The World Anti-Doping Agency on Tuesday put off a decision about barring government officials from major sporting events if their countries voluntarily withhold dues, pushing a potential conflict with President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials until at least after this summer’s World Cup.
The WADA executive committee met and said it would consider the new rule in September, two months after the end of the World Cup, which the U.S. is hosting along with Canada and Mexico.
If such a rule is adopted later this year, it would presumably go into effect before the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
The U.S. hasn’t paid its dues since 2023. If that continues, the new rule could place Trump and U.S. lawmakers on a banned list for Games in their own country, though there are doubts about whether an anti-doping regulator could keep any of them from attending the Olympics.
Conflict with WADA has not been a particularly partisan issue in the U.S., which withheld the payments in 2024 and 2025 — once during Trump’s presidency and once during Joe Biden’s.
The U.S. has withheld $7.3 million over the two years in protest of WADA’s handling of a case involving Chinese swimmers and other issues.
WADA spokesman James Fitzgerald previously told The Associated Press the proposed rule would “not (be) applied retroactively so World Cup, LA and SLC Games would not be covered.”
However, the proposal, a copy of which was obtained by AP, did not include language to that effect and Fitzgerald did not respond to multiple emails seeking clarification about his use of the word “retroactively.”
After the meeting Tuesday, WADA director general Olivier Niggli said “the withholding of contributions by governments for political or other voluntary reasons remains a serious topic of concern for all WADA’s stakeholders.”
“Funding instability has a direct effect on the functioning and development of the World Anti-Doping Program,” Niggli said. “Ultimately, those who are most directly and most negatively impacted are athletes around the world.”
WADA started exploring the issue in 2020, around the time the U.S. began threatening to withhold money. But it says the issue of penalizing governments for not paying is not directly related to the United States.
A U.S. representative on the executive committee during the Biden administration — drug czar Rahul Gupta — led the effort to reject the proposal in 2024.
The U.S. has since lost its spot on the committee. The proposal emerged again earlier this year, and in correspondence with European decision-makers, a copy of which was obtained by AP, WADA told them such a measure could be adopted “without undue delay.”
The Europeans also asked WADA why the executive committee was taking up the issue again before a working group had finished its analysis.
A decision by the executive committee would have to be ratified by the WADA foundation board. Its next meeting is in November, though in the February letter to the Europeans, WADA said that board could meet sooner.
Arizona on Tuesday became the first state to file criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing the prediction market company of operating an illegal gambling business within its borders, a significant escalation in the fight to regulate the popular platform.
The 20-count charging document accuses Kalshi of accepting bets on political outcomes, college sporting competitions and individual player performance in violation of Arizona’s gambling laws. The state prohibits operating an unlicensed wagering business and bans betting on elections.
“Arizona will not be bullied into letting any company place itself above state law,” said Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes.
The criminal case marks a new front in a high-stakes legal battle over whether prediction markets should be subject to the same rules as gambling companies.
President Donald Trump’s administration has thrown its support behind the multibillion-dollar prediction market industry, further amplifying a state-versus-federal fight for regulatory control. The outcome could have sweeping implications for how sports betting — which makes up roughly 90% of Kalshi’s trading volume — is regulated in the U.S.
Kalshi insists it’s a financial marketplace rather than a gambling operation and should only have to answer to federal regulators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The agency under Trump agrees it has exclusive oversight.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is a strategic adviser for Kalshi. And the Republican president’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.
Elisabeth Diana, a spokesperson for Kalshi, dismissed the Arizona charges as “meritless” and accused the state of trying to circumvent federal court.
Kalshi sued Arizona, Utah and Iowa in attempts to stop anticipated state action against the platform.
But U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi in Arizona, a Trump appointee, denied Kalshi’s request for a temporary block on Tuesday and ordered the company to demonstrate why the case should be in federal court given the new state charges.
At least nine other states have taken some form of legal action against Kalshi, and Utah’s Republican governor has pledged to sign a bill that could undercut the company’s business in the state.
So far, the outcomes have been mixed. Federal and state judges in Nevada and Massachusetts, respectively, issued early rulings in favor of states looking to ban Kalshi and its competitor Polymarket from offering sports betting in their states, while federal judges in New Jersey and Tennessee have ruled in favor of Kalshi. The Nevada lawsuit was remanded to state court.
CFTC chairman Michael Selig said the legal fight between Arizona and Kalshi is a jurisdictional issue and is “entirely inappropriate as a criminal prosecution.”
The state argues Kalshi is a gambling operation that brands itself as a marketplace. But the company says its product is different because customers engage in “swaps” between one another instead of betting against the “house.”
Kalshi operates by allowing customers to buy and sell “Yes” or “No” contracts tied to the probable outcome of an event. Anyone with a smartphone can wager on everything from whether it will snow in Miami to whether Trump will say a certain buzzword in a speech. Contracts are typically priced between 1 cent and 99 cents, which roughly translates to the percentage of customers who believe that event will happen.
The charges in Arizona were filed just days before the start of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, one of the busiest periods of the year for prediction markets and sportsbooks.
Kalshi announced a $1 billion perfect bracket challenge on Monday without mentioning the NCAA or March Madness, a pair of NCAA trademarks.
An NCAA spokesperson, Saquandra Heath, said Tuesday the organization remains concerned about “unprotected prediction markets that pose a threat to competition integrity and student-athlete safety.”
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Associated Press sports writer Jay Cohen in Chicago contributed to this report.
After years mired in the NBA’s middle, you could understand the calls for the Atlanta Hawks to choose a direction — to make a big, bold swing, one way or the other. Especially as they headed into 2026, yet again, a few games under .500, puttering around in the play-in picture, with the NBA’s 15th-ranked offense and 17th-ranked defense — still, in spite of all the offseasonpraise and roster reconfiguration, aggressively and seemingly inexorably mid.
Trading Trae Young represented the Hawks picking a side … but so did not consummating their long-rumored interest of being the team to swing a deal for Anthony Davis. (Who, as luck would have it, wound up pairing with Young, but not in Atlanta.)
With an interesting young core locked in for the next three seasons, lots of room to maneuver under the aprons in the years to come, and plenty of draft capital in the coffers, general manager Onsi Saleh and Co. decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Rather than careening toward the extremes of blowing it up or going all-in, the Hawks made just the one big change, and decided to see where that might take them.
The answer, it turns out, might be “the playoffs.”
“Everyone’s speaking up [and] the locker room’s jelling,” defensive ace Dyson Daniels recently told Jake Fischer of The Stein Line. “Everyone’s speaking in the group chat. It feels like a whole different vibe.”
The turnaround began, as it so often does for teams that snap to attention, on defense. Atlanta owns the NBA’s No. 6 defense since the Young deal, allowing 110.2 points per 100 possessions in that span, just south of Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs. In the six weeks since the trade deadline, that’s down to just 109.6 points-per-100 — the fourth-stingiest unit in the NBA in that stretch, just a tick behind the No. 2 Heat and No. 3 Celtics.
“I think we’ve been defending at a really high level,” veteran guard CJ McCollum — who, along with movement-shooting wing Corey Kispert, constituted what seemed an underwhelming return for Young — recently told reporters. “I think that’s the biggest thing. We’re really good offensively. We have a lot of talent, a lot of shooting. We have a lot [of] speed. We have a good balance, but I think defensively we’ve been locked in.”
That was always the elephant in the room on the Young-era Hawks: that building a high-level defense around a 6-foot-2, 164-pound point guard who repeatedly graded out as one of the NBA’s most damaging individual defenders, and whom opponents could and would relentlessly hunt without compunction or repercussion, proved exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.
The Hawks finished in the bottom 10 in defensive efficiency five times in Young’s first seven years with the club, and in the bottom five four times; they routinely conceded points at or near a league-worst level in his minutes. (The one year they even approached a league-average defense — 2020-21, when they finished 16th — they went to the Eastern Conference finals.) That didn’t mean the Hawks were better off without him, necessarily; thanks to his elite offensive impact, the team performed better with him on the floor than off it nearly every season. It did make him a tricky piece to build around, though.
Which is why, staring down the barrel of a lucrative, potentially maximum-salaried contract extension that could take Young through his early 30s, the Hawks chose to stop doing that, and instead decided to see what building around youth, length and athleticism — lineups anchored by the 6-8 Jalen Johnson, 6-8 Daniels, 6-5 Nickeil Alexander-Walker and 6-10 Onyeka Okongwu, and without quite as detrimental a weak link for them to cover for — might yield. With the Hawks playing .655 ball since the deal and riding a 10-game winning streak, the early returns have been exceedingly promising.
The Hawks are 19-10 since the Trae Young trade. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
They also, however, come with a pretty sizable schedule-based caveat. Five of Atlanta’s 10 wins during this streak came against the tanking Wizards, Nets and Mavericks. Two more came against the drain-circling Bucks, including one without Giannis Antetokounmpo; one came against the Trail Blazers without Deni Avdija; another came against the 76ers without Joel Embiid, Paul George or VJ Edgecombe.
The collective winning percentage of the opposition in those nine contests? A crisp .363. Not exactly a murderers’ row — and a continuation of a pattern that’s seen Atlanta thrive against the weakerthans and struggle against stronger competition, going 19-7 against sub-.500 opposition and just 18-24 against teams at or above .500. (In fairness, the Magic, Raptors, Heat, 76ers and Hornets — the other teams in the mix with Atlanta for the Nos. 5 through 10 spots in the Eastern Conference playoff picture — have also followed that pattern.)
But on Monday, when confronted with a playoff-caliber opponent for the first time in nearly a month — an Orlando team that entered on a seven-game winning streak of its own, with the league’s fifth-best net rating since the trade deadline — the Hawks didn’t suddenly regress, revert and shrink into a corn cob. They took the Magic’s measure for about nine minutes … and then calmly, methodically and utterly administered the belt to Orlando’s collective keister, leading by as many as 29 points in a game whose final score looks closer than the run of play actually was.
“It was a real test against a playoff team,” Alexander-Walker told reporters after exploding for a career-high 41 points and nine 3-pointers. “And I think, the talk kind of being around, well, we beat nobody and da da da da da, at the end of the day, it’s NBA players, it’s NBA teams. […] I think it was just, we continue to handle our business.”
The Hawks really took off when head coach Quin Snyder elected to slide McCollum — who’d been scoring well and efficiently off the bench since arriving from Washington — into the starting five alongside Johnson, Alexander-Walker, Daniels and Okongwu, in place of struggling former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher. While McCollum’s individual effectiveness has dipped since the elevation, with the veteran shooting under 40% from the field and 30% from 3-point range, the Hawks’ overall synergy has surged: They’re 8-0 with their new starting lineup, which has outscored opponents by a whopping 140 points in 217 minutes, trailing only the Hornets’ starters for the best plus-minus of any quintet in the league.
That averages out to a devastating plus-29.1 points per 100 possessions, which trails … well, nobody:
With the talk about Charlotte’s starters, I haven’t seen as much on Atlanta’s starters. They are currently the best lineup in the league, outscoring opponents by ~30 pts/100 poss. Last night, it was +22 on 43 poss. – Every starter is better on both sides when with the starters. pic.twitter.com/rEGBCpWfS7
It’s a unit in which many hands make for lighter work — but also one built around the crackling energy and diverse skill-set of Johnson, who has blossomed into one of the league’s best young players.
Atlanta’s new franchise player
The Young trade put the keys to the franchise in the hands of Johnson, an ascendant talent with size and skill who’d shown the playmaking chops to suggest he might be well-suited to life as a primary creator. So far, so good: His per-minute scoring and shooting efficiency have dipped in a higher usage role, but he’s remained incredibly productive, averaging 22.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 7.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game since the Young trade.
The first-time All-Star has more triple-doubles this season (13) than anybody but Nikola Jokić, and is on pace to join Jokić, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson and Russell Westbrook as just the fifth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists per game for a full season.
And when the ball doesn’t stick, and everybody knows they can get a hand on it, everybody buys in just a little bit more.
“This is the closest-knit team I’ve been on with Atlanta,” Johnson recently told Fischer.
Johnson’s most frequent target? Alexander-Walker, whose baskets he’s assisted 121 times this season, according to PBP Stats — the third-most-frequent assist combination in the league, behind only Jamal Murray-to-Nikola Jokić and Cade Cunningham-to-Jalen Duren. (Johnson’s getting his fair share of service, too: Daniels has set him up 97 times, which is tied for 10th-most.)
‘It’s starting to come to life’
When the Hawks plucked Alexander-Walker from a Minnesota team that couldn’t afford him, Julius Randle and Naz Reid this summer, it looked like a smart move — an opportunity to land the prime years of a player who’d developed into one of the league’s sturdier two-way reserves, someone capable of serving as a high-level role player alongside brighter talents, for less than 10% of the salary cap. The seventh-year swingman has made that evaluation look like damningly faint praise, averaging 20.3 points per game — nearly double his previous high-water mark — to go with 3.7 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game, while shooting 51% on 2-pointers, 39% from 3-point land, and 90% from the foul line.
Even with the increased usage and heavier offensive workload, NAW has continued to form a strong defensive backcourt partnership with Daniels; the Hawks have allowed 113 points-per-100 in their shared minutes, a defensive rating that would rank just below sixth-place Boston for the full season. They’ve also scored at a near-top-six rate in those NAW-Daniels minutes — this, despite the Aussie struggling mightily with his shot, dropping from a career-best 34% from 3-point range last season to a career-worst 12.9% this season.
In that respect, Daniels’ comparatively quieter non-scoring impact — as evidenced in the team’s second largest on-court/off-court swing, behind only McCollum — is emblematic of what’s been driving Atlanta’s fantastic recent play.
As John Schuhmann of NBA.com noted, Atlanta has seized control of the possession game during this stretch, averaging 7.3 more field-goal attempts than its opponents over the last 10 games. Using Jared Dubin’s Possession Battle metric at Last Night in Basketball — which factors in whether a team collects more offensive rebounds than it gives up, generates trips to the free-throw line more than it sends the opponent there, and creates more turnovers than it coughs up — the Hawks have generated 10.8 more possessions than their opponents during this winning streak, a mammoth edge that would lead the league over the course of the full season by a comical amount.
And when the Hawks get more bites at the apple, they now have more ways to make the opposition pay. With Johnson, Alexander-Walker, Daniels and McCollum — and, to a lesser extent, new additions Kuminga and Vincent — all capable of working either end of the pick-and-roll, these Hawks can flow into and through any number of combinations and actions in pursuit of a pathway to a good look.
They don’t have any individual facilitator capable of dissecting an elite, locked in defense the way Young could. But by spreading opponents out and forcing them to treat everyone as a live threat, they make it harder for defenses to load up and stay connected; keep moving the ball and your bodies, keep playing together, and eventually, they’re going to spring a leak:
“We have multiple threats at once,” Alexander-Walker recently told reporters. “You’ve got one guy putting pressure on the rim, you’ve got ‘J.J.’ downhill and being the threat he is. And then, myself, just reading that and being able to make shots. […] We are able to execute really well. It’s something we work on and it’s starting to come to life.”
That, in turn, has given new life to the Hawks’ postseason hopes. Atlanta now sits in eighth in the East, a game behind seventh-place Miami and just 1.5 games behind the fifth-place Magic and sixth-place Raptors. The Hawks hold the head-to-head tiebreakers over the Sixers and Magic; they’ve lost it to the Raptors and Hornets, and are down 2-1 to the Heat with one matchup left on the last day of the regular season.
That jumbled-up tiebreaker positioning, combined with the congestion in the middle of the pack and Atlanta having the East’s fourth-toughest remaining schedule, according to Tankathon, makes for an awfully daunting climb out of the play-in mix. Most public–facingpostseasonprojectionmodels give the Hawks a sub-25% chance of making it into the top six; the most likely outcome, then, is the Hawks returning to their ancestral home of the play-in tournament, needing to win one or two games just to get into a first-round matchup with what will assuredly be a heavily favored top seed.
But while that destination might feel stiflingly familiar for Hawks fans, the path the team is charting there is fresh, and seemingly teeming with new possibilities. Moving on from Young gave the Hawks a direction and a clear runway. All they can do now is keep traveling down it, and see how far they might be able to fly.
“I’m proud of this group,” Johnson told reporters after knocking off Orlando. “We’ve got a long ways to go, but we’re going to stack wins one game at a time, just keep focusing on that.”
In lieu of our regularly scheduled bi-weekly NBA power rankings, and in honor of March Madness, we give to you, dear reader, our second annual tanking rankings.
It has been more than a month since the league fined the Utah Jazz ($500,000) and Indiana Pacers ($100,000) for blatant tanking efforts. Nobody has been penalized since, though as much as a third of the entire NBA has been tanking for some time.
The race for the best odds to land BYU’s AJ Dybantsa, Kansas’ Darryn Peterson and Duke’s Cameron Boozer, among other projected top-tier picks, is heating up ahead of the draft lottery on May 10, and we are here to serve you up a taste of the most likely candidates to land them — complete with a breakdown of their best tanking efforts.
Sure, one of the four teams to be ousted from the play-in tournament could still land a top-four pick, as the Dallas Mavericks did last season, securing Cooper Flagg atop the draft, despite holding just a 1.8% chance of acquiring that No. 1 overall selection.
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
But, for now, it appears the teams still in the play-in hunt will be trying to climb those standings until regular season’s end. They are spared from our 2026 tanking rankings.
The 10th-place Charlotte Hornets own a six-win lead over the 11th-place Milwaukee Bucks in the East, and the 10th-place Portland Trail Blazers have a 10-win lead over the Memphis Grizzlies in the West, leaving these 10 teams as the cream of the crop in our tanking rankings, even if the first of them isn’t even really trying to tank at all …
10. New Orleans Pelicans (23-46)
Most recent starters: Trey Murphy III • Herb Jones • Saddiq Bey • Zion Williamson • Yves Missi (+16 in 57 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 8-5 record • 117.2 offensive rating (11th) • 114.1 defensive rating (18th)
The Pelicans are not tanking, because they do not own their first-round draft pick, which was a massive mistake from the moment they made it. They dealt it for the right to move up 10 spots in last year’s draft and select Derik Queen at No. 13 overall.
Not that Queen was a bad pick. He is an All-Rookie candidate. But you do not give up what we all knew would be an unprotected lottery pick in 2026 for the chance to take him. Right now, the Atlanta Hawks, who now own the Pels’ pick, have a 34.5% chance at a top-four pick. Imagine what those odds might be if New Orleans tanked.
One nice thing about the lack of a tank in New Orleans: We got to witness the return of Dejounte Murray, who is averaging a 20-5-5 on 55/35/83 shooting splits in 27 minutes over eight games since coming back from a ruptured right Achilles tendon.
9. Milwaukee Bucks (28-39)
Most recent starters: Ryan Rollins • AJ Green • Kyle Kuzma • Giannis Antetokounmpo • Myles Turner (+59 in 99 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 5-9 record • 110.4 offensive rating (24th) • 120.8 defensive rating (29th)
A reminder on Giannis and MIL’s tanking incentives.
The Bucks can absolutely tank. A typical spin on @tankathon will result in something like this: NOP gives up its pick to ATL. In this case, gulp, it lands No. 1. MIL picks at No. 11. But wait … (thread 1/x) pic.twitter.com/32ZtRQMq1H
When Antetokounmpo is on the floor for the Bucks, they are outscoring opponents by 4.1 points per 100 meaningful possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass, operating like a 52-win team. When he is off the court, they are being outscored by 9.6 points per 100 non-garbage possessions, performing more like a 15-win outfit.
How do we know they are not tanking to their fullest? Well, Antetokounmpo returned from a calf strain to play six of their last eight games, including wins over the tanking Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers. Even on a minutes restriction, he averaged a 29-12-8 on better than 50% shooting in those two victories. He is not helping his own cause.
After all, even though the Bucks do not fully control their first-round pick, they will still keep it if the Pelicans land higher than them in the order. In other words, Milwaukee gets the worst pick between itself and New Orleans, and right now that is the 10th selection. The Bucks could climb up to the ninth spot with improved tanking.
But maybe Antetokounmpo does not care what pick Milwaukee lands in the 2026 draft. Maybe one foot is out the door already and the other will follow in the summer. If that is the case, can the Bucks afford to let Antetokounmpo play down the stretch?
8. Sacramento Kings (18-51)
Most recent starters: Killian Hayes • DeMar DeRozan • Nique Clifford • Precious Achiuwa • Maxime Raynaud (-11 in 20 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 6-7 record • 111.3 offensive rating (22nd) • 117.4 defensive rating (23rd)
The Kings, mostly, have played Russell Westbrook and DeMar DeRozan, trusting veterans to steward a tank. They did quite well, steering them into the worst record in the league. Only, the veterans have found themselves, along with a cast of plucky youngsters, fielding a .500 record for a few weeks since a 16-game losing streak.
That push has now left them with the NBA’s fourth-worst record, instead of its worst, which is not so bad in the era of flattened lottery odds. Instead of a 52.1% chance at a top-four pick, those odds have fallen to 48.1%, and they would drop to 42.1% if the Kings win a few more games and surpass the Jazz for the league’s fifth-worst record.
Which is probably why Sacramento signed Hayes on Sunday and immediately inserted him into the starting lineup. It did not help in a 116-111 victory over Utah.
7. Memphis Grizzlies (23-44)
Most recent starters: Walter Clayton • Rayan Rupert • Jaylen Wells • Cedric Coward • Olivier-Maxence Prosper
Since the All-Star break: 3-11 record • 114.4 offensive rating (15th) • 120.8 defensive rating (29th)
The Grizzlies are making the right choice going full tank. This draft could be special. So their own pick can increase in value by subtracting JJJ. And this is quite a strong return of picks. Worth seeing what Clayton and Hendricks can turn into after slow NBA starts too. https://t.co/rN5HsTSbZm
The newest tanking strategy: Just do not play a center at all. The Grizzlies were somewhat forced into this situation, after losing Zach Edey, though they did trade both Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jock Landale, either one of whom would have helped.
Their most common lineups with O-Max Prosper at center are getting walloped by 15.4 points per 100 meaningful possessions, and that is probably the point of playing a 6-foot-7 forward at a rim-protecting position. Since trading Jackson, the Grizzlies are 3-15, riding an eight-game losing streak, including losses to Chicago and Brooklyn.
It helps, of course, that Ja Morant is nursing an elbow injury. Or does it? The offense is performing 3.8 points per 100 non-garbage possessions better when he is off the court. Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo’s unique offensive strategy is yielding some interesting results, though he may never get to see them through with a good team.
6. Dallas Mavericks (23-46)
Most recent starters: Ryan Nembhard • Max Christie • Naji Marshall • Cooper Flagg • PJ Washington (+5 in 31 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 4-11 record • 108.0 offensive rating (28th) • 118.4 defensive rating (25th)
The Mavericks are not tanking their hardest, mostly because Cooper Flagg is still pursuing the Rookie of the Year award. He returned from a sprained left foot at the start of the month to help Dallas to wins over Memphis and Cleveland in recent days.
It will take more than the 19-7-7 on 41/21/80 shooting splits Flagg has submitted over his last eight appearances, since his former Duke teammate, Kon Knueppel, is netting a nightly 19-5-3 on incredible efficiency (49/44/87) for a winning team in Charlotte. If you ask me, Knueppel is tough to beat for Rookie of the Year, even as Flagg exists.
It would be a nice consolation price for Flagg to be paired with another high-end lottery pick from this year’s loaded draft. As of now, Dallas is in position for the NBA’s sixth-worst record, but New Orleans and Memphis are lurking with 23 wins, too.
Dallas may have to get creative with its tank, which it has, playing center-less minutes with Washington in the middle. Those lineups — practically a must in the absence of Anthony Davis, whom the Mavs dealt in an embrace of the tank at the deadline — are successfully being outscored by 20.3 points per 100 possessions.
5. Chicago Bulls (28-40)
Most recent starters: Tre Jones • Josh Giddey • Matas Buzelis • Leonard Miller • Jalen Smith (-4 in 27 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 4-9 record • 108.8 offensive rating (26th) • 112.9 defensive rating (14th)
The Bulls embraced the tank when they traded Nikola Vučević, Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu for a handful of second-round picks at the deadline. Chicago coach Billy Donovan wanted the franchise to pick a direction, and the front office did, electing to tank the remainder of a season that began with some woebegotten optimism.
Only, Donovan cannot help himself. He is still squeezing some decent defense from this group, enough to challenge the Bucks for the league’s 10th-worst record, which would be a disaster when closer to the bottom of the standings was within reach.
4. Utah Jazz (20-48)
Most recent starters: Isaiah Collier • Elijah Harkless • Cody Williams • Andersson Garcia • Brice Sensabaugh (-4 in 15 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 2-10 record • 111.1 offensive rating (23rd) • 118.4 defensive rating (24th)
This is some all-time elite tank maneuvers by the Jazz. Just other worldly. Incredible effort on display. Can’t wait to see what’s next. https://t.co/ew3FeVMTdD
— Stathole (Pistons Title +1600) (@Statholesports) February 23, 2026
Seemingly every night, Jazz coach Will Hardy is fielding lineups we’ve never seen before, like the one he started Sunday night, featuring Garcia, the undrafted rookie whom they signed from the G League to a 10-day contract this past week.
The Jazz have talent. They just do not play it. Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler, among others, make nightly appearances on the injury report. Rising stars Keyonte George and Ace Bailey have also navigated their way to the sidelines.
Some of it is a natural occurrence of injury. Some of it is strategic. All of it helps the Jazz complete a tank job that would be admirable if others were not out-losing them.
3. Brooklyn Nets (17-51)
Most recent starters: Nolan Traoré • Drake Powell • Ziaire Williams • Danny Wolf • Nicolas Claxton (-19 in 17 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 2-13 record • 104.5 offensive rating (30th) • 119.9 defensive rating (26th)
The Nets used all five of their first-round draft picks, selecting a hodgepodge of ball-handlers, in what was the first sign of many that they would be tanking this season.
They have, for the most part, entrusted those ball-handlers to guide them to the league’s worst offensive rating — by far — since the All-Star break. It has helped that Michael Porter Jr., their All-Star-caliber offensive talent, has missed the last three games to an ankle injury. Brooklyn must welcome short-term setbacks like that.
For three straight games, the Nets have failed to score 100 points. Only the Bucks and Kings have matched that streak this season. No team has failed to score 100 points in four straight games this season … yet. Brooklyn hosts the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder — and the league’s best defense — on Wednesday night.
2. Washington Wizards (16-51)
Most recent starters: Trae Young • Tre Johnson • Bilal Coulibaly • Will Riley • Julian Reese (-3 in 10 minutes)
Since the All-Star break: 2-12 record • 110.3 offensive rating (25th) • 120.7 defensive rating (27th)
The Wizards had FIVE turnovers before even attempting a shot 😭
I repeat: The Wiz gave up 83 points to Bam Adebayo in a single game.
That alone should qualify them for one of the top spots in our tanking rankings. Playing Julian Reese at center has been a boon for them, as those lineups are being outscored by 11 points and allowing 129.4 points per 100 meaningful possessions.
Same goes for Trae Young, whose return was supposed to signal some anti-tanking sentiment. His lineups are being outscored by 12.3 points and allowing 119.4 points per 100 non-garbage possessions. Any way you slice them, the Wizards own one of the worst defenses in the league, if Adebayo alone had not proved that already.
1. Indiana Pacers (15-53)
Most recent starters: T.J. McConnell • Aaron Nesmith • Jalen Slawson • Jarace Walker • Ivica Zubac
Since the All-Star break: 0-13 record • 108.7 offensive rating (27th) • 122.4 defensive rating (30th)
the tank of the 2026 Pacers will be talked about for centuries
The Pacers made the NBA Finals last year and are doing their darnedest to finish with the league’s worst record this season. That level of tanking is not easy to pull off.
Indiana had a choice to start the season. Like Boston, the Pacers could have opted to compete in the absence of a superstar who tore his Achilles tendon in the playoffs. The Celtics took the second seed so long into this season that it allowed Jayson Tatum to return. No need for Tyrese Haliburton to return to these Pacers.
Indiana instead chose to tank the season, and it has done a tremendous job at it, even adding Zubac at the deadline. The All-Star-caliber center has, of course, only played a few games since for the Pacers, never more than 25 minutes at a time, all in losses. Really, they could not have navigated this season much better than they have.
After all, when Haliburton returns next season, they will not only have subbed Zubac into Myles Turner’s center spot on a team that reached the 2025 Finals, but they will likely have added a top pick (unless it falls between 5-9 due to pick protections) — with a 14% shot at No. 1 — in a loaded draft to the roster.
Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards will miss at least one-to-two weeks with knee inflammation, the team announced Tuesday.
Edwards was listed as “questionable” in each of Minnesota’s past two games but played through his right knee issue, scoring 42 points in a road win over the Golden State Warriors and then 19 in a road loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He received an MRI, which revealed the inflammation he’s dealing with, and now the four-time All-Star guard will be re-evaluated later this month, according to the Timberwolves.
Edwards’ injury isn’t expected to affect his status for the postseason, per The Athletic.
Minnesota will miss Edwards’ presence on the court Tuesday night against Phoenix in a pivotal Western Conference matchup that pits the sixth-place Timberwolves (41-27) versus the seventh-place Suns (39-29).
His absence against Phoenix will mark his 11th missed game of the season. He was also sidelined with hamstring and toe injuries earlier this season. While there are some exceptions, a player generally must play a minimum of 65 regular-season games to be considered for the NBA’s end-of-season awards, per a league rule that was instituted ahead of the 2023-24 season in an attempt to combat load management. In other words, a player typically can’t miss more than 17 games and be awards-eligible.
The Timberwolves play seven games over the next two weeks, including Tuesday’s showdown versus the Suns, meaning if Edwards is out a full two weeks, he’d be at 17 missed games for the season.
It’s important to note, however, that, since Edwards left an Oct. 26 game against the Indiana Pacers just three minutes in, he’s played in 57, not 58, games that qualify for awards eligibility. So he needs to make eight more qualifying appearances to be up for a third All-NBA honor and other postseason accolades, and after that two-week recovery mark, the Wolves will have only seven games remaining.
Edwards had never missed more than 10 games in his career before this season, his sixth go-round in the league after he was drafted No. 1 overall out of Georgia in 2020.
He’s currently averaging a career-high 29.5 points per game, the third most in the league, behind only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (31.6) of the Thunder and Luka Dončić (32.9) of the Los Angeles Lakers.
Minnesota is back home after going just 1-3 on a four-game road trip last week. The Timberwolves are two games up on the Suns heading into Tuesday’s game. Phoenix owns the tiebreaker over the Wolves, though.
Dropping to seventh in the West would put Minnesota on track for the play-in tournament.
Post-hype sleepers sometimes end up being the best value picks in the middle and final rounds of fantasy baseball drafts. In fact, the 2025 version of this article mentioned Gavin Williams and Jonathan Aranda, who both went from being late-round gambles or April waiver-wire fodder to productive lineup members. Trent Grisham would have been an excellent choice as well, as he turned around a floundering career by homering 34 times.
This year’s crop of post-hype sleepers includes options that are spaced throughout the draft, but most members are clustered as late-round options who will open 2026 on waivers in many leagues.
Francisco Alvarez, C, New York Mets (ADP: 196.2)
Once considered a budding superstar at the scarcest position when he hit 25 homers in 2023, Alvarez is now an afterthought in the deepest group of catchers we have seen. The 24-year-old dealt with multiple injuries across 2024-25 but may have finally put those issues behind him when he hit .276 with eight homers and a .921 OPS in 41 second-half games last season.
The problem is that no one noticed, as catchers such as Hunter Goodman and Shea Langeliers were stealing the show, and rookies like Agustín Ramírez and Kyle Teel were also grabbing headlines. Nonetheless, Alvarez is part of a loaded Mets lineup and could establish himself as a top-12 catcher early in the season.
Gabriel Moreno, C, Arizona Diamondbacks (ADP: 197.9)
Moreno joins Alvarez as a catcher whose post-hype sleeper status is magnified by the tremendous depth at the position. The 26-year-old is understandably going undrafted in many leagues. Sure, he has an impressive career .281 average, but he has yet to produce a double-digit homer season. Moreno could be ready for a power breakout though, as he has always produced quality exit velocities and boosted his fly-ball rate 5% in each of the past two seasons. Injuries have held the catcher back throughout his career, but with better health, he could hit .285 with 15-20 homers and 70 RBI from the heart of Arizona’s lineup.
Michael Harris II, OF, Atlanta Braves (ADP: 96.0)
Many fantasy analysts predicted Harris to be a 30-30 player in 2023, after he hit .297 with 19 homers and 20 steals as a 21-year-old in 114 games as a rookie. Unfortunately, the outfielder has trended in the wrong direction for three straight seasons. He hit rock bottom when he arrived at the 2025 All-Star break hitting .210 with a .551 OPS, but just when everyone gave up on him, Harris hit .299 with 14 homers and an .845 OPS in 67 second-half games.
Is he finally ready to reach his 30-30 ceiling? At the moment, it only requires a pick ahead of his 96 ADP to find out.
MacKenzie Gore, SP, Texas Rangers (ADP: 149.3)
Gore’s post-hype sleeper status took a hit when he was traded from the Nats to the Rangers. The deal was a clear win for his fantasy value, which put the lefty back on the radar for many managers who had previously dismissed him. Still, he perfectly fits the profile of a post-hype player, as he teased fantasy managers many times across 2023-25, when he enjoyed brilliant spurts that were always followed by maddening stretches.
He already has excellent strikeout skills and may finally be ready to post a respectable WHIP now that he has a pitcher-friendly home park and solid defensive group behind him.
Andrew Painter, SP, Philadelphia Phillies (ADP: 206.3)
Can someone be a post-hype sleeper before they appear in a major league game? That may be the case with Painter. The 2021 first-round pick missed all of 2023-24 and was expected to debut last season before logging poor results (5.26 ERA, 1.49 WHIP) across 118 minor league innings.
Along the way, youngsters such as Nolan McLean, Trey Yesavage and Jacob Misiorowski distanced themselves from Painter by having exciting major league debuts. Painter was once in front of those hurlers on prospect lists, and he now has a clear path to an Opening Day rotation spot.
Grayson Rodriguez, SP, Los Angeles Angels (ADP: 205.1)
Rodriguez had a respectable rookie season in 2023 and took a step forward when he went 13-4 with solid ratios (3.86 ERA, 1.24 WHIP) in his sophomore campaign. The right-hander missed all of 2025 due to elbow issues that eventually required surgery, and the pitching-needy Orioles had so little faith in his ability to bounce back that they traded him for one season of Taylor Ward.
The late rounds of Yahoo drafts are meant for chasing upside, and managers only need to look at Rodriguez’s career 259:78 K:BB ratio to see a reason to give him a couple of weeks on their roster.
Zebby Matthews, SP, Minnesota Twins (ADP: 194.7)
Those who analyze minor league stats were touting Matthews during the 2023 and 2024 seasons, as his strong strikeout skills and minuscule walk rate gave the right-hander the look of someone who was destined for stardom. To say that Matthews (career 5.92 ERA, 1.54 WHIP) has disappointed would be an understatement. Bad luck (67.4% strand rate, .359 BABIP) has been part of the problem, but Matthews has also given up too much hard contact at times.
Opportunities abound on the rebuilding Twins, and this feels like a make-or-break season for the 25-year-old.
Joe Boyle, SP, Tampa Bay Rays (Undrafted)
Although his skills aren’t identical to those of Matthews, Boyle has some similarities. Minor league stat analysts were digging the right-hander during 2024 spring training, as he had gaudy minor league strikeout numbers and looked sharp in three debut starts the previous September. Unfortunately, control issues (career 5.7 BB/9 rate) and bad luck (64.1% strand rate) have thus far negated any chance of Boyle having success in the majors. There was renewed optimism for a breakout when he was traded to the Rays prior to last season, but it didn’t happen.
Maybe making half of his starts at pitcher-friendly Tropicana Field will help Boyle get over the hump. But the bottom line is that the 26-year-old needs to get his walks under control before breaking out. Opportunities should be available in a Rays rotation that has few dependable members.
