The Tanking Problem

[JawsGT]

After that embarrassing loss that the Lakers suffered last night, as well as what Philly is up to, I gotta say that this whole tanking thing is making the league look particularly pathetic. I'm glad the Raps aren't involved in what is looking to be just an outright embarrassing season for the league. No wonder they are pushing Durant vs. Lebron so much in the MVP race. Exciting as that is, are they marketing it so much so as to take away attention from the disgusting ball that's being played by the bottom feeder teams? The league has got to do something to address this issue.

[3inthekeon]

After that embarrassing loss that the Lakers suffered last night, as well as what Philly is up to, I gotta say that this whole tanking thing is making the league look particularly pathetic. I'm glad the Raps aren't involved in what is looking to be just an outright embarrassing season for the league. No wonder they are pushing Durant vs. Lebron so much in the MVP race. Exciting as that is, are they marketing it so much so as to take away attention from the disgusting ball that's being played by the bottom feeder teams? The league has got to do something to address this issue.

Yeah, that was pathetic last night. One problem with your outrage though. You're making the same mistake a lot of other people do and equate playing really shitty basketball with tanking. Philly is an out and out tank - and a pretty damn good one at that. But the Lakers did not tank, just as the Bucks in the East did not tank. Both of those teams are the results of bad luck combined with bad management decisions. Not much the league can or should do about that.

[JawsGT]

Yeah, that was pathetic last night. One problem with your outrage though. You're making the same mistake a lot of other people do and equate playing really shitty basketball with tanking. Philly is an out and out tank - and a pretty damn good one at that. But the Lakers did not tank, just as the Bucks in the East did not tank. Both of those teams are the results of bad luck combined with bad management decisions. Not much the league can or should do about that.

Yeah that's probably true, although I do think both of those teams have been in the tank parade for some time now, yet it probably wasn't their intention at the start of the season. Good point though. you know, I don't mind building through the draft, all teams have to do it at some point and it is usually a cyclical event. But there still is a huge problem in the league from a competitive standpoint. Maybe only half the league is decent this year, with some clear frontrunners in both conferences. I really just want to see a more competitive league, and maybe tanking isn't the only problem. I'll tell you something else I don't like, draft protections. GSW tanked to keep their pick (barnes) a few years ago, and now it's possible that the Pelicans will do the same (well, Simmons thinks so). Screw that I say. If a team trades a pick then it's gone, and there should be no situation in which they can retain it. I just wish there was no reward to trying to lose, and I don't care if it's set up by management or executed on the court by the players and coaches. Maybe there are just too many teams and not enough talent going around.

In any event, it's probably not as bad as I thought this season, and thanks for pointing that out!

[stooley]

Honestly, the only way I see to solve tanking is to average records from the past three years for lottery teams.

If someone can point out some issues with that, I'm all ears.

Every other system either just shifts the tanking issue to a different place in the standings, or doesn't help achieve parity.

All of a sudden the intentional "rebuild" doesn't seem so enticing to owners because you lose out on long term revenue. It's easy to sell a fanbase on one year of bad basketball, but three? Say goodbye to season ticket holders.

[JawsGT]

Another article on the tanking problem, or, more accurately, a counter argument to the tanking problem. It suggests that the "problem" isn't really a problem at all, and that tanking this season is no more prevalent than in most seasons, which is what some have suggested in this thread. Maybe it isn't as bad as I, and others, have thought, and the article agrees with some of the thoughts posted in this thread:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...or-an-epidemic

[3inthekeon]

Another article on the tanking problem, or, more accurately, a counter argument to the tanking problem. It suggests that the "problem" isn't really a problem at all, and that tanking this season is no more prevalent than in most seasons, which is what some have suggested in this thread. Maybe it isn't as bad as I, and others, have thought, and the article agrees with some of the thoughts posted in this thread:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...or-an-epidemic

I've never been a fan of BleacherReport, but this article has more common sense than any I've read regarding this years "tanking problem". Too many people confuse tanking with desperate/poor management, legit rebuilding and bad luck.

[JawsGT]

I've never been a fan of BleacherReport, but this article has more common sense than any I've read regarding this years "tanking problem". Too many people confuse tanking with desperate/poor management, legit rebuilding and bad luck.

I'm not a big fan of the site either. I have only recently been visiting it regularly. The thing I hate the most about it though, is the abundance of "slide-show" type articles, that really annoys me.

[white men can't jump]

Not a bad article at all. I generally avoid Bleacher Report too, but I have also been wondering this year if they've been trying to somewhat up the quality. They haven't been great, but there have been fewer dreadfully bad articles. Maybe they're improving their writing staff? I swear before they just had random articles by fans writing from their college dorm rooms.

[Axel]

Not a bad article at all. I generally avoid Bleacher Report too, but I have also been wondering this year if they've been trying to somewhat up the quality. They haven't been great, but there have been fewer dreadfully bad articles. Maybe they're improving their writing staff? I swear before they just had random articles by fans writing from their college dorm rooms.

I noticed that too. They definitely are writing better article this year.

[3inthekeon]

Just checked on this Howard Beck. Covered bball for the New York Times, and his hiring was highly praised including very positive comments from guys like Zach Lowe to John Hollinger. Just discovered Turner Broadcasting previously purchased the site and are moving away from the kindergarten slideshow crap.

[brothersteve]

It’s been getting ugly in Philadelphia. A 76ers team that was constructed to ‘win’ a high lottery pick traded two of their best players for pieces they didn’t need and draft picks that are probably not going to help them and got even worse. They weren’t alone and their motivation seems clear. A second worst finish in the league gets a 19.9 percent chance at winning the first overall draft pick, but a dead last position gets 25 percent. Winning a couple of extra games could drop their chances at the top pick to 15.6 percent or even lower. It’s all too much for a competent general manager to just ignore – not that anyone involved with a team or the NBA is going to say any team is tanking.

The current system is basically fair. It just over motivates undesirable behavior. A simple solution would be to reduce to incentive to get worse by making small changes in a team’s position in the standings mean less. The current lottery odds create the opposite effect.

To reduce the incentive without eliminating a bad team’s chances at a top pick, the motivation needs to be reduced. One method would be to create brackets where a team’s precise finish doesn’t matter as much.

Teams finishing:

30th-25th 12% chance each
24th-21th 6% chance each
20th-17th 1% chance each

There are no perfect solutions and Silver says he is open to suggestions. Hopefully he is listening.

Can A Modified Lottery System Solve The NBA Tanking Problem?

[stretch]

Adam Silver says "tanking doesn't exist."

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10...-tanking-exist

[stretch]

I believe that the Raptors should abandon this absurd pursuit of winning games and tank hard for Stanley Johnson.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:11837688