The Utah Jazz have had a disastrous season in 2025-26. While there have been good things like the development of Ace Bailey, the star turn of Keyonte George, and the monster trade for new cornerstone Jaren Jackson Jr., the tankathon continues.
As Jazz fans know, the original plan was for this to be a stepping stone season, maybe finishing just outside the play-in as they sorted out who would be around once the Jazz got serious about winning in 2026-27.
With the injury to Walker Kessler in the fifth game of the year, that plan went out the window, and the Jazz brass pushed another tanking season on some of the best fans in the NBA, much to the chagrin of NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who fined the Jazz for sitting healthy players that weren't that healthy, to be honest.
As teams threw games out the window since January in search of a franchise-altering talent, of which there are many in this draft, Silver became more and more upset, watching the owners that he works for disregard the "integrity of the game" in pursuit of top-shelf talent, until he finally called a special meeting to address it with the owners:
Adam Silver, on tanking: "we are going to fix it. Full stop." Says there will be a special Board of Governors meeting in May to vote on proposed changes, so that they are in place before the NBA draft in June.
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) March 25, 2026
While Silver can call meetings of the owners to address issues in the game, he and past commissioners have rarely done this so abruptly, with the changes predicted to be put into place immediately.
This is the disaster scenario for the Utah Jazz (and other tanking teams)
While the statement doesn't address making changes to the 2026 lottery order or process, it does imply that these changes that will be discussed will take effect for the 2026 NBA Draft. And that's a disaster in the making.
"Changing horses midstream" was frowned upon in the Old West, as doing so could cause instability and issues. The same applies here, where NBA front offices have been operating under one set of rules and expectations for the entire 2025-26 season, only to have those upended near the finish line.
For the Jazz, if they are prohibited from picking in the Top 5, for example, it would make everything they fought for this season, worthless. All of the wasted games, fake injuries, DNP-Rest games for their stars, a futile effort.
And it's not only the Jazz - the Pacers, Wizards, Nets, and Kings all took a gap year, hoping for one of these talents. If changes impact where they select in June, will their owners be on board? Not likely.
If Adam Silver gets his way, the Jazz and other tanking teams are going to be punished for the 2025-26 season.
And anytime a short-sighted move is made to fix an issue without looking at all of the repercussions, disaster is on the horizon. Let's hope cooler heads prevail at the May meeting of the NBA owners, and the rule changes get pushed into next season at the earliest.