The Washington Wizards rebuild is still ongoing, even after the bold moves to acquire Trae Young and Anthony Davis seemingly blurred the lines.
Washington still has their sights on the No. 1 overall pick, and if you know the team's history with the NBA Draft Lottery, we all know the Wizards need just about as much help as they can get.
Between the team's abysmal luck and the fact that Washington is already in a tight competition against other teams in the sweepstakes to land the top pick, the Wizards have plenty of pressure on them down the stretch.
Not to mention, with the Wizards still taking pride in trying to develop their young core like most rebuilding teams in the league should be doing, the lack of effort to intentionally lose games is already hurting their chances at tanking.
In addition, with teams around the league making their intention TO TANK crystal clear, it's clear that the Wizards are at a huge disadvantage.
And looking at the discipline the league just issued to those teams, it's clear that the playing field won't be evened out anytime soon.
NBA's laughable fine won't stop tanking
Over the course of the last couple weeks, teams like the Utah Jazz and the Indiana Pacers have made their tanking efforts obvious.
Utah has one of the best young teams in the league and after their move to acquire former Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. ahead of the deadline, it was clear that the Jazz should be winning games down the stretch.
In the limited time that the team's new addition was on the floor, that assumption quickly proved to be true with the pairing of Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen looking to be a perfect match.
As a result, the team was forced to think outside the box, which led to head coach Will Hardy openly benching starting players in the fourth quarter with the intent to give opposing teams the golden opportunity to help them in their tanking efforts.
Meanwhile, the Pacers have made questionable lineup decisions that even your average Joe wouldn't make, which has led to a few losses of their own.
With the fans catching on to these strategies, the league couldn't help but take notice too which forced their hand to issue some type of punishment.
The problem? The punishment the league did issue is one that wouldn't even make a team think twice about continuing their strategies.
The NBA has fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and the Indiana Pacers $100,000 related to the management of their rosters for recent games.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) February 13, 2026
Looking at the fines issues above, it's clear that the league felt obligated to issue a punishment, but felt that they truly had no leg to stand on.
Tanking around the league is getting out of hand, and there's rumors that the NBA is exploring new rules in hopes of removing the issue from the game.
Until then, the issue will persist and teams like the Wizards will be stuck on the wrong side of it.