5 NBA Teams That Should Start Tanking Now
Firing up the tank three-quarters of the way through the NBA regular season is never ideal. Earlier is always better. Sometimes, though, designed eleventh-hour descents are necessary.
These five teams are living proof.
Our late-season bottom-out candidates run the gamut of unexpected and unintended consequences. Some squads must adjust in the face of insurmountable misfortune. Others, meanwhile, should consider course correcting after overachieving relative to expectations. Then, of course, we have the lone "You should've pulled the ripcord months ago" wolf.
To be sure: All of these teams can make up only so much ground in the pursuit of better lottery odds. None of them are in position to win the race to the absolute bottom. Tanking their hearts out is worth it anyway.
Brooklyn Nets
1 of 5
The Brooklyn Nets technically entered tanking mode the moment they re-acquired control of their next two first-round picks from the Houston Rockets. They have since overachieved at virtually every turn.
Pluckier than expected performances to start the year, particularly on offense, led them to flipping Dennis Schröder and Dorian Finney-Smith before the trade deadline. Those selloffs have worked as intended...sort of.
Brooklyn ranks dead last in offensive efficiency and 29th in net rating since Jan. 1. It still hasn't resulted in enough losing when you consider how much ground must be made up.
Kudos to head coach Jordi Fernandez and his troops for cobbling together pesky defensive stands to combat offensive deficits. The Nets are sixth in points allowed per possession over the past month-and-a-half. But the stakes are too high to keep this up.
Two losses separate Brooklyn from the fifth-worst record. Dipping that far will require out-losing the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors while keeping the Chicago Bulls, who are directly in front of the Nets, at bay.
Steering into the skid is an inexact science relative to Brooklyn's personnel. It doesn't employ a singular tank-ruiner—unless you count Fernandez. Controlling the controllables is more so the mission. In this case, that amounts to limiting run for Cam Johnson, Nicolas Claxton and probably Day'Ron Sharpe, too.
Chicago Bulls
2 of 5
Jettisoning Zach LaVine in advance of the trade deadline was both too little and too late for the Chicago Bulls. They are 22nd in net rating since Jan. 1 and 24th since the Feb. 8 deadline, and yet they're still on pace to fall butt-backwards into the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
A precipitous fall is officially out of the question. The Bulls have the eighth-worst record, which they should be locked into given how far the closest "challenger" sits in the standings. Their "ceiling" is likely the No. 5 lottery slot, currently owned by the Toronto Raptors, who have four more losses.
Offsetting that gap may prove impossible. But the Bulls won't know until they try.
Emphasizing minutes for Matas Buzelis is a good start. Ditto for LaVine's departure. Ayo Dosunmu's season-ending shoulder surgery fits the motif. Chicago must continue to push the envelop. Coby White doesn't need to play in every game. The same goes for Josh Giddey if he's going to continue shooting the lights out from three.
Nikola Vučević minutes (when healthy) are tank adjacent as this point. The same cannot be said for Lonzo Ball. Or even Kevin Huerter. Give Chicagoans what they need, Bulls. This is to say, give them more of Julian Phillips, Dalen Terry, Talen Horton-Tucker, et al.
Dallas Mavericks
3 of 5
Trading Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers arguably ruined the Dallas Mavericks' chances of doing anything worthwhile. Injuries have since cemented their trajectory to nowhere.
Kyrie Irving is done for the season after suffering a torn ACL in his left knee. Anthony Davis has not played since making his Mavs debut on Feb. 8 due to a groin injury. A fractured right ankle has kept Dereck Lively II on the sidelines for almost two months. Daniel Gafford (sprained right MCL) is barely halfway through a projected six-week absence. Caleb Martin has been out with a hip issue since before getting traded to Dallas.
The Mavs' season is over.
This group might have a large enough cushion as (non-Kyrie) players return to preserve their play-in chances. Tenth-place Dallas is three losses ahead of the 11th-place Phoenix Suns. But what's the point? Extending the inevitable by one game makes no sense—particularly when there's ample room to fall.
At least four teams below have no intention of throwing in the towel: The Suns, Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic. This list extends to five if you believe the Portland Trail Blazers embrace the play-in race. The Mavs have a real opportunity to grab top-10 lottery odds. And since they control only their next two first-rounders before surrendering rights to the following four, they might as well seize it.
Philadelphia 76ers
4 of 5
Officially shutting down Joel Embiid for the rest of the season could signal the Philadelphia 76ers' commitment to tanking. Nobody told Paul George.
Philadelphia was, in truth, screwed long before now. Embiid seldom looked like himself this year. The Sixers are going nowhere without him at the peak of his powers, let alone without him, period.
Tyrese Maxey's back issues merely underscore the importance of shutting down him and George and, frankly, even Quentin Grimes. Granted, Philadelphia isn't guaranteed to keep its pick. It'll head to the Oklahoma City Thunder if it lands outside the top six.
Fortunately(?) for the Sixers, they are currently tied for the NBA's sixth-worst record. If they try to not try hard enough, they might even be able to attain bottom-five standing. At the very least, they need to fend off fellow should-be tankers in Brooklyn and Chicago.
Fifth-place lottery odds give Philly a 64 percent chance of keeping its pick. The No. 6 spot lowers that to 43.4 percent. The No. 7 slot drags it down to 34.5 percent.
None of those odds are particularly killer. But when you owe Embiid $248.1 million over the next four years, without any injury protections, you must roll the dice on game-changing talent (or asset) infusion any way you can. Failing that, you might as well protect your remaining most important players from potential injury as you cross your fingers for better luck next year.
Portland Trail Blazers
5 of 5
The Portland Trail Blazers earn the final nod over the San Antonio Spurs. It is not an easy call.
Victor Wembanyama is done for the season after being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. His absence nukes any chance the Spurs have of party-crashing the play-in and playoff pictures.
Still, four losses separate San Antonio from the next spot down in the standings. It is not negating that kind of ground. With only one of the teams in the same vicinity (these Blazers) looming as tanking candidates, the Spurs are better served gleaning more information about how De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Devin Vassell and Jeremy Sochan can all fit together—or at least within the same rotation.
For Portland's part, there is prospective meaning in attempting to prolong its hot streak. The Blazers are comfortably above .500 with a top-five defense since Jan. 1, and this success is being driven by players who matter to the long-term program. If they believe Scoot Henderson can be The Guy moving forward, prioritizing better lottery odds isn't nearly as high-stakes for them as others.
At the same time, Portland has wiggle room to lean further into the youth movement. And while it already employs a quartet of high-end sub-25-year-olds in Henderson, Toumani Camara, Donovan Clingan and Shaedon Sharpe, it can't guarantee any of them are certified tentpoles.
Bites at the building-block apple must continue to take precedence. Even if it's a matter of just detaching themselves from the San Antonio-Atlanta-Orlando-Phoenix gaggle, the Blazers are better off treading water or marginally increasing their chances at a top-four pick.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky (@danfavale), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes.
Unless otherwise cited, stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference, Stathead or Cleaning the Glass. Salary information via Spotrac. Draft-pick obligations via RealGM.
