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Football season is over, so it’s time to catch-up on this year’s basketball action.
I have followed basketball ever since I could read the box scores. That said, I must admit that my interest in the National Basketball Association has been waning over the past few decades.
Perhaps it is a lingering 23-year bout of “LeBron James Syndrome.”
The King (of flopping) is still playing hoops for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 41. Incredibly, LeBron James is scoring 21 points per game during his 23rd NBA season. Will this guy EVER retire?
The defending NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder is still leading the Western Conference.
A vastly-improved San Antonio Spurs team is in hot pursuit and only two games back. The NBA Eastern Conference finds the (gasp!) Detroit Pistons leading the Boston Celtics by 5 ½ games.
However, a growing number of losing teams are now trying to out-lose each other in order to finish with the coveted last place title.
Welcome to tanking – the NBA regular season soap opera’s not-so-new problem
A general definition of the term “tanking” is to intentionally field a noncompetitive team in order to take advantage of league rules which benefit the team losing the most games.
In the NBA, the biggest loser generally has the most likely chance to select #1 in the annual player draft. The current system utilizes a weighted average format with the worst of the 14 non-playoff teams having the best chance to receive the top pick.
Unlike football or baseball, basketball has just five starting players. Adding the top college basketball player might be enough to help your team become an immediate playoff contender.
The NBA’s defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder “tanked” for three years (2021-2023). By making some solid draft picks and a few nifty player trades, OKC is positioned to be a top team for several years to come.
Once Oklahoma City transitioned from nearly worst to first, others are following the playbook.
Case #1 – this year’s Detroit Pistons
Detroit finished at or near the bottom of the NBA’s Eastern Conference for five consecutive years from 2020 through 2024. The team’s lousy record earned the Pistons a number one choice (Cade Cunningham in 2021) plus the #5 pick three times and the #7 overall selection once.
This year’s Detroit Pistons are now in first place in the NBA East with a 43-14 record. Cade Cunningham averages 25 points per game and is an NBA All-Star. Three of the team’s other four high draft selections are averaging about ten points per game for Detroit.
Was it worth finishing near the bottom for several years to, perhaps, move to the top of the standings down the road?
Case #2 – The San Antonio Spurs
The five-time NBA champion San Antonio Spurs also went “all in” on tanking from 2022 through 2024. They finished at the bottom of the NBA’s Western Conference in 2023 and earned the #1 overall selection.
San Antonio’s talented 7’4” center Victor Wembanyama is now in his third season and averages 24 points and 12 rebounds per game. He was the top pick in 2023 and has helped transform a woeful Spurs team into a contender in just two years.
San Antonio also struck gold with 2024’s #4 overall selection, Stephon Castle. The talented guard is averaging 17 points per game in his second NBA season.
The rest of the NBA is copying Detroit and San Antonio with excessive tanking
Nearly one third of the NBA’s teams are trying to lose games at a record pace this season. Winning even one basketball game can reduce your team’s chances to finish with a bad enough record to “win” a top NBA pick in June.
There’s even a website called “Tankathon.com” dedicated to providing the daily odds of each NBA team trying losing its way to receive the #1 overall draft pick.
Today’s stats showed that the leader (worst team in the NBA) is Sacramento (13-46). The Kings have dropped nine of their last ten games. Woo hoo – nice job, Sacto!
In hot pursuit of the Kings are the Indiana Pacers (15-44) and Brooklyn Nets (15-42). Both of those NBA teams have lost eight of their last ten games. That’s just not good enough to be #1, guys!
The woeful Washington Wizards sit in fourth place today at 16-41 with the New Orleans Pelicans perched right behind at 17-42. The Pelicans’ coach may be in big trouble, though. His team has actually won two games in a row!
The Utah Jazz are trying to get into the mix for the #1 pick by fading fast, too. They have an 18-40 record today but are on a three-game losing streak. Lose, Jazz, lose!
Be careful what you wish for
That group of NBA teams is hoping their fans will fantasize about having the top pick in the annual player draft in June.
Historically speaking, the majority of these overall #1 choices will have a fairly productive NBA career. A few even blossom into NBA All-Stars.
Unfortunately, most #1 overall selections do not lead their teams into the NBA Finals.
Let’s remember a few failed #1 NBA picks from the past decade
LSU’s “one and done” forward Ben Simmons was selected first in 2016 by the Philadelphia 76ers.
His skills regressed with every season as a professional basketball player. Already traded twice, Ben Simmons’ basketball play became so embarrassingly poor that none of the 30 NBA teams have this 29-year old player on their roster this season.
Another #1 NBA flop has been shooting guard Markelle Fultz.
Like Simmons, Fultz was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers with the top pick in the 2017 draft. Another prolific “one-and-done” freshman scorer in college, Markelle Fultz has been a major disappointment in the NBA. He has averaged a meager 10 points per game over his first eight pro seasons and has been traded twice already.
It’s still a bit early to say whether the Atlanta Hawks’ 2024 #1 overall pick is a draft bust. However, 6’8” French forward Zaccarie Risacher is scoring just 10 points and 3.5 rebounds per game as he comes off the bench during his second NBA season.
Other recent #1 overall picks have included:
2018 – Deandre Ayton (drafted by Phoenix, traded to Portland, and traded in 2025 to the Los Angeles Lakers)
2019 – Zion Williamson (New Orleans Pelicans – unlikely to make the playoffs)
2020 – Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves)
2021 – Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons)
2022 – Paolo Banchero (Orlando Magic)
2023 – Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs)
2025 – Cooper Flagg (Dallas Mavericks – unlikely to make the playoffs)
None of the past ten #1 overall picks has led their team to the NBA Finals.
Watch out, tankers! The NBA Commissioner is actually cracking down
Adam Silver knows that nearly half of his NBA franchises are intentionally trying to lose games right now. He understands that it is bad for business over the long run. The NBA is morphing into two different leagues – the competitors and a growing legion of purposeful losers.
Earlier this month, Commissioner Silver fined the Utah Jazz $500,000 and Indiana Pacers $100,000 for purposefully keeping healthy starters on the bench during the fourth quarter of games to insure that their teams would lose.
“Overt behavior like this that prioritizes draft position over winning undermines the foundation of NBA competition,” said Silver.
No kidding, Commish!
Hall-of-Famer Charles Barkley has a few ideas to help end tanking. He recently said that he wants every NBA team failing to make the playoffs to receive only ONE ping-pong ball in the NBA’s lottery when selecting the top 14 picks. Each of the 14 losing teams would then have the same 7% (1/14) chance of receiving the #1 pick.
That’s a good place to start, Chuck!
He also asked the Commissioner to ban any NBA team finishing with less than a .500 record from raising ticket prices the following season.
The NBA owners would give that particular idea of Barkley an overwhelming thumbs down!
One “anti-tanking” proposal is receiving a lot of positive feedback
Incentives work. That is why so many NBA teams are trying to lose as many games as possible down the home stretch to receive the top draft pick this summer.
Here’s an excellent idea receiving a lot of support.
Each of the NBA’s 14 non-playoff teams would still be assured of receiving a pick from #1-14. However, the draft order for those first 14 selections would be based on the number of WINS which each team collects over the second half of the NBA season.
That would incentivize every NBA team to try to win every game during the second half of the season. The upper tier of teams will be positioning for a better playoff seed. All of the bottom tier of teams would be battling to enhance their own draft position.
The biggest complainers about this proposal are teams which may have lost star players to injuries and cannot compete as effectively through season’s end.
To that, I say, “Tough luck!”
Do it, Commissioner Silver!
Have you heard…the current #1 college basketball player may be tanking, too!
The #14-ranked Kansas Jayhawks put months of effort and doled out millions in NIL loot into the recruitment of talented 6’6” freshman guard Darryn Peterson.
Kansas coach Bill Self’s top recruit has been exceptional – at times. He has also been mysteriously invisible for several games this season, too.
Darryn Peterson has missed several games with a lingering hamstring injury early in the season. Since then, he has claimed to suffer from cramps after playing a certain number of minutes in KU basketball games. More recently, the highly touted Peterson sat out a few more games with a mysterious illness.
Teammates, fans, and the media have wondered if the freshman was, effectively, self-tanking to avoid injury ahead of the NBA draft.
NBA scouts have been whispering to Darryn Peterson’s family that the freshman player is likely to become this year’s top selection.
Peterson’s not-so-humble father, Darryl, provided this quote Monday, “We embrace what comes with this journey. The good and the bad. It has taught us so many life lessons to prepare Darryn and our family for what he’s about to go through being the #1 pick and future face of someone’s franchise and the league.”
The young basketball player transferred away from his primary high school in Canton, Ohio to play his junior year at Huntington Prep School in West Virginia. For his senior year, Darryn Peterson transferred to play high school basketball in California for Pacific Prep.
How many high school kids would be willing to do that – just to market himself better for college and pro basketball?
Thankfully, not very many (yet).
Darryn Peterson has not helped to dispel the growing concerns of his teammates and loyal Kansas basketball fans. They are questioning the freshman’s commitment to the program’s success and whether the team is better off without him.
Kansas (now 21-7) has gone 9-2 in the games where Peterson was absent. The Jayhawks are 12-5 in the games Peterson has played.
An increasing number of Jayhawks supporters would prefer for the freshman prima donna to hit the road right now and wait by the telephone for his name to be called by the NBA.
Tanking (whether as a team or by an individual) should never be a winning strategy.