Teams trying to lose games throughout the season has become a serious issue for the NBA. Many teams who feel as if their players do not have nearly enough talent to make a playoff run may think that losing the majority of their games to get a good draft pick is the best option. The general managers or coaches of the teams might use a starting lineup that is made up of their less talented players to do this. This year, the 76ers have appeared to be using this strategy, as they have started with eleven losses in a row. Many felt that the Celtics last year used this technique, which resulted in them obtaining Marcus Smart with the sixth pick. Whether or not tanking is a good strategy is up for debate.
Teams who finish as one of the bottom twelve teams in the league have a chance to get the first overall pick. Many players who are drafted in the early picks of the draft turn out to be superstars, for example, Lebron James, Dwight Howard, and Blake Griffin were all picked first overall in their drafts, and they all now lead their respective teams to the playoffs consistently. Others, such as Kwame Brown, Greg Oden, and Anthony Bennett, who were all also the first picks in their draft, turned out to be not as great. This proves that tanking does not guarantee a superstar, as it might just land you someone like Kwame Brown for the next decade. This being said, it appears that many teams still try to throw their season, and this could be because their are a lot of talented players that enter the NBA draft from year to year. Several college players thrive in the environment of college basketball, yet they fail to find the same success in the NBA. For example, Greg Oden dominated his freshman year at Ohio St. and went first to the Portland Trail Blazers. He has so far spent most of his career on crutches or in a wheelchair, and several injuries to his knees have derailed his potential. Clearly, tanking to draft a highly anticipated college kid is risky.
In recent memory, teams such as the 76ers, Cavaliers, Bobcats, Celtics, Lakers, and the Magic have been accused of tanking, among others. Some of these teams may not have intended to do bad, but they may have just had costly injuries, a tough schedule, or a terrible roster. Yet it is almost certain that some if not all of these teams could have done more recently to get wins. Teams have tanked in different ways, whether or not the players were told to not give all of their effort, or if the coaches gave the twelfth man on the roster a little too much playing time. Many of these teams see tanking as the only option, as they have trouble signing free agents in the off-season. Teams such as the Utah Jazz, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Sacramento King's do not have the same luxury of being in a desirable location like the Los Angelo's Lakers or the Miami Heat have. Therefore, they have a hard time attracting superstars to their team. Because of teams tanking their season, the NBA has received a lot of criticism about the draft process, and how teams should not be able to get a high draft pick by losing their games purposefully. The NBA, however, really has no way to prevent teams from doing this, and the draft process that they use now is the most reasonable. The reality is that teams could be tanking for the remainder of the existence of the NBA.
