Mark Medina
LOS ANGELES – Nearly a month after the NBA issued an $100,000 fine to the Indiana Pacers for resting key players in a regular-season game, Pacers coach Rick Carlisle offered a vote of confidence on how the NBA will address tanking.
“I place every bit of trust I have in Adam Silver,” Carlisle said of the NBA Commissioner ahead of Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers. “This man is privy to be the ultimate leader. He really has. He really has smart people around him. They very carefully consider everything. They never react. They always think through things.”
Carlisle’s positive sentiments about the NBA hardly matches how he expressed his feelings about the league in the past month.
The NBA fined the Pacers after they sat Pascal Siakam, Bennedict Mathurin and Aaron Nesmith in a double-digit loss to the Utah Jazz on Feb. 3. The Pacers conceded they sat Siakam and Mathurin for rest purposes, but they listed Nesmith as having a strained left hand. Regardless, the NBA concluded that the Pacers violated the league’s “player participation policy” and that all three players could have played at least in limited minutes. Carlisle also told 107.5 The Fan that the NBA declined to talk to the Pacers’ doctors about Nesmith’s injury. The NBA later called Carlisle’s recollection. “inaccurate.”
Carlisle lacks direct influence on how the NBA addresses tanking. Last year, Carlisle stepped down as the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association in favor of Detroit Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff. Carlisle also no longer serves on the NBA’s competition committee, which proposes rule changes on an annual basis. But with the Pacers (15-47) nursing the Eastern Conference’s worst record, Carlisle unsurprisingly fielded questions about tanking.
“My opinion doesn’t matter. From what I understand from Adam, there will be changes,” Carlisle said. “And they will be carefully considered.”
How the NBA will consider policies remains to be seen. The league office has held initial conference calls with the 30 teams’ respective front offices. During NBA All-Star weekend, Silver said he would consider penalizing teams with the loss of draft picks. When the NBA has had meetings in the past about reforming the lottery, no one has ever proposed abolishing the draft. But that idea hasn’t been completely ruled out.
But when Carlisle served on the NBA’s competition committee both under former NBA Commissioner David Stern and Silver, Carlisle said “at that particular point in time, it was determined that the lottery was the best way to continue forward.” Since its inception in 1985, the draft lottery has featured weighted lottery odds based on the severity of a team’s record. Though that setup doesn’t guarantee a struggling team with a top pick, losing teams have a better chance at landing a top draft pick.
The Pacers are in this predicament after All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his right Achilles tendon last year in Game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder (49-15). The Utah Jazz have focused on developing players and maximizing lottery odds after trading All-Stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert in separate deals during the 2022 offseason. The NBA also issued the Jazz a $500,000 fine for sitting veterans Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen for the entire fourth quarter against the Orlando Magic (Feb. 7) and Miami Heat (Feb. 9). The Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets have also endured losing records, but the NBA has not penalized them for how they have managed their rosters.
Regardless, Carlisle strongly disputed that the current system indirectly hurts coaches that are managing rosters that are constructed to lose.
“It hasn’t hurt Mark Daigneault,” Carlisle said of the Oklahoma City Thunder coach.
That’s because the Thunder won last year’s NBA title partly by rebuilding through the draft. After trading Paul George to the Clippers for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the 2019 offseason, the Thunder made the NBA playoffs only to finish low in the Western Conference for three consecutive seasons (14th in 2021, 14th in 2022, 10th in 2023]. During that time, the Thunder made key first-round draft selections, most notably in 2022 [Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams]. The Detroit Pistons (45-16) ended a six-year playoff drought last season after securing top talent through the Draft in 2021 (Cade Cunningham) and in 2023 (Ausar Thompson).
“You have the two best teams in the league – one in the East and one in the West that have built their teams much the same way,” Carlisle said. “I think Daigneault is a great example. He was a G League coach. Btu he built a relationship in that organization and a partnership. If he built those relationships and you become a real partner, the wins and losses, this is just my opinion, the wins and losses element of it, isn’t going to be that kind of a factor.”
What will factor into the NBA’s plans to reform the lottery?
“All of those things will be carefully considered,” Carlisle said. “My job right now is not to think about what changes need to be made. My job is to manage the health of our team, the play of our team and the competitive spirit of our team.”
Mark Medina is an NBA contributor for Sportsnaut. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
