that sent him to the Lakers in February 2025 effectively reset the Mavericks to a position where tanking was deemed viable.
The Mavericks won the draft lottery in 2025, landing the highly-touted Cooper Flagg with the first overall pick. Despite Flagg being the favorite to win the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 2026, the Mavericks’ season has been headlined by injuries and disappointing losses. This has once again incentivized Dallas to become one of the losers of the NBA and attempt to maximize the value of their 2026 first-round pick.
One team, however, that does not own the rights to its own first-round pick is the Suns, who included a 2026 pick swap as part of the trade to acquire Bradley Beal from the Wizards in 2023. This means that the Suns have no incentive to tank this season, which may be a factor in the differing opinions held by Ishbia and Cuban.
“This is much worse than any prop bet scandal,” Ishbia said. “This is throwing games strategically. Horrible for fans that pay to watch and cheer on their team. And horrible for all the real teams that are competing for playoff spots. Awful behavior that (NBA commissioner) Adam Silver and the NBA will need to stop with massive changes, and I have complete confidence that with his leadership, he will fix it.”
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