ASININE: Media Criticism of Utah Jazz is GARBAGE and OUT OF PLACE.
Utah Jazz face national scrutiny as ESPN’s Bobby Marks accuses the franchise of “messing with the integrity of the NBA.” Are the Jazz unfairly singled out for a league-wide issue? David Locke breaks down why tanking is nothing new and exposes the double standards in narratives targeting the Jazz, highlighting infamous cases like the 1984 Houston Rockets and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Process.
Key insights feature Jazz franchise priorities—should Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Keyonte George play limited minutes for player development, or is the system itself broken? David Locke debates radical draft reform ideas, the impact of salary floors, and league-wide challenges like load management and incentivizing losing. Plus, discover what makes Jaren Jackson Jr.’s defense elite and how the current NBA structure may demand tough decisions for the future.
00:00: Bobby Marks Comments & NBA Integrity
14:11: NBA’s Major Issues & Tanking Solutions
26:24: Jaren Jackson Jr.’s Impact
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30 Comments
Nobody is tanking more than Sacramento. What a bunch of idiotic Idiots somebody needs to call out Bobby Marks, only big time..
I can't support any solutions that reward winning with a better draft position. That creates new problems. The draft has to be a reward for losing, it is unfortunate, but if you take that away then you have eliminated the purpose of the draft.
I also cannot support any solution that creates a rookie free agency.
I think getting rid of pick protections would go a long way. Doesn't fix everything, or tanking as a concept, but if the teams with protected picks didn't have picks this season there would be a lot more teams trying to win. You wouldn't be able to retroactively change future protections, but eliminate them for trades moving forward
Bobby marks got screwed by Danny in Boston because he and his team committed to a bad deal. So now he’s going to take every shot he can at Danny Ainge.
If Marks did not say that Kawhi and the Clippers are destroying the integrity of the NBA, but says the Jazz are, he is a massive hypocrite.
Why isn't anyone talking about how the Pacers have only won 13 games? They are clearly far better than their record.
Spurs tanked for Robinson too.😊
I was awake at 345am today on my way to work and turned on ESPN radio and was surprised to hear Freddie Coleman and someone else talking about what the Jazz were doing critically and I couldn't believe it. It's literally the Jazz doing what they need to do in a flawed system like 8 other teams are. Ridiculous.
I have no problem with the sentiment, what I do have a problem with is that we are the problem.
We have tanked for 2 years in our history. That's all.
The Spurs, Pistons, Wizards, Hornets, OKC and 76ers all tanked for multiple years to get where they are now not a peep from the media, but it's us thats the problem.
No offense man, nobody is concerned with the jazz to the degree that something is personal. You’re thinking too highly of yourself. It is absurd that you sit your two stars in the fourth quarter a lot of teams do it, but you guys are a part of it.
We turn the corner on this Utah Jazz rebuild, coming out, looking like a younger Oklahoma City thunder. Yeah I feel the jealousy and we did it in a short period
David is just defending his employers and product. Sitting 4 starters at the end of game, not calling a time out, puting in scrubs after leading by 17. I think the Jazz methods are too obvious and painful for even Jazz fans. In fact, 48 years the Jazz never intentionally lost. I am glad Marks is calling out the Jazz. The Millers, Karl Malone, Jerry Sloan, John Stockton never threw a game in their life. …Think about it from1974 until the Jazz were sold to the untalented punk Ryan Smith, the Jazz never tanked. Never. Locke is not only wrong, he is looking and sounding ridiculous.
This video does a good job of trying to focus on what the real issues, not the Jazz tanking. https://youtu.be/mzZgCAtnDmk?si=HS9RLxSnNJaW6txK
The fans can fix this.
Step 1: Be critical of tanking.
Step 2: Stop supporting it.
No jerseys. No tickets. No TV. Boycott the products.
If fans actually want this fixed, it will get fixed. Look at Utah. Look at the Spurs. Look at OKC. Now others are copying that model instead of gaming the system.
Teams tank because it pays. Take away the payoff, and it stops.
ONLY THE FANS CAN FIX IT. Period.
I’ve been to three NBA games—two in Phoenix—and with ticket prices the way they are, it’s a special occasion for us. What’s frustrating is that in all three games, the starters didn’t really play. In the first Phoenix game, not a single starter was on the floor. In the second, only a couple played.
The NBA is becoming—honestly, has become—something else entirely, and not in a good way.
Boycott every team, not just the Jazz.
The integrity of the NBA was lost long ago. Tanking I had not been the exception but the rule for at least 20 years. The Jazz decide to participate after being stuck in mediocrity for decades and now it’s a problem?
This is what fucking happens when you stop trying to win for a half decade. This is on the Ainge's, not Bobby Marks.
What about our best players sitting on the bench in the fourth knowing that our front office and even coaching staff is trying to lose the game on purpose. This is the definition of building losing culture and losers.
Brian Windhorst essentially doubled down on by indicating the Jazz crossed a line by choosing not to play available players. He validated the statement by indicating the Jazz made Lauri unavailable against Kings but switched and made him available hinting NBA office had a part in the change
Taking a set number of games from randomly picked games of the season of all teams is brilliant. So you pick game 3, for instance, then they take the record of everyone's game 3 and create a standing. Do that for, say, 41 random games, and that creates the lottery order. Couple that with a rule that you can't win the top 4 back to back years and you may solve it.
Here is a novel idea. Give teams a number of votes who should get to certain draft pools.
You happen to get more votes the higher you score on the league. You cant vote yourself.
Naturally you probably wont vote your worst opponents to get the best picks, otherwise they will win you.
You would probably not vote for teams who are clearly tanking either. You would probably honestly vote for the worst teams.
(only risk I see here is that teams might start trading for getting voted??)
San antiom stated it whit Duncan and Victor nobody criticized pop for that he stated siting out players for tank and to rest them he deserves the blame then u tell me flagging was on the up and up far from it move dalls to la for nothing not at all for flag utah should of had flag
The Jazz aside ftom the starting center are healthy unlike other tanking teams who key guys are legit hurt! The Jazz are tanking w good players on the lineup and sitting them down on purpose to lose w 30plus games left! Thats sickening! The Jazz have a true competitive club right now! are throwing up games as they are winning!!! Dont compare that to the past teams!
I haven't been this pissed off at media coverage of the Jazz in years. To have it coming from someone like Bobby Marks — who I used to think was a reasonable analyst, makes it that much worse. I'm looking for every avenue to push back against this nonsense, and this podcast did the trick, at least for the next few hours. Thank you.
All of these recommendations on how to fix things are too complex. The easy answer to me is that all teams that don't make the playoffs have the same odds in the lottery, and you lottery off all of those picks (not just top 4). You then combine that with restrictions on how often teams can win the draft or have a high pick. For instance, one team can't have the top pick more than once in a 5 year period, can't have a top 3 pick more than once over a 3 year period, and can't have a top 5 pick in back to back years. This removes much of the incentive to lose, while also spreading out talent over time across the bad teams. The reality is that the team with the worst record and the team with the 10th worst record are not that drastically different, so giving one better odds at the top pick is the root of the problem.
What else do they want small markets to do? Oh yeah, lose. All the time with no hope of ever winning. Thats what the NBA wants.
OMG, I love this response.
I mean, it is egregious, but it's the league that is incentivizing losing. So many other teams have done it, the reason the Jazz are doing it this way is because they have to follow the rules the league put in place with needing to have active players.
Dave, I think NBA TV ratings are better because they started bringing far more games to view for the masses by putting them back on the main channels, NBC, those guys and not hiding so many games on pay for view networks. When you make the games more readily available you will get more interest. Thats a no brainer. I can believe the ratings are up. I have seen more other NBA games because of availability than I've watched for years. Largely because they are more available. I won't go pay extra money to watch games when I have time because I usually don't have that much spare time to watch a bunch of games. But the NBA will continue to lose viewers until they figure out what rules they are going to keep and enforce and not see so much debate over rules between all parties. It's a mess. Rules are getting too complex and interpretation to wide.
NBA (ESPN) is using the Jazz as a Red Herring to divert attention from the LA Clippers cheating scandal.
Th underlying issue is that the NBA is a cartel run by and for the owners of the franchises. Until that changes the problems with tanking will persist because firstly there is no jeopardy through the prospect of relegation and secondly failure is rewarded by the draft system. But of course the league won’t expand because the current owners are raking it in
nobody said shit about lebronda sitting out during the regular season, resting for the playoffs either – spare me. Utah vs. The World.
Jazz unethically tanking. It's OK to suck. It's not OK to have a good team but simply bench your guys when you're winning. That's why everyone are calling out the jazz.