Justin Verrier

The only way to luck into the type of talent that can put you on a certain level is to do so in the draft.

And the only way to do that is to tank.

I would argue that in recent years, it does seem like the flattening of the odds has kind of undercut that at the very least.

We've seen a lot of teams jump up even in the past couple of years since they've made that change.

I just think it's fine to point that out.

But I do think we're at the point where there needs to be action because this is pretty fucking embarrassing.

to basically say that we have, what, 30 more games left in the season, and they're just not going to try for a certain quarter, even though that they could be a different thing.

I think this deadline set it up so that the problem is going to be unavoidable, where you had a lot of teams that were bad making the biggest moves.

and so we're used to on this podcast everywhere else in the nba to be like oh old faces new places let's let's kind of diagnose all this new stuff that's going on instead we're seeing teams not play those guys in in dc in india sounds like zubach isn't going to play for a little bit

Or you're seeing them just get benched for no fucking reason.

Like the point of basketball as a product, as an entertainment source, is to watch these amazing athletes do what they do.

To suggest that they're not going to do that as much as they can is really like kind of chilling in terms of just like the future of the sport, I think.

I guess my question though, Kyle, is the NBA's goal to just satisfy the fans that they already have?

That NBA fans are aware of this and they're keen to the fact that short-term pain leads to long-term gain and that the team could be something and the way to do that is this.

Have they honestly been institutionalized to that point?

I think we could talk about that as well.

Or do we need to worry about the casual fans, especially as football comes and takes over more and more of like the sports mindset?

They're coming into Christmas and all these other parts of the NBA schedule that used to be NBA specific.

Because if you're a casual fan and you're seeing teams not care, and I think it's going to be like probably a third of the league down the stretch here, just not care, not play good basketball, not even aspire to do so, actually try subterfuge in order to get to that point.

Like, is it really causing long-term damage that's just not as loud?