The Bulls were recently warned by the league to not tank so blatantly, but I think that Adam Silver needs to re-issue that warning to the Mavericks, because playing Jalen Jones 30 minutes and letting him take 15 shots sure looks like tanking to me.
But I’m not complaining (except about the fact that Jameel Warney didn’t even get in the game) or anything. I don’t really have a clear idea of what kind of player Jones is, and I love getting the chance to see him in extended action. I’m just saying that it’s tanking. Starting Kyle Collinsworth is tanking as well. I don’t care about “injuries”. Mark Cuban was fined for talking too much about it, but they didn’t fine him enough.
Raise your hand if you realized that this is this dude’s second team this season. My hand is half-raised. I guess, now that I think about it, that I remember seeing him in some boxscore for the Pelicans early in the season. And then I forgot about him. And now he’s back in my awareness! This is the second time he’s gotten major minutes, he got 8 and 10 that game (and I almost made highlights), now he’s got something legit: 16 points, 7 rebounds, 6 offensive, plus a whole bunch of really intense facial expressions. No one told him his team was supposed to lose. He was getting into it the whole game.