NBA warns Chicago Bulls about resting healthy players

What's the story?

The NBA is getting serious about its crackdown on tanking as they warn the Chicago Bulls organization to stop resting healthy players.

What's the story?

The Chicago Bulls have currently the league’s eighth worst record. If they continue at this pace, they will have a 9.9 percent chance of landing a top-three pick in the coming draft.

The heart of the matter...

The league seems to be very serious on the tanking issue across the league. Earlier this week, they sent a warning to the Chicago Bulls about resting healthy players as head coach Fred Hoiberg sat Robin Lopez for the last 6 games and also swingman Justin Holiday for 5 of the past 6 games.

According to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, Chicago is now planning to play their veterans “more extensively to close the season”.

Sources: The NBA issued a warning to the Chicago Bulls this week on resting healthy players, and the team now plans to play veteran starters Robin Lopez and Justin Holiday again more extensively to close the season.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 6, 2018

Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, John Paxson, issued the following statement containing their communication with NBA.

“After the All-Star Break we had communication with the league office about Robin and Justin’s roles – after healthy dialogue, the league determined that their situations fall into the ‘player rest’ policy. We respect the communication and cooperative dialogue with the league and will adhere to their recommendation going forward.”, via Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago.

You can’t play 12 guys in our game,” Paxson told reporters on Feb.20, according to WGN’s Rick Tarsitano. “Nine or 10 is the most, so we’re going to start looking at blocks of games where we’ll be having a few guys that haven’t been playing much or at all, where they’ll have a significant role for us.

One day later, commissioner Adam Silver sent a memo to all 30 teams the content of which made it very clear that the league would not stand any kind of tanking.

What's next?

The Bulls are 21-42 and 1-5 since the All-Star break. They have lost seven of their last 10 games. They host the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.

Author's take

It is a good decision on the part of the NBA and from Adam Silver to warn teams about blatant tanking.