Tanking

Hey just wanted to see people's stance on this. I am a fan of the Milwaukee Bucks (don't feel sorry for me). This is as excited as I have been about the franchise since the days of Ray Allen, Sam Cassell and Big Dog. Why? Because they are doing the only thing you can to become good in the NBA as a small market team. Tanking and getting a franchise player. When the Bucks get a top-3 pick and select from Wiggins/Randle/Parker to go with the Greek Freak/Henson/Sanders. Giannis is getting experience that will help (all the young guys are). The team is not far off from being good. But even though it is in the best interest of the franchise what is your guys' feelings on tanking?

 

The way the league is set up, it encourages tanking. A team like the Bucks, why not? I don't think they're tanking though, they just suck.

 

Jesus H. Christ.

 

This. Nice thing is that they have some competitive nights and then they lose in overtime. And now that Antetokounmpo is starting, you're guaranteed a couple of highlights ever game.

 

Did anyone see the NBA's proposal to eliminate the lottery? Basically, how you finish would no longer have any determination as to where you pick.

It seemed to be to be one of the worst ideas I've ever heard. I think Grantland had it over the holidays.

 

Might point out that one of this year's title favorites, the Pacers, would seem to disprove this belief. Indiana built this roster from a position of mediocrity without ever having a draft pick higher than 10th.

That's why it might be a nice "anti-tanking" statement if the Pacers won the title this year. There was a period when they were annually finishing around that 8th playoff spot middle ground "stuck" position when people were saying Bird should essentially go the tanking route by gutting the roster, allow the team to crash to the bottom, and then rebuild with better draft picks. He didn't. They're now contenders anyways.

A small market team winning the title without any top end lottery picks on its roster would certainly defy conventional wisdom about what's possible in the NBA.

 

You don't have to tank. I'm a lifelong Sacramento Kings fan and all those years of top 10 picks didn't do them much good. The only ti trme they were good was as a result of a couple great trades (an aging Richmond for Webber and Jason Williams for Mike Bibby) a good free agent signing (Divac) and a couple of decent picks (Stojakovic, Turkoglu) who were first-rounders, but not top 10 picks.

If you're a small market team, a great GM and a good coach are most important.

 

Tanking is fine as long as no one in the organization pretends to have any pride.

 

I think the NBA is the only sport where this is an issue. It's also the only sport where if you get the right player you can go from worst team in the league to an elite team with one top player. Granted, there are not players like that every year. You can get the No. 1 pick when the best player is LeBron or O'Neal or Ewing, Robinson or Duncan or when it's Bogut, Ellison, Kwame Brown, Olowokandi or Greg Oden.

 

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/86940/the-nbas-possible-solution-for-tanking-good-bye-to-the-lottery-hello-to-the-wheel

That's the story you're referring to.

What an awful idea. I'm sure teams winning the title and drafting No. 1 would really enhance the NBA.

 

You realize New York and Brooklyn are also "tanking" as well right?

 

The answer is simply to go back to a straight lottery system with each lottery team having equal odds.

That was the system they used in the lottery's early years and it worked pretty damn well. It still guaranteed that the losing teams got the best picks, but at the same time it removed the incentive for a bad team to want the bottom rung pole position.

Problem is Orlando got lucky and won two years in a row in 92 and 93, causing other lottery teams to whine and cry, causing the NBA to change to a "weighted odds" system that brought back the incentive to tank. And, since then, the League has only increased the weighted odds, thus increasing the reward for tanking.

Instead of appeasing the post-Orlando whiners, Stern should've simply said "tough shit, that's how it's supposed to work, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. May not always be fair, but it still beats the days of tanking."