They changed the rule bc Tanking works

[bearadonisdna]

And I’m pretty sure the warriors sucked hard for years.

This is where people need to be more carful about the term “Tanking” because similar to “superstar” it’s thrown around way too often. The Warriors at no point in time tanked. They were just a horribly run organization. The owner was a joke, FO was a joke and drafted horribly and were poorly coached for a very very very long time. The Warriors didn’t actively lose to get talent and turn it around like the 6ers team that coined the term. They were just bad. It’s no coincidence that the team turned around shortly after the ownership changed and we started bringing in better people. Steph also played a massive role.

Are the Knicks “Tanking” or just a horribly ran organization?

Ok so the warriors reaped the benefits of tanking without trying to.
Just because their isn’t a narrative to the fans about tanking, a FO can tank without you even knowing it.

[SFour]

i would say the Finals favorites are Clippers and Milwaukee. two teams that went against tanking/bottoming out.

it's certainly not the Lakers, that's for sure. They are going to be out in the first round.

Kawhi was just in the Finals last year. And he needed a fair bit of luck to get there. So why would he be there again this year on a completely different team? That's highly unlikely. He's not LeBron James, mi hermano. And Paul George, his running mate, is unreliable in the playoffs. And LAC wont be going up against inexperienced stars like Toronto did last year in the East.

As far as the Lakers are concerned - Anthony Davis is the best teammate LeBron has ever had and when he has a teammate like that he goes to the Finals. We all know that's what he does.

Anthony Davis is also injury prone and has only played 13 playoff games in his entire career.....the question I have is will his body be able to withstand playing in the probable 22+ playoff games in a single season...and this is in the Western conference, where every round will be a bloodbath.

My prediction is that Anthony Davis doesn't make it far next season because of injury problems, which have plagued his entire career...AD and Kawhi are the most injury prone superstars...Kawhi had load management the entire regular season and his body still broke down in the 2nd round/ECF.

[gh123]

Who's the fav to make the finals this year?

Lakers vs Sixers? Those are the two teams that tanked the most during the tank era. Tanking works in the NBA. Just wait until Emoni bates and Mikey Williams are one year away...there will be lots of tanking teams even w the rule change

it works

How is that Sixers and Lakers? In what world would anyone think that that's the most likely finals pair? Jesus...

[Lalouie]

Who's the fav to make the finals this year?

Lakers vs Sixers? Those are the two teams that tanked the most during the tank era. Tanking works in the NBA. Just wait until Emoni bates and Mikey Williams are one year away...there will be lots of tanking teams even w the rule change

it works

tanking doesn't work because you still have to pick the players in the draft. and it's going to start working even less when aborting one's contract becomes de rigueur for nba players.

only a good FO works or another way to look at it, if your team sucks, tank and then hire a good FO

[PlatinumState]

Tanking works unless is doesnt. You either get lucky or you dont. Sixers struck out on Jahlil Okafor and Fultz, got lucky with Ben and Joel......it took years to get a decent team

[NuggetsWY]

The title makes me laugh: "They changed the rule bc Tanking works" --- it should have been;

"Tanking worked so they added a rule but tanking still worked so they changed the rule but tanking still worked so they changed the rule again but tanking still worked so they changed the rule again but tanking still worked so they changed the rule again."

And there might have even been one or two more of those changes; my senile old mind can't remember all of them.

[Pointgod]

Lakers signed Lebron and traded for AD. How the hell exactly did tanking work out for them? Sixers tanked for Embiid and Simmons, traded for Tobias Harris and Butler, who was then traded for Josh Richardson. They signed Al Horford who will arguably be their second best player. Clippers didn’t tank, Golden State were awful but that had more to do with Curry’s early ankle injuries. Houston didn’t tank. Milwaukee was built through trades and free agent signings.

Meanwhile Phoenix is still garbage, Knicks are garbage, and a bunch of permanent lottery members haven’t been good for a long time.

[TheRealKaboom]

Lakers signed Lebron and traded for AD. How the hell exactly did tanking work out for them? Sixers tanked for Embiid and Simmons, traded for Tobias Harris and Butler, who was then traded for Josh Richardson. They signed Al Horford who will arguably be their second best player. Clippers didn’t tank, Golden State were awful but that had more to do with Curry’s early ankle injuries. Houston didn’t tank. Milwaukee was built through trades and free agent signings.

Meanwhile Phoenix is still garbage, Knicks are garbage, and a bunch of permanent lottery members haven’t been good for a long time.

Lakers traded for Anthony Davis using assets they collected through tanking. It's not that complicated.

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[TacoLord]

Those Mozgov and Deng contracts were not "tanking," it was stupidity that lead to bad teams. Tanking implies intention, strategy and planning (HAIL HINKIE!), the Lakers had none of that under Mitch Kupchak and the Bus kids. The Lakers were the basketball equivalent of a washed up actor drunkenly stumbling around on the street trying to get free booze off his name recognition.

[binjumper]

Your argument kinda falls apart when you look at the current NBA champion Toronto Raptors. They didn't tank.

[Lalouie]

Tanking works unless is doesnt. You either get lucky or you dont. Sixers struck out on Jahlil Okafor and Fultz, got lucky with Ben and Joel......it took years to get a decent team

well actually the theory of tanking addresses the issue of percentages. it recognizes that you cannot be right 100% of the time. so tank as often as possible and the %s will eventually get you a player. but regardless it still requires luck and a good FO.

therefore

tanking doesn't work but good FO works all the time. all the best teams have good FO's, all the bad teams have bad FO's and they don't turn around unless the upgrade their FO

[Richard Miller]

Lakers signed Lebron and traded for AD. How the hell exactly did tanking work out for them? Sixers tanked for Embiid and Simmons, traded for Tobias Harris and Butler, who was then traded for Josh Richardson. They signed Al Horford who will arguably be their second best player. Clippers didn’t tank, Golden State were awful but that had more to do with Curry’s early ankle injuries. Houston didn’t tank. Milwaukee was built through trades and free agent signings.

Meanwhile Phoenix is still garbage, Knicks are garbage, and a bunch of permanent lottery members haven’t been good for a long time.

Lakers traded for Anthony Davis using assets they collected through tanking. It's not that complicated.

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Lol

[Pointgod]

Lakers signed Lebron and traded for AD. How the hell exactly did tanking work out for them? Sixers tanked for Embiid and Simmons, traded for Tobias Harris and Butler, who was then traded for Josh Richardson. They signed Al Horford who will arguably be their second best player. Clippers didn’t tank, Golden State were awful but that had more to do with Curry’s early ankle injuries. Houston didn’t tank. Milwaukee was built through trades and free agent signings.

Meanwhile Phoenix is still garbage, Knicks are garbage, and a bunch of permanent lottery members haven’t been good for a long time.

Lakers traded for Anthony Davis using assets they collected through tanking. It's not that complicated.

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

Lakers trades two players that weren’t performing like 2nd overall picks. From New Orleans perspective they still would have made the trade with if they were picked anywhere from 2nd to 8th picks. For the premise to be true that tanking works then at least one of Ingram or Ball would still be on the Lakers. If the premise is that Lakers and Sixers in the finals proves tanking works then at least most of the 5 best players between the two teams should have been a result from tanking.

[Catchall]

Lakers built the way they always do. Lebron goes there as a free agent, and Anthony Davis forces a trade by saying he won't sign anywhere else, which chills the trade market. That's not tanking. That's acquiring a handful of trade assets to help get Davis when he tries to force the trade.

And btw, what are the odds that the Lakers would get the #2 pick three straight years that they're in the lottery (for D'Lo, Ingram and Ball)? The answer is, less than 1.5%.

Also convenient was the Lakers moving up in this year's lottery to #4, while the Pelicans win the lottery for Zion. Lakers can complete the trade for Davis by including the pick, while the Pels avoid becoming a lame duck franchise by getting the most anticipated rookie in years.

It all worked out nicely, didn't it.

That's why I won't complain when the Lakers go out early in the playoffs this year, even though ESPN will.

[Catchall]

Your argument kinda falls apart when you look at the current NBA champion Toronto Raptors. They didn't tank.

No, they got lucky that they play in a weaker conference, traded for a disgruntled superstar, and had the Warriors get hit with not one, but two season-ending injuries during the playoffs. It was a well-deserved championship, don't get me wrong, but those are not the type of circumstances that any team can just plan their franchise around.

[LKN]

Regardless of whether you think tanking words the new lottery odds are stupid.

Do people just not understand math? All it does is make parity worse in a misguided attempt to stop "tanking" - which isn't even an actual problem. The NBA is generally run by smart people - but they are just way off base here.

[dc]

Also lbj going back to Cleveland. And I’m pretty sure the warriors sucked hard for years.

Actually, their problem was they didn't suck bad enough. The only time they truly tanked in the recent term was in 2012, when they tanked to keep their pick (which was Top 8 protected). They ended up with Harrison Barnes from that. I suppose he was a serviceable player, but nobody views him as a franchise building block (unless you're Vlade Divac, I guess). They also tanked in hard in 2002 because they badly wanted Jay Williams.

Warriors had plenty of years where they sucked, but you have to go back to 2010 for the last time they picked as high as #6 and all the way back to 2002 for the last time they picked as high as #3. They last picked #1 overall in 1995. From 1996 to 2012 (the last year they were in the lottery), they mostly picked in the mid-late lottery.

Their core 3 players were taken with the #7, #11 and #35 picks in the draft. Their position picking in the lottery over the 1996-2012 span has paled in comparison to the likes of the 76ers or Cavs.

[dc]

And I’m pretty sure the warriors sucked hard for years.

This is where people need to be more carful about the term “Tanking” because similar to “superstar” it’s thrown around way too often. The Warriors at no point in time tanked. They were just a horribly run organization. The owner was a joke, FO was a joke and drafted horribly and were poorly coached for a very very very long time. The Warriors didn’t actively lose to get talent and turn it around like the 6ers team that coined the term. They were just bad. It’s no coincidence that the team turned around shortly after the ownership changed and we started bringing in better people. Steph also played a massive role.

Are the Knicks “Tanking” or just a horribly ran organization?

Ok so the warriors reaped the benefits of tanking without trying to.
Just because their isn’t a narrative to the fans about tanking, a FO can tank without you even knowing it.

They didn't reap the benefits from tanking w/o trying (or just plain sucking, if you want to call it that)....until they finally got Steph in 2009, anyways. And even then, they needed to fortune of Minnesota drafting 2 PGs over Curry. If not for that, the Warriors would've drafted Jordan Hill and would still be sucking this very moment.

From 1996-2008 (which is an eternity in NBA terms), the "benefits" they were reaping consisted of guys like Todd Fuller, Adonal Foyle, Ike Diogu, Patrick O'Bryant, etc.......I mean guys like Mikael Pietrus and Andris Biedrins was actually their bright spots, LOL.

[dc]

What was the last team to win an NBA championship because they tanked?

Definitely the Cavs in 2016. Lebron probably doesn't go back to Cleveland if the Cavs don't score 3 #1 overall picks in 4 years. (And if OKC had just paid the luxury tax to keep Harden, we'd be lumping them into the conversation as well).

Regardless, we should be talking in comparison to if a team DIDN'T tank. If the 76ers didn't tank, they were well on their way to riding Jrue Holiday to several more 38-42 win seasons. I think most would agree that wasn't likely to result in a championship. Going that route gave them no hope at all.

Whether or not the 76ers end up winning a championship in the coming years, most people would agree that they're going to be far more relevant and entertaining than if they took the "keep trying to win as much as we can with Jrue Holiday" route.

[Coeur]

Tanking absolutely works for the team. And for the league the “lottery” works really good too. So good that watch what the NFL does with Tua and Herbert and tanking will be a big story the end weeks of the season.


And then when the NFL sees a reason and thinks about it. The NFL will make Trevor Lawrence the first “lottery era” #1 pick