Is tanking for draft picks in professional sports ruining the product? - by @voiceofreason
(Source: https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/2/26/17052916/nba-tanking-teams-2018-draft-lottery-picks )
Tanking has been all the talk in the NBA as of late, and for good reason.
We are on pace to have 8 teams in the NBA finish with less than 30 wins.
In a full length NBA season, that has never happened before.
Read that again, never before in the history of the 82 game season have 8 teams won less than 30 games.
Even worse, of those 8 teams, 7 of them own their own draft pick.
Which means that 7 of the 8 have an incentive to do as poorly as possible in order to get a higher draft pick and improve their chances of being better next year.
Source: https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/2/26/17052916/nba-tanking-teams-2018-draft-lottery-picks
However, does such behavior lower the overall quality of the NBA product?
I think it does.
It appears the NBA also agrees.
Last year they passed new rules on how the draft odds would shake out for the teams missing the playoffs.
The new rules greatly reduce the odds of getting the number 1 overall pick by having the worst record.
What that means is that for the teams that miss the playoffs, there won't be nearly as much of an advantage in terms of odds to have the worst record or say the 5th worst record.
The odds of getting that number one pick will be much closer for those teams.
Which means that teams should be less incentivized to purposely tank in order to go for that number one draft pick.
Which also means we should have a better product overall.
It's about time they fixed this.
To be honest I was thinking that they should have the team that barely misses the playoffs have the best chance of getting that number one pick.
That way it encourages teams to try and make the playoffs or get darn close.
That's what I think anyways.
This is hard to fix, only fans can stop this if they make pressure on their team. Sam Hinkie got fired from Philadelphia because of tanking, even he had great draft signatures.
I agree with you
I really like the idea of rewarding the teams in the 9th or 10th spots with a better chance in the NBA Lottery. Because lets be honest, the system in the NBA is broken. Basketball is a different sport than say football and baseball due to the fact that a single player on a basketball team can have a far greater impact than a Left Tackle on a football team or Shortstop on a baseball team. This is the reason why NBA teams are OK with tanking for a top 5 pick. But it's unfair to those who support the team. You have fans of these organizations spending hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of dollars to watch and support these teams each season. To have these teams purposefully losing 50+ games per year is not a good value for these supporters. Watching a sports team should NOT be like investing in the stock market and telling that fan to "just give it a year or two, after we acquire a few high draft picks."
Imagine Apple's Board of Directors purposefully making terrible decisions to tank the stock for a year because their next Macbook that they are releasing in 2020 has the chance to be a serious game changer (not the best analogy, but you get where I'm going. Ha.). Regardless, I agree that changes NEED to happen because this tanking thing is terrible for the fans.
Tanking on purpose in any walk of life is a sign of weakness.
In any sport, you need a Lebron, or a Crosby to win championships. And the only place to find this caliber player is the draft lottery. And even then its not a given. Look at the edmonton oilers and how many first overall picks they have had. Its a gamble but if it works the payoff can be worth the pain
I've always thought some sort of relegation system, like soccer, could be fun. There'd have to be another league and right now the G League isn't nearly good enough, but it would fix the tanking issue because nobody would want to tank themselves out of the league. Hawks are having the perfect tank season....losing a lot of close games that are competitive, fun to watch, and give the young guys good experience. Good post!
It is what it is. These teams suck anyways. Even if they have the draft spot, they still have to nail the pick, much easier said than done.
Here's my idea: Have the bottom 16 teams play their own playoffs for the lottery picks. It would still drive revenue for the league, fans of these teams would still have interest in watching. It would kinda be like the NIT lol.
Man as a NY Knicks fan this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. Marginal teams nee the draft, and weak teams live for it. The reason you have such tanking this year is because the draft is so deep wit the top five payers having all star potential. It may actually be the top 8 or 9 players but teams do not want to take any chances. I think the new system will be better overall but you have to give teams a chance to get better. Especially if they are in markets like Minnesota where free agents do not want to go. Any rad the take will create a new set of issues. But let's see how this new approach does. In the meantime I wish the Knicks would tank this year. The talent coming into the league next year is just too good my friend. Thanks
It is damaging to the NBA product as a whole. Until the NBA figures out a good way to rectify this, teams will continue to covertly or overtly (Mark Cuban and the Mavericks) tank as it makes the most sense for the franchise long term. A counter argument is that, from a players perspective, they still need to play as hard as possible on every given night or it could end up costing them millions in free agency. Overall, I still think tanking hurts the NBA product as a whole and changes should be made to align incentives for players, teams and the league as much as possible.
I don't agree with these practices they damage the Sport, they should do opposite I mean reward with better pics to the "best" losing team to see if teams stop F$%$ Around and at least try to win the damn games! Cheers!
I do not follow basketball but we have similar issues in many sports I do follow. The less talented teams use their low rankings to get better talent. It can certainly cause some teams to do their worse. But other teams have gotten better this way. Tough to decide. I like your thoughts on the subject though.