The NBA has a problem with tanking. Some organizations who are out of the playoff picture purposely send out an inferior lineup so that they can lose. Each loss improves a team's chances of securing the top pick in the NBA draft.
The players do not try to lose, but the organizations employ subtle tanking techniques. Coaches may decide to rest a starter who has a minor injury or teams may acquire players from the D- League that they can develop and give playing time to. Organizations may trade good players in exchange for players with expiring contracts so that they can have more cap room for the following season. In an odd twist of fate, organizations actually purposely try and get worse.
Tanking cheats the fans who want to see a good and competitive game. However, on the plus side tanking may help a team get better in the future if they can acquire a higher draft pick. Fans can tell themselves that losing is worth it in the end.
NBA teams want to be really good or really bad. The worst place to be is in the middle. If a team is really good, it can contend for a championship. If a team is really bad, it can contend for a high draft pick. If a team is in the middle, it is stuck in mediocrity. A high draft pick gives a team hope that it can one day contend for a title. So, the temptation to tank is understandable. It's an attempt to build for the future, which sports teams all have to do.
The Philadelphia 76ers have just completed a 4-5 year process that many saw as tanking. Sam Hinkie was hired as the team's general manager in 2013. He told the team's ownership that the 76ers were a long way from winning. He believed that the 76ers should rebuild through the draft. Hinkie opted for a long range plan instead of a short range one. He was willing to sacrifice winning a moderate amount in the short term so that the team could be a championship contender in the long term.
Dan Kopf, writing for Quartz Media, says "Hinkie traded the team's best players and made no attempts to acquire players that would make it better." From 2013 to 2016, the 76ers were the worst team in the NBA. It was obvious or everyone that the team was trying to rebuild for the future. The other owners of the NBA were concerned about this approach and they put pressure on the team's ownership to change course. In response, the 76ers' ownership demoted Hinkie to an assistant and hired another general manager. Eventually, Hinkie resigned.
The 76ers' decision to tank produced four high draft picks. Joel Embid and Jahlil Okafor were taken third overall in two different drafts. Ben Simmons and Markell Fultz were chosen first overall in two separate drafts. Simmons and Embid have become two of the best players in the NBA. Okafor did not work out and is now with the Brooklyn Nets. Fultz was injured his entire rookie season, however some NBA observers believe he can be a good point guard.
Currently the 76ers are one of the best teams in the NBA's Eastern Conference. So, Hinkie's plan helped the 76ers become a better team.
Many have given a simple solution to the problem of tanking: Instead of rewarding the team with the worst record with the greatest chance of getting the top pick, give the top pick to the non playoff team with the best record. This format would create an incentive for teams to do their best. A team could try to make the playoffs, but if they did not make the playoffs, then at least they could earn the best pick or another high pick.
Or, all 32 teams could have an equal chance of getting the top pick. The current draft lottery rewards failure and penalizes success. However, if all 32 teams had an equal chance of receiving the top pick, then good teams would not be penalized with a lower pick. Also, this would reduce the temptation to tank.
A general manager needs a long range plan for rebuilding a team. It's understandable that some teams would sacrifice the present in order to be better in the future. However, it cannot be done at the expense of fair play. Teams have an obligation to send out their best lineups and to acquire the best players available for their team. Teams need a long range plan that does not include tanking.
Tom Ziller, of SBNation, makes a distinction between institutional tanking and situational tanking. Ziller says "What we have is a mix of situational tanking (what Memphis, Dallas, and Orlando are doing after falling flat on their faces early this season) and institutional tanking (what Sacramento, Phoneix, Atlanta, and Chicago came into this season doing). Add in the perennially leveled Nets and you have a nasty brew of losing." So, some teams ended up tanking because they did worse than they thought they would do. Whereas other teams knew they would struggle before they entered the season.
The large number of poor teams in the NBA this season is unprecedented. The league has never seen so many teams that have had poor seasons. Ziller says "We currently have eight teams on pace to win fewer than 30 games. That has never happened in an 82 game - NBA season." These teams are all trying to rebuild for the future, while trying to be somewhat respectable now. However, all of these teams know that the only way to truly rebuild is through the draft. Therefore, the more games that a team loses, the better chance that a team has of securing a top pick.
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was recently fined $600,000 for publically suggesting that the Mavericks were tanking. The league responded by fining him and issuing a memo explaining the reason for the fine.
In the memo, NBA commissioner Adam Silver made a distinction between rebuilding a team and trying to lose on purpose. Silver emphasized that the rebuilding process is "legitimate", but that tanking "has no place in our game." Furthermore, Silver warned the teams that the league would take action against organizations that tanked. Silver said that the league "will continue to monitor closely the play of all teams during the remainder of the season." It will be interesting to see what effect Silver's memo has on the league.
Silver's memo left no doubt about the league's opposition to tanking. Now, the responsibility is on the different organizations to field the best team possible and to implement a rebuilding plan that does not involve tanking.
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