NBA Execs Sound Off on Tanking for Draft Picks, 'It's the Best Strategy to Get Better'
Amid the growing epidemic of tanking within the NBA, multiple league sources gave their thoughts on the situation anonymously in discussions with ESPN's Anthony Slater this week.
Two executives acknowledged the existence of tanking, and noted that the reason it is so prevalent is because it has been proven to work.
A Western Conference general manager pointed out how blatant tanking has gotten before expressing the belief that tanking is the best path to eventual success for many.
"These teams are doing the whole gamut: sitting guys in the fourth, playing analytically bad lineups, drawing up plays for bad shots," the GM said. "The creativity is impressive and I don't blame them. It's the best strategy to get better. Look at all the most promising teams in the league: Thunder, Spurs, Pistons, Rockets, Hornets. Years of being bad and building up on high picks. It's painful but worthwhile."
An Eastern Conference executive agreed about the effectiveness of tanking, noting that it's why more teams are doing it now than ever before.
"It's been going on for so long, but people have just sort of ignored it because one or two teams were doing it at a time—not 10," the exec said. "If it didn't work, 10 teams wouldn't be doing it."
A telltale sign of tanking this season is the fact that the team with the No. 10 seed in each conference, which is the final spot in the postseason play-in tournament, leads the 11th-place team in their respective conferences by at least 10 games.
Five teams in the Western Conference have 26 or fewer wins, including the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz, who are tied for the worst record in the West at 21-59.
Meanwhile, three Eastern Conference teams have 20 or fewer victories, "led" by the Washington Wizards with a league-worst 17-62 mark.
It comes as little surprise this season in particular that teams are trying to position for a top pick since there are several potential franchise players poised to enter the 2026 NBA draft, including BYU's AJ Dybantsa, Kansas' Darryn Peterson, Duke's Cameron Boozer, North Carolina's Caleb Wilson and Arkansas' Darius Acuff Jr.
While tanking is often a suitable strategy in the eyes of NBA executives, others aren't necessarily on board.
A Western Conference player expressed his frustrations to Slater, saying, "It's easier to stomach if it's a young player they've just drafted with a future in the franchise. But when they're just bringing in dudes off the street and playing them over you in a contract year? That s--t will piss anyone off."
Little has been done this season to curtail tanking, but the NBA is already taking steps toward limiting it next season and in the future.
Last month, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the league presented three proposals to the board of governors ahead of a formal vote in May.
All three proposals are meant to take the incentivization out of tanking by various means, including changing the lottery odds, including more teams in the lottery (such as play-in and playoff teams), basing the lottery odds off two-year records instead of one, and creating a win total floor that would artificially add wins to a teams record if they don't reach it.
Each proposal seemingly has pros and cons, but it feels like a near certainty that either one of those proposals or an entirely new one will be enacted prior to next season in an effort put a stop to tanking.
