What Utah is doing is disgusting. They pulled Markkanen, JJJ and George from a game they were winning on the road. It’s ridiculous.
Edit: they pulled all the starters, not just those 3.
Edit2: also, they had a 17 point lead, which they lost, and at no point did their coach call a timeout.
That’s a disgrace. The idea that Adam Silver is powerless here is absurd. Hardy and Ainge should be suspended and the Jazz should receive a major fine.
There are so many teams with lottery protections this year the league is going to be a joke if this kind of stuff goes unpunished.
FFS that would be punishable if it happened at the end of the season but we’re not even at the all star break. To do that in this gambling environment warrants action. Suspicion of gambling is enough to warrant punishment. Make them explain themselves.
So glad I am not a sports bettor
So glad I am not a sports bettor
You avoid those potential situations or you adjust your line to the probability of a tank job and take advantage of a line that assumes no tanking – if you can find one.
So far KAT (eye), OG (toe), and Hart (ankle) are all listed as questionable.
Hauser questionable with back spasms.
I took a look at the schedule and today is game three of a brutal stretch, the most difficult of the season by far, which we entered this past Wednesday and lasts until March 09. We play 16 games during that stretch with only three of them being theoretically easy (Bulls, Bucks, Pacers) while 13 out of those 16 games are against theoretically strong or contenting teams. Well, I guess by March 09 we should finally know how strong a team we are.
You avoid those potential situations or you adjust your line to the probability of a tank job and take advantage of a line that assumes no tanking – if you can find one.
By the way, there is a similar issue with total mismatches.
You may calculate the very good team to be better by more than the spread, but you have to take into consideration that they’ll take their foot off the pedal or empty the bench early once they open up….then again if it’s Thibs. 🙂
I don’t particularly care about bettors. If you’re dumb enough to bet on a team with incentive to tank you deserve what you get.
But I fail to see how Danny Ainge is exempt from the ire that fell on Sam Hinkie. He inherited a Jazz team with Mitchell and Gobert that was the #1 seed in the West a year before he showed up, immediately tore it down, and has been systematically shutting players down and losing with intention ever since. Don’t tell me The Process was fundamentally different or worse.
What happened last night should disgrace the league but it’s not even a news story. It’s not even in the game recap. This stuff is just baked in to the league now, and it’s pushing me towards the exit.
The Jazz are definitely pushing the envelope. The minute totals from last night alone are incredibly damning, and this is of course a pattern at this point.
That said, I still don’t see a clear way to police this stuff as long as the incentives remain. Creating a system in which losses are unambiguously much better than wins for a sizable percentage of your league but demanding that teams don’t respond accordingly just doesn’t seem workable.
I’ve said it a bunch of times already but I’ve come to believe that the costs of tethering draft position to record outweigh the benefits and the only way to make every game watchable, and in some ways to safeguard the integrity of the sport, is to incentivize winning above all else.
KAT and Hart are in but OG is still out. Would’ve preferred if OG was playing and Hart sat cause he looked like he could barely move before he left the Pistons game early.
og is out. i don’t care about bettors either, one of the many versions of apathy i have for my past self. but i am in the camp that thinks the tanking dynamics make the sport way worse for fanatics, and this year is terrible in that sense. overall i was optimistic about adam silver as commissioner, but i see him as a significant disappointment from the perspective of the 1% most ardent fans. save the fansplaining that appeasing this demographic isn’t his primary job.
ha, asked the ai overview feature if the utah jazz threw last night’s game and it sure seems to think so…
no bueno alli…
The poor bettors, nobody here cares about them. Except the Jazz of course. They’ll always have the Jazz.
13 replies on “Knicks Morning News (2026.02.08)”
That’s a disgrace. The idea that Adam Silver is powerless here is absurd. Hardy and Ainge should be suspended and the Jazz should receive a major fine.
There are so many teams with lottery protections this year the league is going to be a joke if this kind of stuff goes unpunished.
FFS that would be punishable if it happened at the end of the season but we’re not even at the all star break. To do that in this gambling environment warrants action. Suspicion of gambling is enough to warrant punishment. Make them explain themselves.
So glad I am not a sports bettor
You avoid those potential situations or you adjust your line to the probability of a tank job and take advantage of a line that assumes no tanking – if you can find one.
So far KAT (eye), OG (toe), and Hart (ankle) are all listed as questionable.
Hauser questionable with back spasms.
I took a look at the schedule and today is game three of a brutal stretch, the most difficult of the season by far, which we entered this past Wednesday and lasts until March 09. We play 16 games during that stretch with only three of them being theoretically easy (Bulls, Bucks, Pacers) while 13 out of those 16 games are against theoretically strong or contenting teams. Well, I guess by March 09 we should finally know how strong a team we are.
By the way, there is a similar issue with total mismatches.
You may calculate the very good team to be better by more than the spread, but you have to take into consideration that they’ll take their foot off the pedal or empty the bench early once they open up….then again if it’s Thibs. 🙂
I don’t particularly care about bettors. If you’re dumb enough to bet on a team with incentive to tank you deserve what you get.
But I fail to see how Danny Ainge is exempt from the ire that fell on Sam Hinkie. He inherited a Jazz team with Mitchell and Gobert that was the #1 seed in the West a year before he showed up, immediately tore it down, and has been systematically shutting players down and losing with intention ever since. Don’t tell me The Process was fundamentally different or worse.
What happened last night should disgrace the league but it’s not even a news story. It’s not even in the game recap. This stuff is just baked in to the league now, and it’s pushing me towards the exit.
The Jazz are definitely pushing the envelope. The minute totals from last night alone are incredibly damning, and this is of course a pattern at this point.
That said, I still don’t see a clear way to police this stuff as long as the incentives remain. Creating a system in which losses are unambiguously much better than wins for a sizable percentage of your league but demanding that teams don’t respond accordingly just doesn’t seem workable.
I’ve said it a bunch of times already but I’ve come to believe that the costs of tethering draft position to record outweigh the benefits and the only way to make every game watchable, and in some ways to safeguard the integrity of the sport, is to incentivize winning above all else.
KAT and Hart are in but OG is still out. Would’ve preferred if OG was playing and Hart sat cause he looked like he could barely move before he left the Pistons game early.
og is out. i don’t care about bettors either, one of the many versions of apathy i have for my past self. but i am in the camp that thinks the tanking dynamics make the sport way worse for fanatics, and this year is terrible in that sense. overall i was optimistic about adam silver as commissioner, but i see him as a significant disappointment from the perspective of the 1% most ardent fans. save the fansplaining that appeasing this demographic isn’t his primary job.
ha, asked the ai overview feature if the utah jazz threw last night’s game and it sure seems to think so…
no bueno alli…
The poor bettors, nobody here cares about them. Except the Jazz of course. They’ll always have the Jazz.