Suns have been doing some very precise tanking lately. They compete in first three and a half quarters (they had big leads on Portland and OKC) and then, very subtly, let the other team win. They did it against Atlanta tonight too. I think Silver should look into this. Suns may be good next year once they add top pick. Booker is the real deal and Jackson may be too.
Yeah Phoenix does really high quality tanking; keeps the 15 fans who show up happy most of the way, and the opposing teams' fans in a bit of suspense until they leave home happy. A great show for everyone. They helped us out immensely by running OKC to the last minute of the game. Neil should send them a fruit basket.
Like I said previously, Silver doesn't care about tanking, he only cares about the appearance of tanking. The Suns are doing exactly what Silver wants.
This is the absolutely wrong way to tank. If I were the owner I would fire the coach and trade every player on that team. Teams are built by a GM to lose/tank. You do not ask the players and coach to intentionally lose games. Any player that throws the game in the 4th qrt you don't want on your team. Can you imagine Olshey coming up to Lillard and telling him to throw games in the 4th? Lillard would tell him to fuck off.
Tanking is another depressing result of our public schools devaluing competitiveness as an admirable character trait.
I respect NBA teams for labelling tanking for what it is. In baseball, they call but "rebuilding' or "reloading." Which is just an excuse for not spending money and pocketing revenue sharing. It's one of the most chicken shit ways to treat your fans. And I don't blame the baseball player's union for suing the teams that do it.
but when you draft a good player (Booker) and you know you can get another one (PHX might have 1st pick in the upcoming draft), then you keep tanking... I mean, it sucks for the players, no player wants to lose on purpose, but its not like theyre wasting their time in those teams, theyre developing... Booker is 21, with Dame it would be whole different story and hed say either there will be no tanking or Im out, cause hed be wasting his career Eric Bledsoe did it, he didnt want to spend more time on that team and for what its wort, you can be sure their owner told them to tank... if they compete, they wouldnt be able to go to the playoffs or get the TOP 3 pick
It's really hard to argue with what Philly did as they now have two amazing players in Simmons and Embiid, they have Fultz who will still hopefully get back on track, and they have another lotto pick that's currently slated as 10th. With that said, I have my doubts about Embiid's long term durability.
No player is going to 'tank'. It's not logical. The coach can however, using statistical analysis, determine which lineups to put on the floor that will be likely to lose close games more often than not. It's the nature of the NBA that teams go on runs, and blowouts aren't that common, in part thanks to the officiating. The proper way to tank is to try to keep it close for most of the game, or even take the lead, then through substitutions and play calling let the game slip away at the end. It wouldn't take much tweaking, especially when the other team is fired up and upping their intensity at the end, the way winning teams do.
