Is tanking a problem, or are we getting worked up about nothing?

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently earned a $600,000 fine for his comments on tanking on a podcast. (For the record, no one has ever been fined for appearing on Fastbreak Breakfast, although we have aspirations.) Adam Silver followed up the fine with a release strongly denouncing tanking, or purposeful losing, by players and coaches. Silver also claimed the league had never seen any examples of that, which, I mean….I guess Mark Madsen technically was trying to hit those seven 3-pointers he famously launched in the final Timberwolves game of 2006, but it sure seemed like winning wasn’t the foremost concern.

Even though players and coaches aren’t losing games on purpose, it currently appears as if several franchises are not currently putting their best possible product on the floor to improve their draft position. This NBA season there are nine teams especially woeful, and of those nine only the Nets have no incentive to lose. It appears all of those teams could finish with under 30 wins which would tie the record for most teams to do so in one season. Even if the Knicks reach 30 wins to prevent that from happening, it’s possible we see a record number of teams to win 25 games or less.

But is this a tanking problem, or a problem with teams just being run-of-the-mill bad? To help debate the issue, Matt Moore (@HPbasketball) joins the latest episode of Fastbreak Breakfast. If the players aren’t trying to lose, why does it matter? Team eliminated from the playoff race have always been prone to check out down the stretch, so are we creating an issue that isn’t there?

In addition to debating whether or not tanking is a problem, we also discuss the Sloan Conference and what the Nuggets should do as they try and assimilate Paul Millsap back into the rotation during a tight playoff race.

All Fastbreak Breakfast episodes are also available for download on iTunes and Soundcloud.

Original music provided by Codaphonic and New Man

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Next: Things are getting awkward with the Wizards

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