NBA Tank Watch: Kings still tanking legends, Bucks can't stop accidentally winning with No. 1 pick on the line

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Tanking was a hot topic at All-Star Weekend. Everyone seemed to have an opinion. Reggie Miller, holding court at the Intuit Dome on Saturday, told a group of international media members that he's against the practice because it runs counter to the competitive spirit of the game. Miller warned against angering the Basketball Gods and said tanking "never works."

Really? It never works? Here at Tank Watch, we'd counter that there are plenty of examples of the strategy yielding results. You only have to go back to last season when the Sixers scrapped their postseason aspirations, shut down Joel Embiid, Paul George and Tyrese Maxey, and finished out the campaign with 29 losses in their final 33 games. They got a little lucky in the lottery (which, it could be argued, was the Basketball Gods looking favorably upon their approach) and ultimately ended up with the third overall pick and VJ Edgecombe. The early returns on that young backcourt pairing are overwhelmingly positive.

Considering the Sixers have a winning record and Edgecombe has been a key contributor, I asked Maxey whether the short-term pain of tanking last season was ultimately a price worth paying to improve the team this season and for the future. He said last season was "definitely rough to go through" for him personally but added "this year we've done a really good job of turning things around."

"Like you said," Maxey continued, "the outcome was VJ Edgecombe, who is like a little brother to me now, you know what I mean? He's great, man. Not just basketball-wise, but for our team personality-wise and culture-wise for our organization and things that we're trying to turn around."

Sounded like an all's well that ends well situation to me, but the league clearly doesn't see it that way. The very first question Commissioner Adam Silver fielded at his annual All-Star press conference was about tanking. He acknowledged that "it's been part of the league for a long time" but said we're seeing "behavior that is worse this year than we've seen in recent memory." As a result, the league is looking at various ways to discourage the practice. Silver said all options are on the table, including potentially taking away draft picks.

None of this is surprising. Silver has long preached parity. But the league is already pretty close to achieving a best-case scenario on that front. There are eight tanking teams this season and one more that ought to be doing so (we'll get to whatever it is the Bucks think they're doing a little later). That still leaves more than two-thirds of the NBA that is actually trying to win. That's plenty of teams to field a competitive product. Meanwhile, the teams at the bottom are using the means at their disposal to get better. All this hand wringing and pearl clutching and please won't someone think of the children hysteria feels like more of an optics issue than a practical concern. But then that would be our position at Tank Watch.

◦ Note: Teams are rated based on who's doing the best job of being bad in a given week. Teams that lose and find innovative ways to get around the league's player participation policy will rise in the rankings. Teams that accidentally win a game they wish they would have lost will fall.

NBA Tank Rankings -- Feb. 17

1. Sacramento Kings (12-44)

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This season's undisputed tanking champions. The Kings got throttled in Utah in their final game before the break, losing to the Jazz by 28. It was their 14th loss in a row. That's the most consecutive defeats for the organization since the 1970s when they were the Cincinnati Royals.

Zach LaVine was recently shut down and is expected to miss the rest of the season after undergoing hand surgery. (There's a case to be made that letting him play would actually be better for tanking purposes, but get well soon, Zach.) Domantas Sabonis, Keegan Murray, Russell Westbrook, De'Andre Hunter and Malik Monk all went into the All-Star break on the injury report.

In their place, Nique Clifford, Dylan Cardwell and Daeqwon Plowden are getting a lot of run. In that loss to the Jazz, Clifford went 1 for 15 from the floor in 38 minutes. Cardwell and Plowden played a combined 60 minutes and went 5 for 17 from the field. You know the saying about how franchises decide to tank but players actually try? These guys were trying!

Incredible work. The Kings have found their calling.

2. Utah Jazz (18-38)

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Up two spots in an acknowledgement of both innovation in the tanking space and chutzpah. When you get fined $500,000 for your antics, you know you've touched a nerve.

🙄 agree to disagree … Also, we won the game in Miami and got fined? That makes sense … https://t.co/sHQrggB2Xa
— Ryan Smith (@RyanQualtrics) February 13, 2026

The Jazz had been pulling what Tank Watch considered a pretty crafty maneuver. They started Lauri Markkanen, Jusuf Nurkic and Jaren Jackson Jr in several games before sitting them in the fourth quarter. (JJJ has since been shut down for the season with a knee injury.) That seemed like a clever workaround to the NBA's player participation policy. The Jazz were playing their starters. Surely, the league couldn't dictate how much Utah had to play them. As it turns out, that's exactly the position the league has now adopted (and don't call me surely).

As the commissioner noted in his All-Star press conference, by fining the Jazz (and Pacers) in this manner, the league has gotten itself into a gray area. Levying punishment of this sort has a decidedly subjective you know it when you see it quality. That's not a long-term solution.

Were the fines just a warning shot? Will they continue? Will the price point go up? Something to monitor, but it feels like the league has backed itself into a corner here.

As for Utah, the worst part about this -- as Jazz governor Ryan Smith pointed out -- was accidentally winning that game against the Heat. Hang in there, Jazz fans. You guys will (hopefully not) get them next time.

3. Washington Wizards (14-39)

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Now with the worst record in the Eastern Conference. (Put that on a billboard outside the arena). Losers of three in a row going into the break and 14 of their last 18.

Trae Young and Anthony Davis have yet to play for the Wizards and remain unlikely to do so despite what general manager Will Dawkins said about leaving open the possibility. Alex Sarr is out at least two weeks with a hamstring. This thing is on autopilot.

4. Dallas Mavericks (19-35)

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Now we're getting somewhere. After an ill-advised four-game win streak in late January, the Mavs have lost nine in a row. In their penultimate game before the break, they were hanging a little too tight with a Suns team that was without Grayson Allen and Jalen Green. These are the tests that the best tankers figure out how to solve.

Cooper Flagg played 36 minutes, took 20 shots and scored 27 points. He's exempt here. Naji Marshall had 31 extremely efficient points in 36 minutes off the bench. That would have been troublesome if not for the rest of the Mavs bottoming out. Eight other guys played at least 11 minutes and did exactly nothing remarkable. That included poor Khris Middleton playing 22 minutes, getting hunted on defense, and being so ineffective that the TV broadcast called him out. I'm paraphrasing, but they basically hit him with a version of "he's too old for this [stuff]."

5. Indiana Pacers (15-40)

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Unlike the Jazz, who tried to thread the player participation policy needle, the Pacers opted for the more traditional strategy of just sitting a bunch of guys in their game against Utah, including All-Star Pascal Siakam. That was a much easier move for the league to flag, hence the $100,000 fine.

The discipline matters a lot less than Indiana winning two in a row going into the break, allowing the Wizards to drop below them in the standings. Indiana beat the Knicks and the Nets on the road. "New York nightlife is undefeated" is a saying in the NBA for a reason. Next time the Pacers are in NYC, they need to hit the town and come down with a bad case of the Big Apple flu.

6. Chicago Bulls (24-31)

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Losers of six in a row and nine of their last 10. That includes losses to the Nets, Pacers and Bucks. Over that period, the Bulls are 28th in offensive rating and 29th in defensive rating.

Josh Giddey, Tre Jones and Jalen Smith all went into the break on the injury report. The minutes distribution for the Island of Misfit Toys that's been assembled in Chicago has been something to behold. In a 19-point loss to the Celtics (which could have been a much bigger margin considering Boston was up by as much as 33), the Bulls started Guershon Yabusele, Patrick Williams, Matas Buzelis, Colin Sexton and Anfernee Simons. Nick Richards played 29 minutes off the bench. Jaden Ivey and Rob Dillingham played a combined 59 minutes as reserves.

Total slop from the Bulls. Full marks.

7. Memphis Grizzlies (20-33)

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The Grizzlies have dropped four in a row and 10 of their last 12. They've gotten into a nice rhythm, though it will be tough for them to sink lower in the standings. Even with the recent losing streak, they're still a game and a half up on the Mavericks.

One of the wins was over the Wolves on a night when Anthony Edwards had 39 points. Memphis still had JJJ at that point so that one can be excused. Ditto the other victory, which was over the Kings in Sacramento. Tough to beat the Tank Gods at their own game. To change up Ric Flair's old saying, to be the worst you have to lose to the worst.

8. Brooklyn Nets (15-38)

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The Nets lost their last game going into the break -- and what a loss it was. I was getting ready to crush Brooklyn for not having its priorities straight. The Nets had previously beaten fellow tankers Washington and Chicago in back-to-back games. A third straight victory would have drawn considerable ire from Tank Watch.

Instead, the Nets lost to the Pacers at home. That took some effort (or lack of same). The Pacers did not play Siakam, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith or TJ McConnell. Indiana went with a starting lineup of Jarace Walker, Jay Huff, Kobe Brown, Ben Sheppard and Kam Jones. The Pacers definitely understood the assignment that night. So did the Nets.

Even without Michael Porter Jr and Noah Clowney, the Nets were up by 18 -- and Brooklyn still managed to lose by five. [Raises a fist of tanking solidarity.]

9. Milwaukee Bucks (23-30)

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What exactly do the Bucks think they're doing? They've won five of their last six. This is not a good team, and yet two of those wins were over the Hospital Thunder (they're dealing with several injuries) and the Magic.

Newly acquired gunner Cam Thomas had 34 points in 25 minutes off the bench in the victory over Orlando. I tend to believe that he'll shoot them out of more games than he'll win for them, but chuckers are unpredictable and the variance is wide.

Are the Bucks trying to make the play-in and get bounced from the first round for the fourth straight season? Or would they prefer a higher pick in the upcoming draft (they have whichever pick is worse between their own and New Orleans, which still figures to be pretty good going into the lottery)? Whether Giannis stays or doesn't, the latter option seems preferable.

The Bucks are on notice. They're dangerously close to being exiled from Tank Watch.