The Detroit Pistons have lost 16 of their last 17 games and may not win another one this season.
We knew this type of season was a possibility coming in, and losing Cade Cunningham early on ensured that the Pistons would once again be one of the teams fighting at the bottom of the league.
No team in the NBA tries to lose on purpose, as players have pride and want to compete at a high level, but the organization can put them in a position where winning is unlikely by playing a very young team and benching veterans at the end of the season with minor injuries that they might otherwise play through.
Tanking gets especially egregious when there is a consensus #1 pick like there is this season, as every lottery team is dreaming of Victor Wembanyama on their roster.
The NBA tried to stifle this somewhat by giving the bottom three teams the same odds and lowering the incentive to be the worst, but as long as any amount of incentive is there, it is going to happen.
So is tanking a problem in the NBA? For some people, absolutely, but for the league itself? I’m not sure.
Detroit Pistons: Does the NBA still have a tanking problem?
Tanking is not a problem
There are only three teams that are really tanking this season, the Detroit Pistons, Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs. They are going to be the worst three teams and have the best odds to land the #1 pick.
They’re all young teams, and weren’t likely to be good either way, so why not position yourself for the best possible odds?
Tanking sells hope to fans and allows teams to play younger players who wouldn’t necessarily be ready to play big minutes on a playoff team. Jaden Ivey has gotten to play an expanded role this season and learn the game in ways that he never would if the Detroit Pistons were trying to win.
Tanking also allows teams a chance at a clean slate by trading away veteran players for draft assets and resetting instead of being stuck in mediocrity, which has turned the trade deadline into one of the most exciting times of the season.
Many fans feel that the NBA did enough to address tanking with the changes to lottery odds, and that is a perfectly valid point of view. The game is very entertaining, the league is doing just fine and fans talking about the draft and free agency is the reason the NBA is an all-year sport when it comes to engagement.
Mock drafts, free-agent and trade speculation generate money and excitement around the NBA, so there is little motivation to change it. But there is another side.
Detroit Pistons: Does the NBA still have a tanking problem?
Yes, tanking is a problem!
Like I said, as long as there is incentive to do it, teams are going to have these kinds of “rebuilding” years when they really aren’t trying to win, and from a strategical perspective, it makes perfect sense.
But it makes less sense if you are a fan who spent money on season tickets, or bought tickets for a game late in the season only to see a team you barely recognize. It’s not fun to watch your team get perpetually blown out, and while it’s easy to sell player development for free, it’s harder when you are charging premium prices for seats, parking, concessions and everything else that comes with attending a game.
Pistons’ fans, to their credit, have shown up this year even though the team stinks. It can be fun to watch young players and get excited about the future. But it is far more exciting to see competitive games, especially if you don’t get to attend them often.
Aside from the detriment to fans, constant losing cannot be good for the culture of a team. While young players are getting their reps, they are often also learning bad habits and being allowed to “play through mistakes” (as Casey said recently) that they wouldn’t on a winning team.
It’s just a weird way to watch basketball, as you are cheering for your team, but also thinking “ooh, if they lose they’ll be two full games ahead of Houston for the worst record.”
I know as a fan I get sick of tanking but it doesn’t stop me from watching or seem to hurt the league too much, so it’s hard to say that it’s a huge problem.
However, I have some ideas for how to fix it, while making the league more entertaining for everyone.
Detroit Pistons: Does the NBA still have a tanking problem?
While tanking has not been a huge league-wide problem, there are some tweaks that could incentivize it even less.
The NBA has shown itself to be ready and willing to make changes to add more excitement and competition to the game, as they did when they added the play-in tournament. Most people seem to like it and it put more teams in play for the postseason, which also reduces the urge to tank.
Since that tournament was such a success, why not another one? I’ve written about this before, but I’d love to see the NBA have some type of competition for the top pick. They could take the bottom six or eight teams and let them play a tournament for lottery seeding or even lottery odds.
You wouldn’t want to incentive it too much, because then some team at the 10th seed would tank at the end of the season hoping to miss the playoffs for a chance to play for the #1 pick, but you could give the team that won extra odds in the lottery.
Then it wouldn’t matter if you were the worst team, or the third-worst, and teams would be motivated to be healthy and playing well down the stretch. I’ll let smarter people work out the details, but who wouldn’t want to watch this?
I am all for adding entertainment and a tournament for lottery position would definitely be entertaining.
Tanking has gotten less prevalent across the league, which is a good thing, so at least the NBA is trying to improve the product, but there are always ways to make it better.