Earlier today, the Utah Jazz lost again to the Dallas Mavericks, who were right behind them in the tank race for their last two straight games against each other. Both teams were severely undermanned, which essentially confirmed both of their intentions to tank, but the bigger story is the fact that the NBA punished the Jazz for this last year, and that didn’t stop them.
Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune revealed that Utah included Jusuf Nurkic and Svi Mykhailiuk in addition to Lauri Markkanen. He also added that, from the horse’s mouth, Will Hardy hasn’t heard from the league.
Will Hardy says the Jazz will use the same starting lineup this afternoon against the Mavericks… which again likely means no Jusuf Nurkic or Svi Mykhailiuk.
He also says he has not heard anything from the competition about his DNP CDs.
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 17, 2026
Larsen also added why this could be a problem for the NBA.
I asked. It’s conceivable that the league is interested for a number of reasons, such as: they want the best product on the floor, or their betting partners want transparency about who’s playing on a given night, or their fans want transparency about who’s playing on a given night.
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) January 17, 2026
The league took action on this last year by fining the Jazz for keeping Markkanen on the bench. They were punished for this because Markkanen was a recent All-Star record, so they weren’t too happy about Utah benching its biggest player in these games.
Now the Jazz are actually doing it again, and they’ve been doing it for a while. This shows that there really isn’t anything the NBA can do when a team is tanking. This season is a little different because the stakes are higher for Utah – losing the pick to Oklahoma City if they aren’t bad enough – the intentions are still the same.
So what will the league do? The Jazz paid the fine and went ahead with it anyway. They couldn’t make it so obvious by playing Markkanen a few more games than last season, but don’t be surprised if he ends up playing just a few more games than last season.
The NBA can punish this, but short of depriving Utah of their pick, which seems drastic, there isn’t really a plausible punishment that will cause Utah, or any other team, to throw their season at a high pick for the chance at a potential franchise player.
If this continues, a new fine is inevitable
Another fine is likely coming to Utah. They’ll pay it, and they can even show the league that this isn’t the same case as last year. But only after they ensure they are no longer in danger of giving up their pickup to the Thunder.
What might make the league feel better is that the Jazz probably won’t be doing this again in 2027. They are just as tired of this as the NBA. This is more or less the whiplash of a team that didn’t know where it was going after having a surprisingly fun season right after blowing up.
The point still stands, however, that the league will likely issue a fine as they are clearly tanking with the season halfway through. If and when that is the case, what exactly will that do?
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