5 NBA Teams Facing Tough Decision of Tanking or Going for It This Season
When an NBA team is a fringe playoff contender but has no shot to win a title, the allure of the tank can become pretty strong.
Why chase a first-round playoff loss in 2015 over a fresh start, financial flexibility and a chance to build something for the future that may have a shot at real contention in four or five years?
Well, the simple answer is that losing is hard to sell to a fanbase and an owner. Even with the idea of tanking being so prevalent in modern NBA speak, watching losses pile up is hard.
Just tune into a home game for the Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves or any other team that recently started a rebuild and look at how many empty seats are in the arena.
| League Average | 26.9 | 412,208 | |
| 17 | Sacramento Kings | 26.0 | 408,635 |
| 18 | Boston Celtics | 25.2 | 401,272 |
| 19 | Atlanta Hawks | 28.1 | 399,397 |
| 20 | Phoenix Suns | 26.0 | 395,124 |
| 21 | Brooklyn Nets | 29.0 | 389,681 |
| 22 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 25.6 | 364,060 |
| 23 | Denver Nuggets | 26.7 | 358,524 |
| 24 | New Orleans Pelicans | 25.0 | 356,338 |
| 25 | Orlando Magic | 24.5 | 353,532 |
| 26 | Indiana Pacers | 28.2 | 344,919 |
| 27 | Detroit Pistons | 25.7 | 329,250 |
| 28 | Philadelphia 76ers | 22.9 | 301,793 |
| 29 | Milwaukee Bucks | 24.6 | 297,663 |
| 30 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 24.5 | 292,322 |
Owners like winning and making money, and fans don't like paying for a losing product. The extra ticket sales and excitement generated by a playoff run, even a short one, can benefit both sides.
But the ultimate goal is winning a championship, right? If a general manager looks at his team's roster and knows it can't compete for that, going for it doesn't make sense.
The teams in this slideshow should be at that point of evaluation. Should they make a run at the playoffs or go full-on tank?
The likes of the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks or others who are already at the bottom won't be discussed. They're past the point of no return.
Denver Nuggets
1 of 5
The Denver Nuggets started this season with a veteran-laden roster, tempered optimism and a desire to return to the playoffs after missing out in 2014, but that seems like ages ago.
In September, Basketball Insiders' Cody Taylor was among those who thought they had a shot:
"Out in the West, there could be as many as 12 teams legitimately competing for the playoffs, and the Nuggets' chances will surely be determined by how their players coming back from injury perform.
With those players returning and playing like they have in the past, the Nuggets should be competitive for the season, and their deep bench could prove huge come March and April if it remains as is. Barring an injury to [Arron] Afflalo, [Kenneth] Faried or [Ty] Lawson, the Nuggets should be a playoff team next season.
"
Fast forward to January, and the Nuggets are already out of the race. They're nine games under .500 and 8.5 games back of the eighth-place Phoenix Suns. That's too much ground to make up in the brutal West.
So it's time to make some more win-later moves beyond sending Timofey Mozgov to the Cleveland Cavaliers for two first-round picks. And they have the pieces to do so.
NBA.com's David Aldridge has reported that they're shopping Wilson Chandler. Plus, Arron Afflalo and Danilo Gallinari could be intriguing to contenders in need of some help on the wings.
It's time for the Nuggets to unload as many veterans as possible, acquire future assets and give young guys like Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic more playing time.
Verdict: Tank
Indiana Pacers
2 of 5
The 1995-96 San Antonio Spurs won 59 games behind the brilliant play of center David Robinson then won just 20 the next season as Robinson missed all but six games with a broken foot.
They wound up with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1997 NBA draft and took Wake Forest's Tim Duncan. The rest is, well you know the saying.
The Indiana Pacers find themselves in a similar situation. Last season, they won 56 games, but they are now without their best player due to a broken leg.
With Paul George out, the Pacers are just 17-31 but still have a shot at the playoffs because they play in the Eastern Conference.
They can either chase the No. 8 seed with their current core or blow it up and hope to draft another star to play alongside George when he comes back.
Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders talked about possibly moving Roy Hibbert and David West, saying, "The situation to watch in Indiana is Roy Hibbert—he has the option to be a free agent as does David West, at some point the Pacers have to entertain that both could be lost for nothing in July."
Indiana's unique situation offers it a shot at a quicker tank and rebuild than most teams ever get. Passing it up could be a big mistake.
Verdict: Tank
Sacramento Kings
3 of 5As you can see in the video above, there was legitimate playoff buzz surrounding the Sacramento Kings in November.
But with DeMarcus Cousins missing some games and the borderline nonsensical firing of head coach Michael Malone knocking the Kings way out of contention, they might want to think about joining the race to the bottom.
That could mean trading some veterans for future assets or just being overly "cautious" with injuries and minutes for Cousins.
Or even better, they could just go all-in on owner Vivek Ranadive's vision for basketball, as relayed by Grantland's Zach Lowe:
"The Kings are going to be entertaining! Owner Vivek Ranadive has pitched the idea to the team's brain trust of playing four-on-five defense and leaving one player to cherry-pick, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. The Kings aren't actually going to do that, but their D-League might, and it shows Ranadive is committed to pushing boundaries in his search for an offbeat brand of 'position-less' ball.
"
Doing that could be a two-birds-with-one-stone endeavor. The Kings increase their odds of keeping their first-round pick, which is top-10 protected, and simultaneously give Ranadive a firsthand look at why four-on-five won't work in the NBA.
Verdict: Tank
Boston Celtics
4 of 5
Technically, the Boston Celtics might already be tanking, but playing for a good coach in the Eastern Conference still has them in the hunt for a playoff spot.
They're just 2.5 games back of the eighth seed, despite shipping off several productive players and hoarding assets over the last few years. They're now owed a whopping 15 draft picks between 2015 and 2018 from various teams.
So where do they fall on this "tanking/going for it" scale?
Given the number of picks they already have, the Celtics don't need to lose many games to get value out of the draft. Even if they make the playoffs, they can package a number of those incoming picks and make a move to get into the lottery.
They've reached a point where they have enough talent to make a run now without sacrificing any flexibility or future considerations.
Verdict: Don't Tank
Brooklyn Nets
5 of 5
There might not be another team in the league more in need of a reboot than the Brooklyn Nets.
They're just a game behind the eighth-place Charlotte Hornets, but with the amount of money they've sunk into their core, they should be competing for much more than a mere berth into the postseason.
| Joe Johnson | $23,180,790 | $24,894,863 | $48,075,653 | |
| Deron Williams | $19,754,465 | $21,042,800 | $22,331,135 | $40,797,265 |
| Brook Lopez | $15,719,063 | $16,744,219 | $15,719,063 | |
| Kevin Garnett | $12,000,000 | $12,000,000 | ||
| Jarrett Jack | $6,300,000 | $6,300,000 | $6,300,000 | $13,100,000 |
| Mirza Teletovic | $3,368,100 | $3,368,100 | ||
| Bojan Bogdanovic | $3,278,000 | $3,425,510 | $3,573,020 | $10,276,530 |
| Sergey Karasev | $1,533,840 | $1,599,840 | $2,463,754 | $1,533,840 |
| Mason Plumlee | $1,357,080 | $1,415,520 | $2,328,530 | $1,357,080 |
| Alan Anderson | $1,276,061 | $1,333,484 | $1,276,061 | |
| Jerome Jordan | $915,243 | |||
| Darius Morris | $702,756 | |||
| Markel Brown | $507,336 | $845,059 | $507,336 | |
| Cory Jefferson | $507,336 | $845,059 | $75,000 | |
| Travis Outlaw | $4,000,000 | |||
| Team Totals | $94,400,070 | $78,446,354 | $36,996,439 | $148,085,928 |
Unfortunately, Joe Johnson, Deron Williams and Brook Lopez have all performed well below the value of their contracts, making it difficult to move any one of them.
Basketball Insiders' Alex Kennedy tweeted, "Rival executive told me that restrictions put on tax teams and ugly contracts of Williams/Johnson are making it difficult for Nets to trade."
In addition to that, Brooklyn already has eight draft picks between 2015 and 2020 going to other teams in trades. Even tanking is hard for the Nets right now, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try.
Just waiting for the money to come off the books will take two or three years. So if they can find any suitors willing to take the big deals off their hands or give them even a second-round pick, they almost have to make the deal.
Verdict: Tank
Unless otherwise noted, all stats and salary figures are courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball-Reference.com and are current as of Jan. 30.
Andy Bailey covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him at @AndrewDBailey.
