Everyone seems to be paying attention to NBA tanking -- yes, even the lottery picks themselves

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- For better or worse, tanking and the draft lottery are hot topics in the NBA as we enter All-Star Weekend. Less than 24 hours before the NBA Rising Stars Challenge, the Utah Jazz and the Indiana Pacers were fined by the NBA on Thursday night.

The Jazz were hit with a $500,000 fine, while Indiana was fined $100,000 related to the management of their respective rosters in recent games. If you thought the tank last year for Cooper Flagg was worth monitoring, this year will be an even bigger story because of the blue-chip talent at the top. Duke's Cameron Boozer, BYU's AJ Dybantsa and Kansas' Darryn Peterson project as the top three picks in this summer's draft, and each of them can represent a foundational building block for the franchise.

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However, this year's NBA rookie class, headlined by names like Cooper Flagg, Dylan Harper, VJ Edgecombe and Kon Knueppel, makes it one of the strongest classes in years. The term "Capture the Flagg" took over social media in the months leading up to the lottery, which was won by the Dallas Mavericks. Dallas entered the draft lottery with just a 1.8% chance of landing the top pick.

With the draft lottery and the race to the bottom of the standings being such a hot topic among NBA fans, some players admitted to keeping tabs on what was happening toward the bottom of the NBA standings before they were drafted. Others, when asked, said they blocked it out.

"I ain't going to lie, I did," Edgecombe said when asked if he followed the NBA standings. "Early in the season, I wasn't really hooping. They had me in the honorable mention for Freshman of the Year and stuff like that. ... I did, not going to lie. I was looking."

Coming out of Baylor, Edgecombe was a projected top-five pick, but it was unclear exactly where he would land on draft night. After the 76ers moved into the top three and passed on the chance to select Ace Bailey, who reportedly canceled his pre-draft workout with the 76ers, Philadelphia landed on Edgecombe.

That's part of the reason why this topic has extended to the All-Star Game. A team like Jazz dropped all the way to pick No. 5 last year after finishing with the worst record in the league. Utah selected Bailey at No. 5. Utah owes its 2026 first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it finishes outside of the top eight in this year's lottery.

"My head was just down, focusing on the main thing, being in the NBA," Bailey said on whether he paid attention to the standings. "That was my main goal. Had my circle around me blocking out the outside noise."

A player like Brooklyn's Egor Dёmin, who had a wide range of where he might get picked in the months leading up to the draft, also paid attention to what was going on in the NBA before he entered.

"I was really trying to stay present," Dёmin said. "As big as the NBA is, standings and other stuff, it's just popping out. Even if you're trying not to see it, you're going to still see (the standings)."

Since the draft odds were flattened in 2019, the team that finished the season with the worst record in the association has never landed the No. 1 pick. In 2024, the Hawks had just a 3% chance of landing No. 1. That draft was more of a mystery than last year and 2026. There wasn't a clear-cut top prospect that teams were necessarily tanking for, which led to drama on draft night.

The biggest college star leading up to the 2024 NBA Draft was Reed Sheppard, who was selected by the Houston Rockets at No. 3. Houston held the Brooklyn Nets pick and moved up from having the ninth-best odds at No. 1 to inside the top three on lottery night. 

The NBA standings and the tank race that year were "hard to not ignore" for Sheppard.

"It's definitely hard to not ignore," Sheppard said. "I was trying to focus on the season and not trying to get caught up in everything. Social media, you're going to see things. Your friends, they're going to send you stuff."

With this year's race to the bottom of the NBA standings being one of the most competitive and interesting in quite some time, it's safe to say some of the best (future) draft picks of tomorrow will be following along, too.