Will Hardy responds to Jazz tanking allegations with real injury reason for Lauri Markkanen benching

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Will Hardy responds to Jazz tanking allegations with real injury reason for Lauri Markkanen benching

Brett Siegel, ClutchPoints · ClutchPoints

Fri, Feb 13, 2026 ·

3 min read

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Will Hardy responds to Jazz tanking allegations with real injury reason for Lauri Markkanen benching appeared first on ClutchPoints . Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here .

The NBA and Commissioner Adam Silver have sent a clear message to teams over the years regarding the notion of tanking. This time, the league's stern message on Thursday night came in the form hefty fines for the Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz .

While the Pacers were fined $100,000 as a result of violating the Player Participation Policy by resting players who could have participated and reducing their minutes to try and intentionally lose, the Jazz were hit with a $500,000 fine for removing Lauri Markkanen and Jaren Jackson Jr . from a game against the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat on Feb. 7 and Feb. 9, respectively, and benching them for the entirety of the fourth quarter.

These two instances by the Pacers and Jazz were deemed to be "conduct detrimental to the league" that Silver and the league office will not tolerate. However, the Jazz have stood firm on doing nothing wrong, and head coach Will Hardy explained why exactly he has limited Markkanen's minutes in recent games.

"I sat Lauri because he was on a minutes restriction," Hardy said in his postgame remarks following a 135-119 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday night. "If our medical team puts a minutes restriction on Lauri, I'll try to keep Lauri healthy."

Both Markkanen and Jackson Jr. were benched following the third quarter in previous matchups with Orlando and Miami, which prompted the NBA to investigate and eventually fine the organization $500,000 for what fans have described as "blatant tanking" on social media.

Although the Jazz are in no position to contend for the playoffs and have likely held internal discussions about resting Markkanen and others to try and gain an advantage for draft position, Hardy did bring up an interesting point about how Utah's medical team advised him to have Markkanen on a strict minutes restriction due to injury prevention.

The Jazz star has missed 15 games this season due to various injuries, and he was recently on the team's injury report for injury-related rest. He has not eclipsed 27 minutes in any game since the start of February.

As for Jackson, his injury concerns take things one step further.

After being traded by the Memphis Grizzlies to the Jazz before the Feb. 5 trade deadline, Jackson played in three games for Utah. In Jackson's case, he never eclipsed 25 minutes in any of these games, and the team recently announced that an MRI revealed a localized pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) growth in his left knee that he will undergo surgery to remove.

A PVNS growth in the knee is a noncancerous tumor-like growth that causes joint swelling and pain. The Jazz allegedly knew about this knee problem upon making their trade with Memphis and intended on shutting Jackson down for the remainder of the year, according to Tony Jones of The Athletic. Jackson, however, wanted to play in Salt Lake City at least once before undergoing surgery, which is why he was limited in his first three games with the Jazz.

Whether or not one believes the Jazz were actually tanking by resting their star players is open for interpretation. As Jazz owner Ryan Smith pointed out on social media , the Jazz did win their game on the road against Miami after benching Markkanen and Jackson, so it's not like they intentionally lost the game.

The NBA will continue to evaluate all 30 teams when it comes to star players being ruled out, and they will continue to hand out punishment to teams who are suspected of tanking to try and increase their draft lottery odds.

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