This NBA draft has been plagued by the prospective of the upcoming class in the NBA. The plague is known as Tanking. While this ideology has been around for many years, Tanking is extremely prominent specifically this year in the NBA. Let’s discuss why this strategy is even prominent and the effects on the future of the NBA.
NFL Draft
First, let’s give a clear definition of what “Tanking” is. This phrase is used to describe how teams purposely lose games toward the end of the season. If a team knows they already can not make playoffs, they mind as well start preparing for the following season in order to be better next year. By purposely losing games in the current season, your team will appear worse than they really are and thus receive a better draft pick in the following year. This year has one of the most prominent cases of the Tanking as the upcoming draft class for the NBA is very strong. With players like Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett already proving their talent is far superior for the college level, teams are gearing up to give them the best shot to get these elite players.
L.A. Lakers apparently “tanking” for Zion Williamson
Most notably, the Los Angeles Lakers seem to be “tanking”. With one of the best players of all-time LeBron James and a team full of young talent, there is no reason that the team can not string together enough wins to earn a playoff spot. LeBron James, however, got hurt early in the season and the team seemingly gave up on the whole year. The Los Angeles Lakers are currently taking some bad media coverage because of it.
This problem occurs not only in the NBA, but also in other professional organizations as well such as the NFL or MLB. Given the way their lotteries are set-up, the worse teams are also rewarded with better draft picks, incentivizing losing if you know your team is already done for the season. In example, the Houston Astros were the laughing stock of the MLB for many years in the early 2010s. Their strategy of tanking and stockpiling draft picks catapulted them from last in the league to winning a World Series in 2017.
NBA Draft Lottery
What are your thoughts on tanking? Should it be allowed? Technically, it is up to the organization to make the decision and they are taking the risk, but it ruins the product of the NBA as a whole. If you do not think this should be allowed, what steps could the NBA take to prevent it?
