Dave Reardon: Get rid of tanking by letting worst teams play for No. 1 pick
· Yahoo Sports
Can we all agree that tanking sucks?
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OK, it’s not as bad as flat-out throwing games, but strategizing to lose for better draft position is getting more and more blatant, especially in the NBA. Also, it’s kind of dumb especially this year when you consider the great depth of the first-round talent.
Part of the problem is the regular season is just too long. But too much money is at stake for anyone to consider shortening it.
So there is some legitimacy to occasionally resting players for load-management reasons. The concept is abused, however, as some teams look for ways to lose, valuing a high draft pick over integrity of the game.
The Jazz and Pacers were so obvious about it that they were fined in February for benching healthy starters.
But those are just the most extreme examples.
What can be done to try to fix the system?
College basketball has March Madness. The NBA needs some April Anarchy.
Put the teams that don’t make the playoffs into a postseason, one-and-done tournament. The winner gets the No. 1 pick in the upcoming draft. The loser of the championship game gets No. 2. The ties caused by losses in the earlier rounds can be broken by point differential, or the coaches can play H-O-R-S-E. I’d settle for anything other than a coin flip or a ping pong ball lottery.
I know I’m not the first to think of this general idea and theorize it could motivate teams to continue to compete hard even after they are knocked out of playoff contention.
The ping pong ball lottery system’s got to go, too. Why make something as important to the league as order of the draft determined by pure luck?
Last year the Dallas Mavericks got Cooper Flagg — who was considered as the clear No. 1 pick, as much as Francisco Mendoza is in the NFL Draft that starts Thursday. But this happened because the Mavs, who went 39-43, and made it to the play-in, got lucky with the ping pong balls. Their odds of getting the No 1 pick were less than two percent.
The antidote to tanking — or a bailout for stupidly trading away one of the league’s best players — should not be sheer luck and fuel for conspiracy theorists.
While we’re at it …
Too many teams already make it to the playoffs, especially when you count the play-in.
The NBA has 30 teams. They play 82 regular-season games to eliminate just six from the postseason.
Even without the money-grab play-in games, more than half of the league gets into the playoffs.
Those who like the play-in say it keeps more teams in the mix at the end of the season.
But in the mix for what, exactly?
In its six-year history, no play-in team has won the NBA championship. The 2023 Miami Heat are the only one to make it to the Finals, losing in five games to Denver.
So, scrap the play-in. In a year or two when the league expands (Las Vegas and Seattle are not a done deal yet, but this appears to be inevitable) there will be 32 teams. That’s a perfect number for 16 in the playoffs, and the 16 that don’t make it competing in a survive-and-advance for the first draft pick.
Since seeding will be determined by the final standings, there will be motivation to win even for the teams that are knocked out of the playoffs early.
Some say this defeats the purpose of giving the worst teams in the league a chance to improve because they will likely lose to the teams that barely missed the playoffs. OK, let the teams with the worse records play at home to even it up a bit. Either way, the teams that don’t make the playoffs will still get the highest draft picks, and theoretically better players than the playoff teams who pick later. The difference is the order of the picks for the non-playoff teams will be earned, not determined by who is best at losing, or getting lucky in a game of bingo.
A pro sport is supposed to be a meritocracy, anyway.
It’s not only about winning, but winning when the most is at stake, and in a one-game situation, any non-playoff NBA team should be able to beat any other non-playoff NBA team.
That’s assuming, of course, that no one is tanking.