Utah Jazz finding new ways to tank

The Jazz have a huge incentive to lose games, since they owe their first-round pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it falls between picks 1-8. But Marks argues that the Jazz benching stars late in the game is unfair because teams fighting for playoff spots and actually trying to win get an advantage facing the Jazz.

The Utah Jazz aren't the only team making moves to dodge wins

Utah is being singled out because of the obvious of Markkanen and Jackson sitting, but other tanking teams are making similar decisions. The Washington Wizards owe a top-eight-protected pick to the New York Knicks in this year's draft. The Indiana Pacers owe their pick to the Los Angeles Clippers if it falls between picks 5-9. The Dallas Mavericks don't control their own first-round pick from 2027-30, so they're highly incentivized to be bad this season.

What's different about this season is that the Jazz, Wizards and Pacers all traded for star players at the trade deadline: Jackson, Anthony Davis and Ivica Zubac, respectively. The Jazz sit Jackson for the fourth quarter. The Wizards have held out Davis, who has a hand injury, as well as Trae Young, who has been out for six weeks with a quad contusion.

The Pacers announced they're holding Zubac out due to a lingering ankle injury suffered Dec. 20, though he's played 15 games since then. So while the Jazz's specific approach is different, the spirit of their tanking is not.

Jazz coach Will Hardy defended his approach, insisting that the Jazz needed to develop multiple young players and that "the players that are playing in the games are competing every night."

It's still a terrible look for the NBA, but a terrible look that isn't solely the Jazz's fault. Nor are they necessarily more egregious than the Wizards. But because the Jazz are figuring out new, unexpected ways to skirt the league's rules, they're getting the brunt of the tanking backlash. If they don't like it, they could simply play their best players the entire game.