The Spurs Have Fully Embraced The Tank By Officially Shutting Down De'Aaron Fox For The Season

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

Once we get to around mid March on the NBA calendar, you enter what I call "Shut Down Season". At this point of the year, when there's only 15-16 games left, there's usually enough separation from the Lottery to the Play In where for teams on the outside the focus of their season now has to change. Once you rule out the possibility of the Play In, the most important thing a NBA franchise can do to end the season is lose. Lose like you've never lost before. For those 14 teams, the only thing that matters is finding a way to get as high of a Lottery percentage as possible. The only way you're doing that, is to tank.

The NBA can change the odds all they want, they can flatten the top 3, it'll never stop tanking. As long as doing it could potentially land a team a franchise-altering talent, when teams know they won't make the Play In/Playoffs all the incentives still point to losing.

To help increase your chances of losing, the easiest way to do that is to start shutting people down. It happens all the time and you'll remember it's how the Mavs just ended up with Dereck Lively. They tanked hard down the stretch to get out of the Play In and ended up with basically their next franchise center (in theory). Worth it. 

So it's no surprise that a team like the Spurs, who are 5 games back of the Play In are shutting down De'Aaron Fox

Ah yes, to expedite the recovery 

I know they have to say that, but we can call this what it was. This is tanking at its finest. A perfect tank. It's obviously true that he needs surgery, so he may as well get it now that the tank for Cooper Flagg is officially underway. Ever since Wemby went down, this has been the path the Spurs had to take. You see, while it's true the Spurs are 5 games back, when you look at the standings it's actually only 3 losses from DAL and the 10th seed, and they're dropping games left and right.

Considering Fox has been playing with this injury, you can't risk that he starts winning you games by himself at this stage of the season. You know, just like he did on Wednesday night when the Spurs beat the Mavs

That guy cannot see the floor again. He's still way too good and if he's on the floor he's going to play hard, and you can't risk it in games that literally only hurt you if you win. Making the Play In needsto be avoided like the plague. We know it, the Spurs know it, Fox probably knows it. 

So what do they do? They immediately shut him down. Easiest no brainer tanking decision of all time. You don't have to like it, but the Spurs would be literal morons not to do it, and they are not morons. In fact they are the opposite of morons when it comes to this shit. 

They do this because you may not realize it, but we might have another 1997 Tim Duncan situation on our hands. David Robinson gets hurt and the Spurs have a down year and are gifted Tim Duncan? Does that perhaps sound familiar with a certain Wemby and Flagg? If that's something that's on the table (it is), you do everything in your power to give yourself as big a piece of the pie as you can and hope the Basketball Gods (wink wink) shine down on you again for the second time in three years.

When you think about it that way, this move makes even more sense. It's very possible for the Spurs to double their Lottery odds, and they don't even have to climb that far up the Lottery Ladder to do it

All they have to do is take the Bulls spot. Pick spots 8-11 are definitely still up in the air, and for the Spurs all it might take is a little more solid of a tank job to go from a 3.0% chance to a 6.0% chance. We've already seen teams win the Lottery with less, so I'm sure they looked at the standings, saw what Fox did last night, then they looked at the Lottery odds and said we have to stop this shit immediately.

I don't think they can catch the Raptors, even though TOR plays hard and is kind of pesky on  any given night. They're about to have their own shut down selections given how much their odds could improve by losing. It's also why we're seeing it with the Sixers and Paul George

because they need to ensure their pick stays top 6 so they don't have to give it to OKC (Al Horford trade), and it wouldn't shock me one bit if we learn that Maxey was next. 

All I'm saying is think of Wemby and how important he is for the next wave of the NBA and how invested they are in him, think of it maybe being either Pop's final year or the official Year 1 without Pop, what better way to fast track a potentially elite OKC/SA matchup for the next decade in the West, just like we saw during the Duncan/KD years than to pair Wemby/Flagg. Now you have my attention.

The Spurs are doing their part and putting themselves in the best position possible to have a repeat of 1997. Whether or not Adam Silver plays along is what we're going to find out.