Even as the worst team you only get a 15% chance of the first pick.
The only picks that would be worth tanking for are the number 1 or 2 pick and you arent even guaranteed that, and the odds are not even close to in your favor to get them.
It instills a losing culture that is extremely difficult to overcome when you do start to accrue some talent.
You can still get lucky and get a top 3 pick by just being bad, not worst team in the league bad.
Trading away assets to get draft capital and cap room isnt a bad idea, but purposely putting a shitty team together to get a marginally better shot at a franchise player is just dumb.
If you get the cap room you should probably do something with it and if you are in a middle market team in the cold weather maybe you should realize this will never be a free agency destination and factor that into your plans.
Lastly, just because tanking has worked for a team or two in the past doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do or the best way to turn your franchise around. Note i am defining tanking as making no effort to not be the worst team in the league because you hope you get the #1 pick.
You wouldn’t be saying this if we got the #1 pick this year
The reason why this team sucks is because of asset management. We lose so many players due to nothing. Weavers biggest mistake was not trying to squeeze any assets we have for anything because we didn’t get Jack shit for a team that was in the playoffs. Hell even the magic got a lot of stuff for their sorry ass team
Thanks for the ultra biased non-fact based opinions, SVG.
Tanking works. It’s about positioning yourself for opportunity. Having a dolt GM who can’t build a team does not work.
San Antonio tanked when David Robinson was injured and got Tim Duncan. They did it again last year and got Wembanyama.
Philly did it and got an MVP in Embiid. Ben Simmons was an all star and made an all nba team before the back issues and the mental stuff. It worked, Colangelo mismanaged their assets exceptionally bad, but the tanking Hinkie did yielded two stars.
It doesn’t always work. Nothing always works in professional sports. LeBron was the best player in the league for roughly 15 years, and doesn’t have 15 championships. Tanking is about having some agency over your draft positioning. Executing quality draft analysis and picking the right player is a different challenge all together.