Latest news with #LauriMarkkanen
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Duke's Kon Knueppel Predicted to Land With $195 Million Star in NBA Draft
Cooper Flagg is the obvious first name that comes to mind when talking about Duke Blue Devils players in the 2025 NBA draft. However, Kon Knueppel is another name that could be called within the top five picks. Both Duke stars lived up to the hype of being five-star recruits during their freshman years. They were able to help lead the Blue Devils all the way to the Final four. Advertisement Knueppel put together a strong season and showed off his elite 3-point shooting ability. He averaged 14.4 points, four rebounds, 2.7 assists, and a steal per game, while shooting 47.9% from the floor and 40.6% from 3-point distance in 39 games. Looking ahead to the upcoming draft, there are a lot of questions about where Knueppel might land. CBS Sports analyst Cameron Salerno has made a new prediction for Knueppel's potential landing spot. He believes the Duke standout will be headed to the Utah Jazz to join forces with Lauri Markkanen. "After missing out on the Flagg sweepstakes, Utah selects the teammate of the future No. 1 overall pick out of Duke," he wrote. "Knueppel is a sharpshooter who would be an immediate contributor for the Jazz from Day 1. If this is how the board shakes out, I could see Utah deciding between Knueppel and Johnson." Duke Blue Devils guard Kon Knueppel (7).Rich Barnes-Imagn Images Throughout the course of the 2024-25 NBA season, the Jazz compiled a 17-65 record. They need help in many different areas. Advertisement As a team, Utah shot 35% from the 3-point line. Adding Knueppel would help increase that number long-term and would bring in an elite floor spacing wing to open up the paint. Fans won't have to wait too much longer to find out Knueppel's destination. The NBA draft will be held on June 25. Related: Fans Buzzing Over Coach K's Strong Cooper Flagg Message Related: Insider Turns Heads With Bold Bronny James Prediction
Newsweek
04-05-2025
- Sport
- Newsweek
Massive Trade Proposal Has Pistons Land Perfect Co-Star For Cade Cunningham
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The Detroit Pistons were one of the biggest surprises from this NBA season as they earned a postseason spot. Despite Detroit being at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings for multiple years, the team seemed to put things together this year. More NBA news: Predicting Warriors-Rockets Game 7 Outcome The Piston fell short of winning a playoff series, losing in six games to the New York Knicks. But Detroit showed a lot of fight in the matchup, giving New York allthey could handle. Now entering the offseason, the goal for the Pistons is simple. Detroit needs to co tinue building around star guard Cade Cunningham, which could see them potentially make a splash time of move this summer. In a new trade scenario by Eddie Bitar of Fadeaway World, the Pistons find the perfect co-star for Cunningham. The deal would involve the Utah Jazz, landing star center Lauri Markkanen in Detroit. Here is how the deal would look: Detroit Pistons Receive: Lauri Markkanen Utah Jazz Receive: Jaden Ivey, Tobias Harris, 2025 First-Round Pick, 2027 First-Round Pick (top-5 protected) "At 7 feet tall, Markkanen would give Cade Cunningham the perfect stretch-big partner because he can space the floor, attack mismatches, and score at all three levels. For a Pistons team that often struggled with floor spacing around Cade, adding Markkanen would open up driving lanes and allow Cunningham to fully leverage his playmaking gifts. This pairing would scream modern NBA offense." MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - JANUARY 08: Lauri Markkanen #23 of the Utah Jazz dribbles the ball against Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks in the first half at Fiserv Forum on January 08, 2024 in... MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - JANUARY 08: Lauri Markkanen #23 of the Utah Jazz dribbles the ball against Giannis Antetokounmpo #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks in the first half at Fiserv Forum on January 08, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. More Photo byPutting Markkanen into the Detroit offense could help unlock a entirely new version of this team. His ability to space the floor would allow the Pistons to spread the ball around more, opening things up against defenses. More NBA news: Former NBA Superstar Carmelo Anthony Taking on New Broadcasting Role Markkanen would also force opponents to think twice about double-teaming Cunningham, freeing him up a little. The veteran averaged 19.0 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 0.7 steals per game for the Jazz. Markkanen dealt with some injuries this past year that limited him to just 47 games for Utah. But in the time that he did get on the court, he was very effective. Detroit could use a player like Markkanen if they want to take that next step toward true title contention. This will be a massive offseason for the Pistons, and the front office has a lot of work to do moving forward. More NBA news: Former Bulls Champion Begs Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen to End Rift Nuggets' Russell Westbrook Shares Surprising Accountability After Game 7 Jimmy Butler All But Guarantees Warriors Will Win Game 7 vs Rockets For more NBA news and rumors, head on over to Newsweek Sports.
NBC Sports
02-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Jazz vs. Rockets Predictions: Odds, recent stats, trends and best bets for April 2
Utah Jazz vs. Houston Rockets Preview The Utah Jazz (16-60) and Houston Rockets (49-27) are all set to square off from Toyota Center in Houston. The Jazz will be without Lauri Markkanen for at least seven days. He's been ruled out due to injury. The Rockets are coming off a loss on Monday against the Los Angeles Lakers. Before that loss, the Rockets had won three straight. The Jazz are currently 7-30 on the road with a point differential of -9, while the Rockets have a 8-2 record in their last ten games at home. We've got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch tipoff, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts. Listen to the Rotoworld Basketball Show for the latest fantasy player news, waiver claims, roster advice and more from our experts all season long. Click here or download it wherever you get your podcasts. Game details & how to watch Jazz vs. Rockets live today Date: Wednesday, April 2, 2025 Time: 8:00PM EST Site: Toyota Center City: Houston, TX Network/Streaming: Never miss a second of the action and stay up to date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day NBA schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game. Game odds for Jazz vs. Rockets The latest odds as of Wednesday: Odds: Jazz (+1058), Rockets (-2083) Spread: Rockets -17.5 Over/Under: 225 points That gives the Jazz an implied team point total of 111.74, and the Rockets 120.85. Want to know which sportsbook is offering the best lines for every game on the NBA calendar? Check out the NBC Sports' Live Odds tool to get all the latest updated info from DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM & more! Expert picks & predictions for Wednesday's Jazz vs. Rockets game NBC Sports Bet Best Bet Please bet responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700. Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas) is betting on Johnny Juzang over 8.5 points… Thomas: 'With the Jazz shorthanded and a spread of 16.5, Juzang could see extended minutes in this contest.' Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the NBA calendar based on data points like recent performance, head-to-head player matchups, trends information and projected game totals. Once the model is finished running, we put its projections next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager. Here are the best bets our model is projecting for today's Jazz & Rockets game: Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is staying away from a play on the Moneyline. Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the Utah Jazz at +17.5. Total: NBC Sports Bet is staying away from a play on the Game Total of 225. Want even more NBA best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert NBA Predictions page from NBC Sports for money line, spread and over/under picks for every game on today's calendar! Important stats, trends & insights to know ahead of Jazz vs. Rockets on Wednesday The Jazz have lost 6 games in a row The Under is 5-0 in the Jazz's last 5 road games The Rockets are 40-36 against the spread this season The Jazz's last 5 road games have stayed under the Total If you're looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our NBA Top Trends tool on NBC Sports! Bet the Edge is your source for all things sports betting. Get all of Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick's insight weekdays at 6AM ET right here or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Follow our experts on socials to keep up with all the latest content from the staff: - Jay Croucher (@croucherJD) - Drew Dinsick (@whale_capper) - Vaughn Dalzell (@VmoneySports) - Brad Thomas (@MrBradThomas)
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The NBA's tank-off isn't just embarrassing. It's unnecessary
The Utah Jazz were punished after sitting Lauri Markkanen. Photograph: Rob Gray/AP The Toronto Raptors aren't new to losing. But they are new to whatever this is. After taking over as the Raptors' president of basketball operations in 2013, Masai Ujiri refused to embrace the blatant, in-your-face tanking that Sam Hinkie and the 'process' Philadelphia 76ers were busy popularizing during that same era, instead opting to build from the middle. 'I'm not sure the karma is great when you do stuff like that,' Ujiri said about tanking. 'We're not doing that here,' he later added. Advertisement The Raptors made history in 2019 by becoming the first team to win an NBA Championship without a single lottery pick. But after Toronto missed the playoffs in three of the last four seasons and were rewarded with just one top 10 draft pick, Ujiri finally decided to follow in a long line of teams who are taking advantage of the NBA's incentive structure that means bad teams have better odds of landing a top pick in the draft. Now, the Raptors find themselves in the middle of an embarrassing and unwatchable multi-team tank-off that has come to define the 2024-25 NBA season. 'As a purist of the league, a purist of basketball, we play every game to win,' 15-year veteran and vice-president of the National Basketball Players Association, Garrett Temple, tells the Guardian. '[But] the way the rules are set up, it's advantageous to be the worst team in the league record-wise. I don't think it's a great look for the NBA.' And the Raptors have given bad looks this season. After leading playoff-bound Orlando Magic by double digits in the fourth quarter on 4 March, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic pulled the plug by sitting starters Immanuel Quickley, Scottie Barnes, Jakob Poeltl and RJ Barrett, leaving about $100m in salaries on the bench and less than $10m in rookies and two-way players on the floor. 'All I could do was laugh,' Barrett said. Advertisement Related: 'The food is bad, everything is bad': what it feels like to be on a hopeless NBA team While Rajakovic explained that 'for us, it's very, very important now to take a look at different players and young guys and to develop those guys, to give them important minutes,' the reality was that the Raptors were as close to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings as they were to a playoff spot. Even though about a third of the regular season was still to be played at that point, the team had already decided to prioritize managing its lottery odds over making a push for the playoffs. And they are not the only ones. 'Right now there are nine teams tanking,' one league executive told ESPN. 'And next year's draft is going to have maybe more franchise players than this year's draft. A year from now, you may still have nine teams tanking.' Advertisement That's almost one-third of the league that exists somewhere on a spectrum from being comfortable with mediocrity to coming up with increasingly creative ways to lose games. Teams are sitting their best players due to 'rest' and quiet-quitting by pulling starters late in games, causing upwards of 20 star players to be in street clothes on any given night in March and April, making the quality of late-season basketball worse than ever. 'Teams can put whatever they want on their injury report, and the league has not policed injury reports,' NBA writer Brian Windhorst said on the Hoop Collective podcast. 'So you have situations where guys are truly injured, but listed as out. And other situations where stars are not really injured, but they're listed as out. And so the credibility is all over the place, and the league has let that go down the block and around the corner … it's just a mess.' While it makes sense for teams to take advantage of the NBA's incentive structure so long as they can get away with it, the popularization of tanking has created a lose-lose situation for the league, the fans who pay large sums to attend games or watch on TV, the players who are missing out on crucial developmental reps and, most importantly, the NBA's TV partners, who recently signed an 11-year agreement worth $76bn. People have been trying to come up with creative solutions to solve the NBA's tanking problem for more than a decade, ranging from flattening the draft lottery odds so that every non-playoff team has an equal chance of getting the No 1 overall pick, to creating a 'play-out' tournament where the worst teams compete for better draft odds at the end of the season, to replacing the draft with rookie free agency. Advertisement But each so-called solution comes with unintended consequences, such as teams on the playoff bubble tanking to get in the lottery if the odds are flat or if there is a play-out tournament, and the best rookies hurting parity by signing in big markets in free agency. We know that the NBA doesn't approve of tanking because it has a long history of railing against it. The league pressured the 76ers to get rid of Hinkie in 2016, and fined Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban $600,000 for admitting to tanking in 2018. The question, then, is how does the NBA keep a similar incentive structure but discourage the blatant, unethical tanking that has become popular in recent years? The obvious answer is to start by seriously penalizing anything that goes against the integrity of the game. After all, we usually have a pretty good idea about who the worst teams are by the 50-game mark, with the league sorting itself into tiers of contenders, playoff teams and bottom-dwellers. But at a certain point, some teams rest veterans or quiet-quit to increase their lottery odds. The rest of the bottom-dwellers have no choice but to follow suit, and bam! Unmitigated, unethical tanking ensues. Advertisement 'When I first came in the league, I don't remember this happening as much,' Temple, who has been around the NBA since 2009, says. 'People are trying to take advantage of situations and have their team be the best team they can be. At the end of the day, no team is doing this in order to have a bad team. They're trying to make their team better.' But what if there was a way to pressure teams to play out the entire season the way they play the first 50 games? That way, the lottery order would sort itself out naturally, and the worst teams would get the best odds without the need to ever lose on purpose. It may sound extreme, but that's exactly what happens in the NHL, where a culture of competitiveness and power at the hands of head coaches keeps teams from resting players in order to lose on purpose. Instead, the NHL employs a different, more ethical form of tanking where the worst teams choose to offload veteran players at the trade deadline and naturally lose out as a result. The NBA can't expect the culture to change naturally given that teams have learned how to exploit the system, but the league can make it a significantly harder system to game. This would require the NBA to get serious about discouraging tanking, penalizing teams who are found guilty of resting healthy players with significant fines or the removal of future draft picks in order to get the best players to play all season. Advertisement In March, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz $100,000 for violating the league's player participation policy for sitting star Lauri Markkanen for nine straight games when he appeared to be free of significant injury. But the standard $100,000 fine that the league levied against the Jazz this year, the 76ers last year, and Mavericks the year before is a drop in the bucket for team owners like Ryan Smith, who has an estimated net worth of $2.6bn. And when Markkanen did return the following game, he played just 19 minutes and sat the entire second half, showing how seriously the organization took the penalty. 'These next few weeks,' one NBA executive told ESPN. 'Could be the worst tanking stretch we've ever seen.' What the NBA needs is a new set of rules specifically designed to discourage tanking – a 'Shame Doctrine' that clearly lays out a set of increasingly significant penalties that will be levied against teams for tanking, with each infraction setting them back millions of dollars and future draft picks. Of course, it can be complicated to police injuries when almost every player is banged up by the end of the season. But the league already has its own doctors to determine whether a player is healthy enough to play, and enforcing it would be similar to what the NFL does in order to satisfy football's integrity (and the NFL's betting partners). Advertisement Plus, common sense should apply here. If a team pulls its starters in the fourth quarter as the Raptors did, they should be penalized. If the Jazz refuse to spread out Markkanen's minutes so that he only plays in the first half, so should they. The solution isn't to come up with a different incentive structure besides the lottery because they all have flaws. Instead, it's time for the NBA to be proactive and get serious about penalizing tanking violations. Otherwise, teams will continue to find creative ways to game the system, and the product will continue to suffer.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
DNP-Rest, quiet quitting and death threats: The current state of tanking for Cooper Flagg
Cooper Flagg hasn't worn an NBA uniform yet, but make no mistake about it, his presence is being felt all across the league. The 18-year-old is making his NCAA tournament debut on Friday against Mount St. Mary's, fighting through an ankle injury that knocked him out for most of the ACC tournament. You can be sure that the stands will be peppered with NBA scouts and executives getting a closer look at the loaded Duke Blue Devils, but they know what they're getting with Flagg. The 6-foot-9 forward has long been considered the consensus No. 1 overall pick while leading the ACC and the entire NCAA field in just about every advanced metric. We can take a guess at how NBA teams feel about Flagg because the league has launched multiple investigations into teams for purposely sitting good players on bad teams: i.e. tanking. This problem isn't new as the NBA has wrestled with the black eye of tanking for decades. It's clear that tanking practices are alive and well. Last week, the NBA fined the Utah Jazz $100,000 for violating the league's Player Participation Policy involving 2023 All-Star Lauri Markkanen, who sat against the Washington Wizards earlier in the month (league investigators determined that Markkanen was fit to play). The league has also reportedly launched an investigation into the Philadelphia 76ers, who have a top-6 protected first-round pick in the 2025 draft, for sitting their stars Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. However, there are more subtle tanking practices that have taken hold across the NBA that seem to be, at the very least, tolerated by the league office. And it has created a problematic climate that staffers around the league worry could get dangerous quickly. @NBA the @utahjazz are rigging the system, they are purposely losing games, sitting out Lauri Markkanen, a serious investigation it's be conducted this is rigged — Obandjó Kulébéndú (@CiprisB) March 15, 2025 More recently, the NBA has installed three major guardrails in place to try to curb the integrity-threatening practice of tanking. In 2019, the league office agreed to flatten the lottery odds for the worst teams, capping the chances of winning the No. 1 overall pick at 14 percent each for the bottom three teams. Until then, the league incentivized a race to the bottom by rewarding the biggest loser with a 25 percent chance at securing the top selection, much higher than the second-worst team at 19.9 percent and the third team at 15.6 percent. Secondly, the NBA implemented a play-in tournament designed to encourage more teams to compete for a playoff spot and dissuade them from gunning for lottery balls. Instead of 30 teams fighting for 16 spots, there are now 20 spots to entice more losing teams to try to win. Lastly, in 2023, the NBA established the Player Participation Policy which was aimed at every team, not just the basement-dwellers, to play its best players as much as possible. The league has used the PPP to open investigations into the Oklahoma City Thunder for sitting their starting five against the Portland Trail Blazers earlier this month. The PPP came on the heels of the Dallas Mavericks violating the league's previous player resting policy in 2023 and being fined $750,000 for tanking. 'The Mavericks' actions,' NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars stated at the time, 'failed our fans and our league.' But even after six-figure fines, teams continue to exploit loopholes in ways that expose unintended consequences of the PPP. Fans hoping to watch Cam Johnson on Thursday were undoubtedly left disappointed. And utterly confused. The Nets starter, who is averaging a career-high 18.9 points and establishing himself as a serious front-facing talent on the Young Man And The Three podcast network, isn't injured or dealing with an illness. Nonetheless, the Nets announced he wouldn't be suiting up in Thursday's game against the Indiana Pacers. Instead, he'd be in street clothes due to what the team is designating as 'Rest.' The curious thing is that the Nets were resting Johnson even though the Nets did not play on Wednesday. A look at the schedule reveals the Nets are not playing on Friday either. This, it turns out, isn't a back-to-back situation. There is no crosscountry flight for their next game. Actually, the Nets aren't even traveling between Thursday and Saturday's game, playing a two-game set against the Pacers both in Indianapolis. Alas, the Nets deemed that Johnson, who played in 19 straight games sandwiched around the All-Star break, needed to sit out the game for recovery purposes. In related news, the Nets entered Thursday tied with the Philadelphia 76ers for fifth-best odds in the lottery sweepstakes, a team that's already under investigation for removing multiple star players from the floor. Without their best shooter, the Nets shot 28 percent from downtown and lost in overtime against Indiana, giving them a better chance at more ping-pong ball combos for lottery night. The healthy scratch, also known as the DNP-Rest, used to be a button that teams pressed during back-to-back sets. In these scenarios, a team and its medical staff determined that a player wouldn't be subjected to injury risk associated with playing two games in as many days. But now it's bled into games outside of back-to-back sets. It appears that there's a contagious quality to this practice because more and more teams are adopting the strategy. This is the NBA. Once one team figures out a loophole, others will soon follow. On the tanking scoreboard, the Nets seem to be merely keeping up with the Joneses. The Nets have assuredly seen the Toronto Raptors shamelessly pulling the same lever and skirting any league investigations. The Raptors, who were tied on Thursday in the loss column with Brooklyn, have led the NBA with nine DNP-Rests this month, topping the loss-leading Jazz, who have five listed DNP-Rests. The Toronto cases seem to fit a rotational pattern. On March 20 against Golden State, RJ Barrett was a DNP-Rest with an off day on both sides. On March 14 against Utah, Jakob Poeltl was a DNP-Rest with an off day on both sides. On March 12 against Philadelphia, Immanuel Quickley was a DNP-Rest with an off day on both sides. On March 10 against Washington, Poeltl was a DNP-Rest … you get the idea. The Raptors have rested a key player — whether it's Barrett, Quickley or Poeltl — for each of the last eight games. All scot-free from any league punishment. So why are Jazz getting hammered for sitting Markkanen — a guy who's averaging 19.0 points and 5.9 rebounds — while the Raptors can legally sit Barrett, who's averaging 21.5 points per game and 6.5 rebounds? It comes down to the letter of the law. The league deems Markkanen a 'star player' because he has been named to an All-Star or All-NBA team during the previous three seasons, which is the designated criteria for 'star player' status in the Player Participation Policy. The same goes for the Sixers' star trio of Embiid, Maxey and George who are the subjects of the league's investigation. It's likely why the Raptors have not included Scottie Barnes, a 2024 All-Star, in those DNP-Rest games. But a closer look at Barnes' substitution patterns reveals a subtle tanking strategy that has caught the eye around the league. The Jazz have evidently taken notice because they've followed the same blueprint. If the Jazz and Raptors can't sit their stars for the entire game, they've resorted to a half-measure: quiet-quitting in the middle of the game. Dawg @Raptors benched their best player Scottie Barnes for the entire fourth quarter. In a close game ...Wtf is going on @nba 😂😂😂 — K.P👑 (@Karlitoswave) March 17, 2025 It was 2019 when the New Orleans Pelicans had a 7-foot problem on their hands. The face of their franchise, Anthony Davis, wanted out of the franchise, but still wanted to play basketball. In order to protect Davis from injuring himself and ruining trade value, in addition to maximizing their upcoming first-round draft pick, the Pelicans sat Davis in their games down the stretch. The league stepped in and reminded the Pelicans of the league's competitive integrity rules that required a healthy Davis to play. The ensuing compromise created a mockery of the competition. Davis played, but the team would bench its best player in fourth quarters even when wins were within grasp. Scottie Barnes is no Anthony Davis, but like Davis, he is today deemed a star by the NBA's Player Participation Policy and the Raptors are quietly following the Davis blueprint by sitting Barnes and other key players in clutch situations. Against the Blazers on Sunday, Barnes checked out at the 8:40 mark in the fourth quarter with 16 points, six steals, six rebounds and six steals and never returned. Barnes and Poeltl watched crunchtime from the bench as the Raptors blew a six-point lead with 5:22 left remaining. The Raptors lost by three. That was a mild tank-job attempt compared to the shenanigans that transpired two days earlier against the Jazz. In that game, the Raptors held an 11-point lead with 9:51 left in the fourth quarter. Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic signaled for Jamison Battle, Colin Castleton and Jamal Shead to check in for the team's three best players Barrett, Quickley and Barnes. As the game began to tighten to a two-possession game, the Raptors' trio never checked back in. The Raptors held on to win by eight. Part of the reason why the Raptors didn't feel compelled to play their best players down the stretch? The Jazz engaged in some shenanigans of their own, playing their star, Markkanen, for only 19 minutes in the game. Markkanen started the game but didn't play in the entire second half. He joined his fellow backcourt mate Walker Kessler, who suited up, but coach Will Hardy never called him into the game. This was Utah's response after the league fined them $100,000 for sitting Markkanen. And one of the NBA's closest partners is voicing their concern: the betting community. The @Raptors not putting Scottie Barnes in with the game on the line is bogus…. Tanking for Cooper Flagg but ruining slips everywhere! CONGRATS sports books! — Man of Steele (@SteeleProject22) March 17, 2025 NBA players leaving games early for mysterious reasons might seem like harmless gamesmanship. Hey, we're talking about a bunch of extra ping-pong balls bouncing around a plastic container, what's the big deal? But this is not all fun and games. A former NBA player, Jontay Porter — a Toronto Raptor no less — could face up to 20 years in federal prison for doing that very thing — leaving games early under dubious circumstances. Porter was charged with conspiring with a group of bettors to fix his over/under player props for financial gain. It's the first NBA fixing scandal since 1954. Here we are, less than a year later, watching key Raptors players mysteriously sit in the game's biggest moments, raising all sorts of eyebrows in the betting community and beyond. The unfortunate residue of the Porter scandal casts a dark shadow on every late-game benching in the NBA. Was he really hurt? Did he just pull a Porter? What were his pregame props? But the true danger goes beyond cynical hunches. Throughout the season, multiple staffers from NBA teams at various levels have reported to Yahoo Sports that sports bettors have increasingly made death threats in person and on social media channels, going as far as invoking family members and personal information, a leaguewide trend that The Athletic covered last month. And it's only gotten worse with the tanking teams. More recently, teams at the bottom of the standings have been trapped in the convoluted web of the NBA's contradictory incentive structure. By giving the worst teams the best odds at landing a franchise-changing talent like Cooper Flagg in the draft, it incentivizes teams to lose games at the end of the season. On one hand, these teams acting in their own self-interest could choose to be transparent, sit their best players and play the long game of increasing their odds at winning the Flagg sweepstakes. But that, as we've seen with the Jazz and others, would incur fines from the league office. The alternative strategy — quiet-quitting in the middle of games — hasn't been the subject of any ongoing investigations, sources tell Yahoo Sports. But it already comes at a potentially grave cost: getting flooded with death threats. Around the league, sources have said they've dealt with toxic messages in recent weeks that have become so commonplace that they've tried to become numb to it, shrugging it off as the unfortunate cost of doing business with sportsbooks. Because of how much money players, coaches and executives are making these days, few are willing to speak openly about the growing undercurrent of gambling-related allegations that are difficult to discern what's serious and what's not. Some aren't willing to be quiet about it. A year ago, Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton said, 'To half the world, I'm just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever … I'm the prop." Last season, J.B. Bickerstaff, then coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers, revealed that he received gambling-related death threats from bettors in 2022-23 and reported it to the league office. 'They got my telephone number and were sending me crazy messages about where I live and my kids and all that stuff,' Bickerstaff said. 'So it is a dangerous game and a fine line that we're walking for sure.' If it wasn't for Bickerstaff speaking up, we might not have ever known about it. The story wasn't reported until Bickerstaff shared it in a postgame press conference a year later. He said the gambler who made the threats was found. 'I understand the business side of it and the nature of the business of it,' Bickerstaff said. 'But I mean, it is something that I believe has gone too far.' Making everything trickier and potentially more dangerous is that coaches, who are often the subject of these death threats, have inside information about player availability strategies on a specific game. If the Raptors know before a particular game that they're going to sit Barnes, Quickley and Poeltl down the stretch, that strategic information would be particularly valuable to bettors and sportsbooks. By rule, teams have to disclose who's on the injury report in the lead-up to tipoff, but not whether they're going to play a full game — and thus have a better chance at hitting their player prop overs. We'll see if the quiet-quitting continues during March Madness, and which team wins the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes in May. In 2018-19, after weeks of shenanigans with Davis, the Pelicans ended up shutting down their star for the final two weeks of the season and, for their efforts, landed with the seventh-best odds at No. 1. One month later, the Pelicans won the draft lottery, earning the right to draft Zion Williamson, a Duke big man who was considered the best prospect in years.
