The Utah Jazz have come under a lot of public scrutiny recently due to their dubious patterns of decisions in the second half of the season. Several critics are claiming that they are intentionally throwing games away to tank their pick in an attempt to retain it for the next draft.
Subsequently, amid all the scrutiny, the NBA announced that they are going to step in to address the issue of tanking. And now, sources claim that the league has begun taking action.
According to Tony Jones of The Athletic, the league is sending independent doctors to confirm whether Lauri Markkanen really needs to undergo an MRI after their recent injury report claimed that the 28-year-old Finnish forward hurt his ankle and hip in practice.
The Jazz are 58 games into the season, and they are way outside the contention of a playoff spot with an 18-40 record so far. Markkanen has arguably been their best player this season.
So far, he has averaged 26.7 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists while shooting 47.7% from the field and 35.5% from beyond the arc. Perhaps it was the convenient timing that raised the league’s suspicion.
Jaren Jackson Jr., Walker Kessler, Jusuf Nurkic, and Vince Williams were already sidelined for the rest of the season, and suddenly Markannen and Keyonte George are listed as questionable.
Even during the press conferences, their head coach, Will Hardy, has not offered concrete explanations for his decisions recently with the minutes rotation in crucial moments of games.
The league has come under a lot of scrutiny recently, and they have vowed to take action against teams that could be intentionally tanking. They probably would not care that the Jazz’s first-round pick would convey to the Thunder if it falls outside the top eight.
If it were a naturally bad team that was performing like this, it would still be a fair outcome to let them reap the benefits of tanking. But a team like the Jazz, where their best player is averaging over 25 points per night, and they have multiple such players who can do that on a nightly basis, then such a team should not get the fruits of tanking.
The Jazz are set to host the Pelicans at home for their next game tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see if Markkanen suits up or the Jazz are simply coincidentally suddenly become as short-handed as they did. Something smells fishy here, but only the league’s investigation can reveal the facts. Until then, it’s all conjecture.
