i don’t think most of the bottom teams are tanking

the league has actively punished tanking, especially super hard tanking. the true bottom teams have consistently been pushed out of higher draft picks. and tanking looks really bad on your team

it’s a high risk low reward strategy that i realistically don’t think many (if any) teams are employing in a meaningful way.

i think the teams at the bottom are just fuckinf Bad and are being punished for being Bad. there’s little way for them to improve because some teams are just Too Big To Fail

nico harrison trades away his superstar (who took the mavs to the finals) in one of the worst trades in nba history and is immediately rewarded with the first pick (nba finals in 23-24 and playins in 24-25). the spurs get 3 top 4 picks in a row while the worst team in the league is pushed to 5th pick AGAIN.

like idk i just can’t believe that parity exists within the league when the league needs some teams to succeed more than others

people wanna talk about how the league is punishing tanking but also think that like 6-7 teams hard tank every year?? a punishment deincentivizes behavior and you think these teams are STILL engaging in this behavior that has consistently produced few rewards?

i think a lot of the bottom teams are just Bad and quite literally aren’t being given the best shot at proper rebuilding because certain teams Cannot Fail.