Do NOT Ask Club 520 Host Jeff Teague to Explain the NBA’s Anti-Tanking Proposal

Ask Jeff Teague to explain the NBA's new anti-tanking lottery system and you will get an honest answer. 'I can't actually,' the Club 520 host told Rich on the show. 'I was going to ask you to explain it to me.'

Teague, who spent most of his NBA career with the Atlanta Hawks, said he tried to get an explanation from someone who should know. 'Me and Mark Cuban was talking about this on the show, and he was just, this is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. And shout out to Mark Cuban. But he was trying to explain it to me, and I was like, well, hopefully the Hawks just get the number one pick this year and we get AJ Dybantsa, and I wouldn't care about the tanking next year.'

The spirit of his complaint matches the spirit of every fan who has ever tried to follow ping pong balls and zone tiers. 'It's so difficult for a fan to understand,' Teague said. 'You know what I mean? It's just tough to figure out. If you're in a relegation zone or you're in the next seven, and then you get so many ping pong balls here or there, it just, I don't get it.'

His solution is the cleanest one in the room. 'I would like it to go where you finish in last and there's no lottery. The NFL does it with no lottery. Why does there need to be a lottery in the NBA?' The case for the lottery, in his telling, is rooted in distrust. The case against it is the same. 'Why don't they care about winning? I wouldn't be mad at that.'

He gave the league one concession. A team should not be allowed to draft first three years in a row. Beyond that, the framework would just put the worst record at the front of the line and trust the rest of the system to take care of itself. 'It's as simple as if you're terrible, you should get the best player to try and get back in the mix,' Teague said. 'And if you now create a system where there's a bunch of people that have a shot at getting the best player and all you got to be is somewhat terrible or terrible terrible.'

He acknowledged the obvious counter, which is that a draft pick is not just a name on a card. It is a city. It is a building. It is a culture. 'I'm not going to lie, I agree with you, but boy, it's been some bad teams, and I hate to get drafted to some of those.' He pointed at Cooper Flagg, who landed in Dallas. 'I get to go to a cool city. I'm pretty sure he was happy to go to Dallas.' Then the dig. 'But what did they do this year? Nothing. Zero.'

Maybe the lottery saved a player from a worse fate. Maybe it just delayed the math. Either way, Teague is not the guy to walk you through the new rules.