NBA – Tanking, or lose more to earn more, the embarrassing phenomenon and poison of the NBA

Some will swear that the defense wins titles, others will say that the attack is even more important. The best teams, those who go the furthest in playoffs, actually shine on both sides of the field. But the first ingredient to reach the NBA summits, it remains the superstar. More than fifty years of basketball at the highest American level reminds us. Because, with the exception of a very small handful of teams, all those who finished with the trophy could count on at least one of the five best players in the world.

If finishing sacred is the primary objective (in theory) of all franchises, then their main mission is first to get their hands on this extraordinary individuality which will sublimate everything else. By definition, the athletes of this caliber, those who change the fate of an organization, are rare. Today there are three methods to recover an elite alpha: the draft, the free agency and the transfer market.

But it is much more complicated in fact. Superstars no longer await the expiration of their contract to extricate a situation that they no longer consider their advantage. But even when it was still the case, a majority of clubs have never really found themselves able to sign the biggest fish. There are teams with much larger attraction, sometimes (often) for reasons that have nothing to do with sport. The Los Angeles Lakers have constantly been perceived as a providential destination for the best free agents. And that's not just because it's a mythical franchise. The Boston Celtics, for example, although titled 17 times, almost never found the stars of this league by offering them a contract during the offseason.

Logic is the same regarding the trades. When a top-player claims his departure a year or two from the end of his lease, he is almost in a position of strength since he can always wave the threat of a refusal to resign with the frankness that will bleed to obtain it. They do not always get the case but often require a list of potential fall points. To conclude with this long preamble: the draft remains the most accessible way for a majority of teams to find the rare pearl around which to build their project. Except that it becomes problematic.

We are just less than two weeks old at the end of the regular season and there are almost a third of the deductibles that clearly no longer have a win in each match … And that for at least a month, even two (and more)! At least seven of them are already eliminated from the race for playoffs or play-in, sometimes for a while. The season is no longer really of interest, except to finish as low as possible in order to increase the chances of drawing high at the next draft. A practice commonly called “tanking.”

When we talk about “Tanking”, you have to understand that it is obviously not the players who expressly miss baskets or lose. Their careers are individual, they always have an interest in showing themselves in their best face every time they walk an NBA parquet. It is not really the coaches either, even if it happens that they are accomplices. In reality, it starts above all from above, namely management, which fixes the guidelines.

“Tanking”, these are teams who start to align only inexperienced young people on the ground, under the pretext of wanting to develop prospects that have sometimes been drafted at the end of the second round and suddenly play more than 30 minutes per game. These are veterans put to rest or downright put in the fridge following an injury. Like when the San Antonio Spurs finally decide that De'Aron Fox must have the finger operating now and not this summer.

It gives us today an infernal struggle towards the bottom of the classification with workforce worthy of the G-League which find themselves bombed at the front every evening of match. A race for mediocrity that almost eclips the last few games with challenges supposed to determine the classification, especially in the west.

“Tanking” is not new and the NBA has already attacked the problem. She also assures that her rules work. It distributes in particular fines to franchises which deprive themselves of their best elements without valid medical reasons. The Utah Jazz (16 victories in 76 games), for example, had to pay $ 100,000 for spending Lauri Markkanen several times. A sum that seems derisory in view of what the jackpot can bring in the draft. Especially since “front offices” have found the parade. Raptors and Wizards, two training courses that hope to renew their project, for example recently released all their executives from the field in the fourth quarter, when the outcome of the meeting could be decided.

“We have 23 teams again in the race. We no longer see these extreme projects that there may have been in the past … There are teams that go through periods of reconstruction. But it does not have the impression that there are teams that make it purposely lose lots of matches on several seasons in a row“Temperates Evan Wasch, vice-president of basketball strategies at the NBA. The league prefers to see the glass half full for the moment. The establishment of the play-in has made it possible to keep teams longer in the playoff race since the first 10 of each conference have something to play. Adam Silver admits that there is”No plan“In preparation concerning a possible reform of the draft or the lottery.

The probabilities have already been changed recently. The team that finished with the worst assessment once had 25% chance of grabbing the jackpot while it is the three less well classified that now have 14% each. It can actually discourage franchises from targeting absolute depths but it gives more spots to target to maximize the possibilities of inheriting the first choice. Knowing that there are also training that ties to ensure their pick. Example: the Dallas Mavericks in 2023. Their draft choice did not come back to them if he came out of the top-10 and they sabotaged their end of the season to get out of the race for the playoffs (they took 750,000 dollars fine in passing).

So are there really solutions to the problem? The tracks that sometimes circulate in the various media (expand the draw to the first eight selections, prevent the worst team from the League from having the first choice, removing the lottery outright) all seem imperfect. Tanking will exist as long as the draft, which is an integral part of US sports. So as much to do with it, and focus on avoiding abuses rather than completely eradicating the problem.