These teams are falling on their swords for a chance at Anthony Davis. But have they done enough?
Why Teams Are Tanking
Anthony Davis (Right) is the best NBA prospect to come out of college since Kevin Durant or LeBron James (depending on whom you ask). He's a skilled and dominant big man who was a 6 ft.1 in. point guard until a growth spurt two years ago turned him into a 6 ft.11 in. forward. This means he can handle the ball and pass like a little guy, but while blocking everybody's shots and kicking ass down low. He will be the first pick in this summer's draft.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (Left), Davis' college teammate will most likely be the second pick. Kidd-Gilchrist is a small forward who will immediately make whatever team he's on better. He's a great defender, he's tough, and he has a quickly developing offensive game.
Teams are tanking for a chance to draft these guys. In the NBA, every team that doesn't make the playoffs is entered into a lottery to decide who has the number one pick. The worse your record, the more lottery balls you get.
(Getty Images / Ronald Martinez)
Cleveland Cavaliers
My beloved Cavaliers are pulling out some classic tanking techniques. They've sat their rookie star Kyrie Irving (the result of a tanked season himself) for weeks with a banged shoulder. They traded Ramon Sessions (currently playing well in LA) for the privilege to pay Luke Walton. They're giving huge minutes to guys on 10-day contracts. These are some great moves if you want to lose games. And it's mostly worked. The Cavs have dropped 11 of 14 since the trading deadline, but you can only try to lose so much. And when it comes to playing tank-legends like Raptors and the Bobcats you need to take your tanking to the next level. The Cavs couldn't and got two costly wins in the last week.
Current Draft Slot: 6
Current Lottery Odds For The Number One Pick: 5.4%
How Else They Could Tank: Antawn Jamison is getting pretty old. He looks like he could use some rest.
Toronto Raptors
The Raptors are perennial leaders when it comes to the art of losing on purpose. For the last two years they've been playing something of a long con. By drafting talented Lithuanian big man Jonas Valanciunas with last year's 5th pick, despite knowing that he wouldn't be able to play in the NBA for at least another year, the team was able to sell their fans on the fact that they were improving without actually improving on the floor. It was a masterstroke of tanking.
Things could still be worse, though. Jose Calderon has decided to use this season to remind everyone how good he can be, by being among the league leaders in assists. But even Calderon is doing his part to help (hurt) the team, by leaving last night's game with an "eye injury."* Losing their point guard is a surefire way to get a better draft slot.
Current Draft Slot: 5
Current Lottery Odds For The Number One Pick: 8.8%
How Else They Could Tank: Calderon should probably rest his eye for the year. You can never be too careful with those things.
*I'm aware that his eye injury was most likely legitimate and not driven by the will to lose.
(Reuters / MIKE CASSESE)
Sacramento Kings
It's somewhat unfair to call what the Kings have done this year "tanking." They're just a terrible basketball team that looks like they were assembled by a crazy person. Tyreke Evans, Boogie Cousins, and Jimmer Fredette? That's not a basketball team, that's a totally watchable sitcom (Two Guys, A Mormon, And A Shitty Basketball Team, Wednesdays on ABC).
That said, there have been signs of tanking. JJ Hickson looked totally lost during the entirety of his stay in Sacramento. He averaged 4.7 points per game and 5 rebounds. As soon as the Kings waived him and Hickson found himself in Portland his game returned to him. Since the move Hickson is averaging 14 points per game and 7 rebounds. So was it tanking?
No. Tanking implies that there is a workable basketball operation that is intentionally performing below expectations for the purpose of adding a high draft pick. Once that draft pick is added a truly "tanking" team will be able to flip a switch and look like a halfway decent basketball team. This does not describe the Kings. They're just dysfunctional.
Current Draft Slot: 5
Current Lottery Odds For The Number One Pick: 11.9%
How Else They Could Tank: They could hire Keith Smart as their interim head coach... Oh wait.
(AP / Rich Pedroncelli)
