Philosophically speaking -- is tanking good for the NBA?

[Ujfanatic]

A hard cap would definitely change everything. Admittedly I think it’s a little hard to predict exactly how it would change things, but it would be interesting.

I generally am against tanking, especially year after year. However, it does give fans of non-contending teams something else to get excited about. It hurts ticket sales, but I wonder whose fan base is more engaged: the team tanking for Wemby or a team destined for 11th-12th place in the conference.

 

[Elizah Huge]

Tank the **** out of this bitch.

 

[dy47]

Draft Wheel ?

 

[Nate505]

A hard cap would definitely change everything. Admittedly I think it’s a little hard to predict exactly how it would change things, but it would be interesting.

I generally am against tanking, especially year after year. However, it does give fans of non-contending teams something else to get excited about. It hurts ticket sales, but I wonder whose fan base is more engaged: the team tanking for Wemby or a team destined for 11th-12th place in the conference.

I'm not even so sure what's all that exciting about tanking. In your example it's the difference between having 14% odds of getting a top 4 pick instead of 5%. That just doesn't register very much for me on the excitement scale.

The last time I was excited about tanking the Jazz got Dante Exum. Oh joy.

That said, a tanking team makes for two very exciting days until late June. The draft lottery and the draft. It makes the rest of the season worthless, but that's how the NBA is nowadays. Months of useless basketball.

But before I get too pessimistic, I'm enjoying the style of Jazz basketball I've seen in the preseason. To me as long as they're trying, the players are good people and some have potential, I won't care that much if they lose. I just can't stand intentional losing. To me it's the anthesis of why I watch sports.

 

[Ujfanatic]

I'm not even so sure what's all that exciting about tanking. In your example it's the difference between having 14% odds of getting a top 4 pick instead of 5%. That just doesn't register very much for me on the excitement scale.

The last time I was excited about tanking the Jazz got Dante Exum. Oh joy.

That said, a tanking team makes for two very exciting days until late June. The draft lottery and the draft. It makes the rest of the season worthless, but that's how the NBA is nowadays. Months of useless basketball.

But before I get too pessimistic, I'm enjoying the style of Jazz basketball I've seen in the preseason. To me as long as they're trying, the players are good people and some have potential, I won't care that much if they lose. I just can't stand intentional losing. To me it's the anthesis of why I watch sports.

I hear you, and mostly agree. I do think for some, however, the “what if” possibilities can keep some excitement and intrigue throughout the year. Very little of that will be about the on-the-court action of course, but watching college and international games, listening to scouting and draft podcasts, watching mock drafts etc… that all gets stretched into months of content.

I personally would much rather watch my team play competitive basketball, but I do think tanking for a potential franchise changing talent does keep some engaged.

 

[The Thriller]

Is it good for the sport? Probably not.

Is it good for the NBA? I think one could argue that dynasties and monster all star teams might be lucrative for the NBA. I mean, just look at how much more money the league is making now vs 10 or 20 years ago.

I think it’s compels small market teams to really hone in their scouting and draft skills and be smarter than the big markets with money. Using our own team as an example, did we have to give Gobert such a gigantic contract? Did we have to trade for Conley? And why did we **** up so badly in the draft with Dok and Butler?

And now we’re relying on tanking.

While the system sucks, we are somewhat responsible for the reprehensible situation we’re in. Give Gobert a smaller contract, don’t get conley, and don’t **** the draft and this team might be competing for the championship instead of a top draft pick.