Tanking has occurred in the NBA for over 40 years. It is when a team constructs the worst possible roster with the hopes of losing enough games to secure a top draft pick. The Houston Rockets famously tanked to get franchise center Hakeem Olajuwon in 1984, and the Philadelphia 76ers decided to ‘Trust the Process’ by tanking for center Joel Embiid in 2014. While tanking has been consistently prevalent under NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, it has hit a new high this season. Teams are tanking earlier than usual, pulling starters in close games and even trading their franchise players in the hopes of getting a top lottery pick.
Silver has done a terrible job of punishing tanking teams. He let the Sixers tank for Embiid, and remained idle when the Oklahoma City Thunder tanked their way to the sixth pick in the 2021 NBA Draft. Silver is now brainstorming ideas to fix a problem that has been prevalent since David Stern’s time as commissioner. What Silver should be doing is making changes to the lottery, implementing a hard deadline for lottery odds and taking draft picks away from tanking teams.
One lottery rule that is strange to fans is that the odds for the top three teams in the lottery are higher than everyone else’s at 14%. The problem arises when teams that tank get rewarded for purposefully losing games. Recently, Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy was asked in a post-game press conference if he was going to substitute forward Lauri Markkanen and center Jaren Jackson Jr. back into the fourth quarter of a close game against the Miami Heat. He quickly said, “I wasn’t.”
This is the issue with tanking teams. They can deny and deflect questions regarding their actions, but fans and media know exactly what they are doing. If the Jazz get a top three draft pick, it will be seen as undeserving due to lineup manipulation. The NBA should look to flatten lottery odds to 14% across the board so controversies like this do not continue.
A new concept that NBA reporter Shams Charania says was mentioned in a general manager meeting regarding tanking, was the idea of freezing lottery odds at the trade deadline or a later date. This idea could limit tanking because it would force the bottom 14 teams to remain competitive. The only downside is that lottery teams could tank early in the season so that by the time the trade deadline comes, they will have a better chance of getting a top five pick. If this does happen, Silver must be ready to discipline them by fining them or taking away the team’s first-round pick for that season.
This is a solution that will force teams to think twice before deciding to tank. In this case, the league office would vote to take away the team’s pick and give that pick to the team that is last in the lottery. It would be a fitting punishment that helps maintain the integrity of the league while leveling the drafting field for lottery teams.
Tanking has ruined the overall discussion surrounding the NBA. It has created a cloud of negativity that has overshadowed all the positivity in the league. No one wants to talk about the fun and talented players the sport has to offer. Instead, everyone wants to talk about how ineffective Silver has been at controlling tanking. It is exactly why Silver needs to drop the hammer on tanking so that fans can enjoy watching their favorite team without having to question if the opposing team is trying to lose.