NBA Info - February 2026

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

Bulls tallest starter tonight was 6'8".

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

OK, Hornets up 16 on the Rockets in Houston at the end of the third.  

[Deleterious]

 

[Deleterious]

Maybe I'm wrong about Charlotte. Beating Houston on the road is an impressive win. 

I'm going to laugh when Coby White starts playing and they immediately go on a long losing streak.

[Deleterious]

They pulled Markkanen with 17 minutes left, in a 2 point game.  No injury, no foul trouble.  Just pure tanking.

 

[Deleterious]

Fans are pretty upset with this.  I guess Kalshi had $23 million flow through on his trade speculation.   Then the day after the trade deadline he announces he is partnering with them.  

 

[buddha]

On 2/6/2026 at 11:38 AM, Deleterious said:

They pulled Markkanen with 17 minutes left, in a 2 point game.  No injury, no foul trouble.  Just pure tanking.

 

only way you stop it is to get rid of the draft or completely randomize it.

[Deleterious]

It's tanking season.  I wonder if Young plays at all this year.

 

[Deleterious]

 

Quote

The perfect tanking storm has come to the NBA’s shores, and it’s arriving in the face of league scrutiny regarding both gambling and its own competition balance concerns.

That was my immediate takeaway from the chaos of this year’s trade deadline. Over the next two months, a race to the bottom will ensue, the likes of which the NBA has not seen before, thanks to a confluence of events that has become starker this week.

First and foremost, the 2026 NBA Draft has multiple elite prospects at the top. BYU wing AJ Dybantsa, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson and Duke forward Cameron Boozer are projected to end up as Tier One prospects for me, or players I think have a significant chance at All-NBA upside. I don’t have any of those three right now with a higher grade than I gave to Cooper Flagg last year, but in the decade-plus that I’ve been scouting the NBA Draft, I’ve never had three players as Tier One prospects in a single class. Illinois guard Keaton Wagler, Houston guard Kingston Flemings, and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson project as at least Tier Two players, a rating I give to prospects I believe have a significant likelihood of All-Star upside. I’ve never had at least six Tier One and Tier Two players in a draft class.

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Deleterious

[Deleterious]

Washington only dressed 8 guys today. Their combined salary for the season is $13.8 million. 

[Hongbit]

Make the lottery unweighted.   Each team that qualifies has the same odds.  It will make great TV too.  

[Deleterious]

 

[casimir]

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

Make the lottery unweighted.   Each team that qualifies has the same odds.  It will make great TV too.  

There’s a theory to keep weighted lottery odds, but in reverse order.  Best non playoff team gets best lottery odds.  Worst overall team gets worst lottery odds.

[Deleterious]

I feel the playin is useless. Just a dumb tournament to see who gets pounded by the one and two seed. 

Lose the playin and have the 14 lottery teams play a single elimination tournament that week before the playoffs start. Winner gets the #1 pick, second gets #2 etc. 

You could even keep the lottery and just give the winner the most ping pong balls if you wanted.

[buddha]

relegation would stop it, but we dont do that here.  you could take away ping pong balls if you lose x amount of games.  dropping protections might help on the margins, mandate that you can only protect top 2 or something like that.  but that will hinder trades and no one wants that to happen.

the ultimate reason is the draft, you get rewarded for losing.  and the draft has become so ingrained in sporting culture here that it isnt going anywhere.

i thought the play-in tournament was supposed to be a temporary covid year thing and now they've made it permanent.

[buddha]

Another thought, all these rule changes and tweaks have just made tanking worse.  if a team could tank and get a superstar, they would get better and gradually rise in the standings.  but when you tweak the lottery and the worst teams keep getting screwed (like the pistons did), they keep being mired in that desperate attempt to get a superstar player.  

ultimately, as long as there is a draft and no relegation there will be tanking.