The Wizards and Pacers both lost 16 straight. The Nets are right there with them. A month after the league fined the Jazz and the Pacers for blatant tanking, nothing has changed. So how bad does it have to get before Adam Silver actually does something about it?
And here is the question nobody wants to answer honestly: with Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and AJ Dybantsa all potentially available at number one, is this the most valuable draft lottery in years? And does that change the calculus for every team sitting at the bottom of the standings right now?
Dallas had a 1.8 percent chance to land Cooper Flagg and won the lottery anyway. So what does that mean for Golden State and Milwaukee sitting at 2 and 3 percent right now? And if the NBA adds Seattle and Vegas through expansion, does Bill Simmons have a point that it only makes the tanking problem worse? The numbers are ugly and the questions are getting harder to ignore.