Logic of Tanking

the draft is deep at the top even if you don’t get Wiggins or Parker odds are you’ll still get a franchise changing talent.

the draft is deep at the top even if you don’t get Wiggins or Parker odds are you’ll still get a franchise changing talent.

Stud number one picks get teams to the Finals. Shaq went to the Finals six times. Duncan has been five times. LeBron has already
been four times. Tanking for superstars works.

Stud number one picks get teams to the Finals. Shaq went to the Finals six times. Duncan has been five times. LeBron has already
been four times. Tanking for superstars works.

Never tank, barely ever works. Always want to preach winning and playing hard.

Never tank, barely ever works. Always want to preach winning and playing hard.

I don’t think tanking works per say but sometimes teams have to bottom out or they never really get better. For example the 76ers have stayed afloat since trading AI in the range of barely missing the playoffs to the 7th seed. Most of their draft picks have been 10 or later which for most teams gets them a good player, but not a game changer. The one time they got an earlier pick they drafted the inconsistent Evan Turner. They’ve had some luck drafting Jrue Holiday and Nikolai Vucevic, but now they’ve traded them both. I don’t love the Holiday trade, but keeping him barring injury insured either barely missing or making the playoffs season. Bottoming out this season has the potential to get them the best player they’ve had since AI in the draft.

With all that said there are some teams who draft brilliantly regardless of where they’re drafting like the Spurs, but even they had the luck that when David Robinson was out for the year they won the lottery and got Tim Duncan.

I don’t think tanking works per say but sometimes teams have to bottom out or they never really get better. For example the 76ers have stayed afloat since trading AI in the range of barely missing the playoffs to the 7th seed. Most of their draft picks have been 10 or later which for most teams gets them a good player, but not a game changer. The one time they got an earlier pick they drafted the inconsistent Evan Turner. They’ve had some luck drafting Jrue Holiday and Nikolai Vucevic, but now they’ve traded them both. I don’t love the Holiday trade, but keeping him barring injury insured either barely missing or making the playoffs season. Bottoming out this season has the potential to get them the best player they’ve had since AI in the draft.

With all that said there are some teams who draft brilliantly regardless of where they’re drafting like the Spurs, but even they had the luck that when David Robinson was out for the year they won the lottery and got Tim Duncan.

It’s all how you see it. You call it tanking, I’d rather call it rebuilding. Players themselves aren’t throwing away games but some rosters will be set up for failure because it’s part of a larger strategy to rebuild. You do not ever want to be stuck as a middle of the road team in the NBA. It’s all about championships.

If I’m the Sixers fans I’m ecstatic right now. They are set up for failure.Their GM pulled off a genius move that sets them up nicely for the future, with young high potential players and draft picks. On top of that they will be bad for a few years and have a few shots at getting a game changer. Sure there is no guarantee they will come away with Wiggins but they have a great, great chance at a top three pick and probably 4 at the lowest. They will lose a lot of ballgames next year and there are at the very least 3 guys that most knowledgeable scouts consider franchise changing players in Randle, Wiggins, and Parker.

Again their team isn’t tanking but they are set up for failure, they are being gutted with the hopes of finding a piece to build their franchise around. Holiday is a really solid PG but he is not an NBA superstar. Philly is looking for that superstar and their GM has enough foresight to see the odds are very high of finding a superstar in the top of next year’s draft. Celtics fans have reason to smile too. I know it’s hard letting go of veterans that meant so much to your franchise but you need a GM to make hard decisions like a complete rebuild. My Pistons slowly faded piece by piece instead of gutting it all and rebuilding from a solid foundation. They even tried to add high priced free agents to an aging roster to try and hold on to that winning reputation. It was poor decision-making. Sometimes winning at all costs every year is not the smartest move available. This is why the Pistons have been rebuilding much slower than was needed.

It’s all how you see it. You call it tanking, I’d rather call it rebuilding. Players themselves aren’t throwing away games but some rosters will be set up for failure because it’s part of a larger strategy to rebuild. You do not ever want to be stuck as a middle of the road team in the NBA. It’s all about championships.

If I’m the Sixers fans I’m ecstatic right now. They are set up for failure.Their GM pulled off a genius move that sets them up nicely for the future, with young high potential players and draft picks. On top of that they will be bad for a few years and have a few shots at getting a game changer. Sure there is no guarantee they will come away with Wiggins but they have a great, great chance at a top three pick and probably 4 at the lowest. They will lose a lot of ballgames next year and there are at the very least 3 guys that most knowledgeable scouts consider franchise changing players in Randle, Wiggins, and Parker.

Again their team isn’t tanking but they are set up for failure, they are being gutted with the hopes of finding a piece to build their franchise around. Holiday is a really solid PG but he is not an NBA superstar. Philly is looking for that superstar and their GM has enough foresight to see the odds are very high of finding a superstar in the top of next year’s draft. Celtics fans have reason to smile too. I know it’s hard letting go of veterans that meant so much to your franchise but you need a GM to make hard decisions like a complete rebuild. My Pistons slowly faded piece by piece instead of gutting it all and rebuilding from a solid foundation. They even tried to add high priced free agents to an aging roster to try and hold on to that winning reputation. It was poor decision-making. Sometimes winning at all costs every year is not the smartest move available. This is why the Pistons have been rebuilding much slower than was needed.

You need superstars if you really want to win in the NBA. I am fine allowing my team to have a down year if it means we have a good shot at a superstar. Obviously it can back fire, but it still puts you in the best chance to get great. If I can let my young guys gain a ton of experience and then land another top pick instead of trying to be a .500 team then I would much rather be a bad for for 2-3-4 years and try to become great.

You need superstars if you really want to win in the NBA. I am fine allowing my team to have a down year if it means we have a good shot at a superstar. Obviously it can back fire, but it still puts you in the best chance to get great. If I can let my young guys gain a ton of experience and then land another top pick instead of trying to be a .500 team then I would much rather be a bad for for 2-3-4 years and try to become great.

I don’t really see a lot of teams tanking,I mean let’s look at the lottery team this year
May be the Sixers? but they have lost the Bynum trade badly ,losing many of their young good players to the Magic and their best veteran to Denver,with Bynum 100% leaving and Turner proved he might be good player but he isn’t a franchise player as he was thought to be coming to the league,I think a total rebuilding was the right decision ,cash on Jrue right now might be early but the deal was worth the risk
Who else? Cleveland made it clear they are trying to get better and wants to play off team ,specially if they think Lebron back home is possibilty next summer(I think it is),Bobcats suck but that is a bad management rather than tanking ,Magic are in the early stage or their rebuilding ,it is normal that they will have a bad record ,Hornets are trying to go on a win now mode with that trade ,a core of Jrue/Gordon/Davis with cap space and Vasquez ain’t bad ,with more proper move they could actually be in the play off next year if healthy
Pistons has never finished in the league worst 6 teams ,they acquired Calderon and seems determined to keep him after passing on Burke ,will have some cap space ,expect them to try be back to play offs again
Wolves doesn’t even have the option to tank with Love pushing them to win or let him go ,new GM is there to ensure that
Same with the Wizards ,Wall is proving how good he is ,team will ry to improve ,health is key to their success and again tanking is no more an option
Mavs and Jazz will never tank ,we know that .as for Raptors I think with their payroll they would try to win ,they had the best record among the lottery teams in the East ,Not sure about the kings ,need to see what they are gonna do this off season
So ,the only teams who are setting up a roster detained for failure (aka tanking) are Bobcats,Magic & Suns ,More teams will do the same and go for their young player once 20-30 games are played and they found their team is going nowhere

One last thing,they aren’t just planning to get Wiggins ,they are planning to get the highest possible pick , higher picks specially in a projected deep draft is an additional asset byy itself
And the draft has some serious studs in the top 10,a franchise changing players ,Mario Hezonja might be the best international talent to enter the draft since Rubio,Saric is hugely underrated and he is starting to prove it ,Julius Randle is a huge talent too , Andrew Harrison,Smart etc too

I don’t really see a lot of teams tanking,I mean let’s look at the lottery team this year
May be the Sixers? but they have lost the Bynum trade badly ,losing many of their young good players to the Magic and their best veteran to Denver,with Bynum 100% leaving and Turner proved he might be good player but he isn’t a franchise player as he was thought to be coming to the league,I think a total rebuilding was the right decision ,cash on Jrue right now might be early but the deal was worth the risk
Who else? Cleveland made it clear they are trying to get better and wants to play off team ,specially if they think Lebron back home is possibilty next summer(I think it is),Bobcats suck but that is a bad management rather than tanking ,Magic are in the early stage or their rebuilding ,it is normal that they will have a bad record ,Hornets are trying to go on a win now mode with that trade ,a core of Jrue/Gordon/Davis with cap space and Vasquez ain’t bad ,with more proper move they could actually be in the play off next year if healthy
Pistons has never finished in the league worst 6 teams ,they acquired Calderon and seems determined to keep him after passing on Burke ,will have some cap space ,expect them to try be back to play offs again
Wolves doesn’t even have the option to tank with Love pushing them to win or let him go ,new GM is there to ensure that
Same with the Wizards ,Wall is proving how good he is ,team will ry to improve ,health is key to their success and again tanking is no more an option
Mavs and Jazz will never tank ,we know that .as for Raptors I think with their payroll they would try to win ,they had the best record among the lottery teams in the East ,Not sure about the kings ,need to see what they are gonna do this off season
So ,the only teams who are setting up a roster detained for failure (aka tanking) are Bobcats,Magic & Suns ,More teams will do the same and go for their young player once 20-30 games are played and they found their team is going nowhere

One last thing,they aren’t just planning to get Wiggins ,they are planning to get the highest possible pick , higher picks specially in a projected deep draft is an additional asset byy itself
And the draft has some serious studs in the top 10,a franchise changing players ,Mario Hezonja might be the best international talent to enter the draft since Rubio,Saric is hugely underrated and he is starting to prove it ,Julius Randle is a huge talent too , Andrew Harrison,Smart etc too

Teams can try to tank but the funny thing can be if you have several teams doing it then they have to play each other and so someone has to win the games. Also injuries to a key player can cause a stronger team to struggle, remember when David Robinson missed all bar 4 games of 1996-97 and the Spurs landed Tim Duncan in the 1997 draft. Great player as David Robinson was I bet no Spurs fan ever regrets him missing nearly all that season.

Also with cannot miss prospects like Wiggins, there is always the unfortunate chance that something similar to what happened to the last cannot miss prospect Greg Oden. I hope it doesn’t but it is always a chance.

Teams can try to tank but the funny thing can be if you have several teams doing it then they have to play each other and so someone has to win the games. Also injuries to a key player can cause a stronger team to struggle, remember when David Robinson missed all bar 4 games of 1996-97 and the Spurs landed Tim Duncan in the 1997 draft. Great player as David Robinson was I bet no Spurs fan ever regrets him missing nearly all that season.

Also with cannot miss prospects like Wiggins, there is always the unfortunate chance that something similar to what happened to the last cannot miss prospect Greg Oden. I hope it doesn’t but it is always a chance.

Before they ever played a college game, I remember Nerlens Noel and Shabazz Muhammad were going to be franchise changers, Andre Drummond and Anthony Davis were going to be franchise changes (and Davis had point guard skills to boot), Harrison Barnes was everything that is now said of Andrew Wiggins, and all that was great about Derrick Favors and Renardo Sidney. Let the freshmen play out the season.

If a team makes bad decisions and lucks into a great player, they aren’t magically going to get smarter. Cleveland got Kyrie Irving, and are still in the toilet because they make dumb decisions in how they are building their team around him. Philadelphia might get lucky and get the chance to draft a franchise changing player, but is there any guarantee that they can get a center as good as Bynum or Vucevic or a point guard as good as Holiday? No. In 2005, Boston concluded a season not all that different from this past one. They were a 45 win team. Gone were Antoine Walker and Gary Payton. Ricky Davis and Raef LaFrentz were soon to follow. The next two years were a bottoming out, and when the 2007 came to play out they missed on Oden and Durant. They changed course, were lucky enough to find a friendly deal with Kevin McHale, and competed for titles from 2008-12 behind Garnett, Allen, and Pierce. It saved Danny Ainge’s job, and now he wants a second chance at rebuilding Boston using the same 2005 formula. Charlotte made the decision a few years ago to be bad when they dealt Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson, but what do they have to show for it after being truly awful since that time?

Being a well-run organization is what matters. Look at the Spurs. If you discount McGrady, they had one lottery pick on their roster.

Tim Duncan- 1st overall
Tony Parker- 28
Kawhi Leonard- 15
Manu Ginobili- 57
DeJuan Blair- 37
Danny Green- 46
Tiago Splitter- 28
Gary Neal- Undrafted
Aron Baynes- Undrafted
Matt Bonner- 45
Boris Diaw- 21
Cory Joseph- 29
Nando De Colo- 53
Patrick Mills- 55
Tracy McGrady- 9

Tony Parker is a star. Manu was a star. Tiago Splitter seems poised to get paid like someone with star potential. Marc Gasol was the 48th pick and Zach Randolph was the 19th. Memphis beat the team that repeatedly tanked in the Western Conference semis. Indiana took Miami to Game 7. Paul George was the 10th pick in a bad draft. Granger and Hibbert went 17th, David West 18th, George Hill 26th, and Lance Stephenson 40th.

Seasons get lost, guys get hurt, and sometimes it makes sense to just play out the string. I do not fault Miami in 2008 for pushing Wade to rest injuries in a lost year. History has showed that the move to accumulate picks to ultimately draft Michael Beasley did not ultimately mean much, but it made sense given the alternative. Game planning to be bad, however, allows for missed opportunities to find talent and allows for the failures within the organization to be overlooked.

Before they ever played a college game, I remember Nerlens Noel and Shabazz Muhammad were going to be franchise changers, Andre Drummond and Anthony Davis were going to be franchise changes (and Davis had point guard skills to boot), Harrison Barnes was everything that is now said of Andrew Wiggins, and all that was great about Derrick Favors and Renardo Sidney. Let the freshmen play out the season.

If a team makes bad decisions and lucks into a great player, they aren’t magically going to get smarter. Cleveland got Kyrie Irving, and are still in the toilet because they make dumb decisions in how they are building their team around him. Philadelphia might get lucky and get the chance to draft a franchise changing player, but is there any guarantee that they can get a center as good as Bynum or Vucevic or a point guard as good as Holiday? No. In 2005, Boston concluded a season not all that different from this past one. They were a 45 win team. Gone were Antoine Walker and Gary Payton. Ricky Davis and Raef LaFrentz were soon to follow. The next two years were a bottoming out, and when the 2007 came to play out they missed on Oden and Durant. They changed course, were lucky enough to find a friendly deal with Kevin McHale, and competed for titles from 2008-12 behind Garnett, Allen, and Pierce. It saved Danny Ainge’s job, and now he wants a second chance at rebuilding Boston using the same 2005 formula. Charlotte made the decision a few years ago to be bad when they dealt Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson, but what do they have to show for it after being truly awful since that time?

Being a well-run organization is what matters. Look at the Spurs. If you discount McGrady, they had one lottery pick on their roster.

Tim Duncan- 1st overall
Tony Parker- 28
Kawhi Leonard- 15
Manu Ginobili- 57
DeJuan Blair- 37
Danny Green- 46
Tiago Splitter- 28
Gary Neal- Undrafted
Aron Baynes- Undrafted
Matt Bonner- 45
Boris Diaw- 21
Cory Joseph- 29
Nando De Colo- 53
Patrick Mills- 55
Tracy McGrady- 9

Tony Parker is a star. Manu was a star. Tiago Splitter seems poised to get paid like someone with star potential. Marc Gasol was the 48th pick and Zach Randolph was the 19th. Memphis beat the team that repeatedly tanked in the Western Conference semis. Indiana took Miami to Game 7. Paul George was the 10th pick in a bad draft. Granger and Hibbert went 17th, David West 18th, George Hill 26th, and Lance Stephenson 40th.

Seasons get lost, guys get hurt, and sometimes it makes sense to just play out the string. I do not fault Miami in 2008 for pushing Wade to rest injuries in a lost year. History has showed that the move to accumulate picks to ultimately draft Michael Beasley did not ultimately mean much, but it made sense given the alternative. Game planning to be bad, however, allows for missed opportunities to find talent and allows for the failures within the organization to be overlooked.

Want to get rid of tanking? One solution: unprotected draft picks. Might be a little extreme, but it makes for more fair trades (especially first round picks in the future versus now) when superstars get shipped and makes teams think twice about sitting out stars for struggling teams in April.

Like some have already said though, putting a great team together doesn’t come from a roster composed of top 5 picks. Getting quality players from the 10-30, even 60 range turns a 40-win team into a title contender.

But…with THAT said…landing a prize like Anthony Davis in a draft makes everyone look good, including a GM’s job.

Want to get rid of tanking? One solution: unprotected draft picks. Might be a little extreme, but it makes for more fair trades (especially first round picks in the future versus now) when superstars get shipped and makes teams think twice about sitting out stars for struggling teams in April.

Like some have already said though, putting a great team together doesn’t come from a roster composed of top 5 picks. Getting quality players from the 10-30, even 60 range turns a 40-win team into a title contender.

But…with THAT said…landing a prize like Anthony Davis in a draft makes everyone look good, including a GM’s job.