DNP-Rest, quiet quitting and death threats: The current state of tanking for Cooper Flagg

[ad_1]

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.

To view this content, you’ll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here and view the “Content and social-media partners” setting to do so.

@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

The state of tanking rules

More recently, the NBA has…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/dnp-rest-quiet-quitting-and-death-threats-the-current-state-of-tanking-for-cooper-flagg-190551651.html

Author : Tom Haberstroh

Publish date : 2025-03-21 19:05:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.