Sometime tanking is the right thing to do.

[rickortreat]

Portland won the lottery with a bit of luck.  They get the number 1 pick in the draft. In Phila. where the 12th seeded team got the 12th pick, they're talking with pride about how the team didn't tank its final few games.  Focusing on how unfortunate Boston was in not getting a top pick.

But Portland was only 3 games worse than the Sixers and they won the lottery.  That's right.  The Sixers could have legitimately kept Andre Igoudala out of a couple of them and the Sixers could have wound up with the number one pick in tis years draft.

If the objective is to win championships, then you need the players.  The best way to get good players is through the draft.  Therefore it is smart to manipulate your record to get the best draft pick when you know your team isn't good enough to win a title.

You'd never expect the Spurs to throw games, nor the Suns or the Mavericks.  They are so far from mediocre that they couldn't throw enough games without it being obvious.  But a team like the Sixers, that just isn't good enough anyway, this year would have been a good time for them to just pack it in with 2 weeks to go.

Just 3 fewer wins and they could have had the number 1 pick in the draft instead of number 12.  That's the difference between a perennial all-star and a journeyman player most years.

[msc]

I can understand tanking from a purely analytical point of view, but I am 100% opposed to tanking as it is a complete insult to the game of basketball and sportsmanship in general.  In my mind, it's unethical. 

[Lurker]

What is the difference between the Mavs resting their stars and developing youth and the Celtics resting their stars and developing youth? 





About 35 wins prior to the last 2 weeks of the season.

[Reality]

I can understand tanking from a purely analytical point of view, but I am 100% opposed to tanking as it is a complete insult to the game of basketball and sportsmanship in general.  In my mind, it's unethical. 

It also jacks up the seedings.  If Tankee Team is playing Jostling for Seeding Team, it throws off the seeds.
That having been said, if I'm Philly in the current system, tank.

[Reality]

What is the difference between the Mavs resting their stars and developing youth and the Celtics resting their stars and developing youth? 
About 35 wins prior to the last 2 weeks of the season. 

Or losing to Golden State 4-2 as opposed to rolling the Clippers.

[rickortreat]

I can understand tanking from a purely analytical point of view, but I am 100% opposed to tanking as it is a complete insult to the game of basketball and sportsmanship in general.  In my mind, it's unethical. 

You are correct, it IS unethical.  But I would point out that 99% of all people in all walks of life are unethical in some form or another.  This doesn't justify this behavior, but it does point out that ethics never stop people from trying to get what they want, whether it is love, money or power.

Sports are a reflection of societies values.  We love winning more than anything.   It gets to the point where teams that bend the rules do it to gain an advantage.  If the league doesn't want that type of behavior, it should set up it's rules so they don't encourage it.

[Reality]

Who has a better plan?

[Skandery]

All the people in Memphis and Boston (and apparently Philly) whining their heads off notwithstanding, I stand by the system in place.  If its true that teams like Milwaukee and Boston were actively tanking their season's as has been widely rumored and reported than they deserved to be stiffed like they were.  I like the fact that cold hard wins/losses isn't the only thing looked at in determining draft order.  I assure you if it was any different the tanking would have been more rampant than what people think teams were doing this past year.  I'm also glad that the unpredictability of the draft process showed very starkly on a year like this, for the same exact draft class that is headlined by two franchise makers.  This should be a very loud and clear message to any team out there thinking about tanking their season to increase their draft fortunes--DON'T DO IT, you're not assured of anything.  I don't think this could have happened in a better year.  I'm with msc, there should be no tanking in basketball, ever!


Also Rick, let's say Philly does tank four of their games and ends up in Portland's slot and has just as many ping-pong balls as Portland had.  It is STILL not certain their ping pong ball pops up to give them the #1 pick.  Just because they'd have the same number of ping pong balls that Portland did when they drew the #1 pick doesn't guarantee anything.  If Philly was meant to get the #1 pick, their ping pong ball would popped up no matter how many balls they had in there.   

[Reality]

All the people in Memphis and Boston (and apparently Philly) whining their heads off notwithstanding, I stand by the system in place. 

Portland tanked too.  From what i saw.

[rickortreat]

All the people in Memphis and Boston (and apparently Philly) whining their heads off notwithstanding, I stand by the system in place.  If its true that teams like Milwaukee and Boston were actively tanking their season's as has been widely rumored and reported than they deserved to be stiffed like they were.  I like the fact that cold hard wins/losses isn't the only thing looked at in determining draft order.  I assure you if it was any different the tanking would have been more rampant than what people think teams were doing this past year.  I'm also glad that the unpredictability of the draft process showed very starkly on a year like this, for the same exact draft class that is headlined by two franchise makers.  This should be a very loud and clear message to any team out there thinking about tanking their season to increase their draft fortunes--DON'T DO IT, you're not assured of anything.  I don't think this could have happened in a better year.  I'm with msc, there should be no tanking in basketball, ever!


Also Rick, let's say Philly does tank four of their games and ends up in Portland's slot and has just as many ping-pong balls as Portland had.  It is STILL not certain their ping pong ball pops up to give them the #1 pick.  Just because they'd have the same number of ping pong balls that Portland did when they drew the #1 pick doesn't guarantee anything.  If Philly was meant to get the #1 pick, their ping pong ball would popped up no matter how many balls they had in there.   

No question Skandery, there's no guarantee that Philly would have been rewarded for throwing 4 games last season.  It just shows what can happen under the current system.  I would argue that teams in Philly's postion have more to gain by tanking at the end of the year to increase the number of balls they have in the bowl.

Since only 3 times has the team with the worst record gotten the number 1 pick. There is no advantage in having the worst record, but if your team is in the middle or at the bottom anyway, your options are to be first-round fodder for a superior opponent, or miss the playoffs and get a lottery pick.

It isn't common for teams to be in that spot, and no team should try to get there if they can do better, but for a team like the Sixers who were on the bubble for making or missing the playoffs, the current system rewards them tanking, and that a team with only 3 more losses got the number one pick points that out.

In all honesty, I think that at the end of the season the Sixers were the only team on the bottom fighting.  That means the other teams tanked their games to get in front of them. IMO, they were the smart ones, and Portland got rewarded.