Tanking has become an accepted part of modern sports. Is it something that could find its way to the Detroit Pistons soon?
Whether you call it rebuilding, retooling, or make up phrases such as “Lose for Hughes” or “Trust the Process”, everyone knows what tanking is. First made popular and famous by the infamous or ingenious Sam Hinkie, tanking now is popular in the NHL, NFL, but most commonly in the NBA. The Detroit Pistons have yet to embrace this tactic.
The accepted definition of tanking is doing everything in a team’s power to better their draft position or lottery odds in order to better their roster through the draft. This has resulted in, most recently, in the New York Knicks having a watch party for the NBA Draft Lottery which featured Knicks fans melting down after sliding to the second pick and missing out on the unanimous first pick, Zion Williamson.
Tanking is one of the only options for the small-market teams to gain a star along with trading. Drafting a star is much better for smaller market teams at it allows them to have a cheap star under team control for usually eight years after accepting team options and matching any deals offered due to restricted free agency.
The Pistons are currently stuck in neutral and either have to go all in or blow it all sky high. I will be showing why the latter is probably the better option, and how the Pistons should go about blowing it all up.