Carrington, Wizards Not Expected To Face NBA Discipline For Tanking Remarks

Although he didn’t technically use the term “tanking,” Wizards guard Bub Carrington made it clear in an interview with WUSA-TV in Washington ( YouTube link) that the organization wasn’t exactly going all out to win games last season. Speaking to Marshall Kramsky, Carrington said the Wizards have a “very talented” group but haven’t been told to “go be the best version of yourself” until now.

“We’ve all, in a way, been held back just because, like you said, we were trying to get (No. 1 overall pick) AJ Dybantsa,” Carrington said. “That’s no secret. That’s no secret.

“But now no one has handcuffs. Everyone’s shackles-free. So that alone is already a conversation starter. But then you put that on top of the coaching, on top of the vets that we have. That’s a playoff team, and that’s gonna happen. … Then, when it does happen, it’ll happen for a long time. Whenever we get there, whether that’s this year, next year, or the year after, we’re going to stay there.”

Carrington’s comments came on the heels of Trae Young discussing the same topic during an appearance on Michael Porter Jr.’s Curious Mike podcast. Young said he knew he wasn’t going to be in a “winning situation” after being traded from Atlanta to Washington last season, prompting Porter to point out that his Nets and Young’s Wizards were “both trying to get that No. 1 pick.” Young agreed with a laugh (Twitter video link).

As Carrington rightly pointed out, it’s certainly not news that the Wizards weren’t pushing hard for wins down the stretch last season. Young and Anthony Davis had various health issues managed extremely carefully, with Young making just five appearances as a Wizard after being acquired in January and Davis not playing at all after being traded from Dallas to D.C. in February.

Washington also leaned heavily on two-way players, 10-day signees, and other non-starters during the second half. From the February 5 trade deadline through the end of the regular season, two-way players Julian Reese and Leaky Black, rookie Will Riley, and veteran reserve Anthony Gill were the team’s top four players in minutes per game.

The NBA has typically tolerated those sorts of lineup decisions as long as teams aren’t going out of their way to flout the league’s anti-tanking rules. But the league office has historically frowned upon players, coaches, or executives saying the quiet part out loud. Most memorably, Mark Cuban – who was still the Mavericks’ majority owner at the time – was fined $600K in 2018 after publicly admitting he told his players that “losing is our best option.”

In this case, the NBA is not expected to penalize the Wizards or Carrington, a source tells Josh Robbins and Sam Amick of The Athletic. While league officials probably weren’t thrilled to hear the third-year guard discuss the matter openly, a player suggesting a team wasn’t optimizing its lineup decisions is less problematic for the NBA than a team owner expounding the benefits of losing games.

The league has revamped its draft lottery format ahead of the 2026/27 season in an effort to crack down on tanking.