One of the most controversial topics in the NBA is tanking i.e. intentionally putting a weak product on the floor which will lose games and in the process yield a high draft pick. Some call it smart and others call it dishonest. Those who call it smart say that sometimes it's a necessary strategy in order to build a team which can win a championship, while those who call it dishonest say it's wrong out of principle since athletics is all about putting your best foot forward.
I am one who agrees that it can be smart since pro sports is a business and teams are individual businesses all trying to achieve the ultimate goal of winning a championship. In the NBA, there is one champion every year and 29 teams which fall short. If you own one of the 29 teams which falls short, you must ask why your team fell short and also ask what needs to be done in order for your team to be the one team that is left standing.
For some teams like the Los Angeles Clippers or Oklahoma City Thunder, the solution to winning a title lies in free agency and having the stars of the team improve. For other teams such as the Philadelphia 76ers, the answer doesn't solely lie in adding free agents or having the best players on the team play better. The answer lies in first acquiring the best talent available by whatever means necessary even if it means tanking.
The 76ers have taken this approach to heart and have decided to tank like we've never seen a team tank before. I rarely use the word "masterful" when it comes to sports, but the 76ers are truly doing a masterful tanking job and the potential payout is enormous. I will list various techniques that this team has used in order to orchestrate this state of the art tanking job.
The first technique the 76ers have used is what I call "Go big or go home." This technique was used back in 2012 when the team made a four-way trade with the Nuggets, Lakers, and Magic which sent their franchise player Andre Iguodala to the Nuggets in exchange for Andrew Bynum from the Lakers. This was a trade that was either going to make the 76ers a championship contender or a lottery team. It was really hard to tell since Andrew Bynum at the time was dealing with knee problems while also not being far removed from being one of the league's best big men.
Had Andrew Bynum panned out, the team would have had the best center in the NBA, which certainly would have changed the course of the franchise for the better. The risk of course was that if Bynum didn't pan out, they would lose a bunch of games and essentially start all over again from scratch.
The 76ers' decision to trade Andre Iguodala to get Andrew Bynum backfired which actually wasn't upsetting for them. The 76ers knew that if things backfired they would plummet to the bottom of the standings and they were ok with that. Their attitude was lets win now or really stink to acquire the best players in the draft. When Bynum didn't work out, they wholeheartedly embraced the tanking path as the way in which they would go about building a contending team.
As they started their path to tanking excellence, the first thing the 76ers had to do was get rid of any other talented young player who didn't appear to be a cornerstone player of a championship team. The reason for letting guys like this go is that such players will only help the team win games and stay away from the bottom of the standings while also not being a part of the long-term plans of the organization. Just prior to the Andrew Bynum trade, the 76ers let their promising young point guard Lou Williams go, which was a player who fit this exact description.
After the Bynum experiment, the 76ers made sure to get rid of their budding all-star point guard Jrue Holiday in exchange for rookie center Nerlens Noel in a draft day trade with the New Orleans Pelicans. The 76ers couldn't trade literally everybody they wanted to at once, so for the time being, Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young remained on the roster.
In addition to parting with guys like Lou Williams, there are three key drafting techniques that the 76ers have used which have really been at the core of this tanking job. The first technique is "draft a talented player who can help you win in the future and entertain the fans in the meantime". This technique was used when the team drafted point guard Michael Carter-Willliams in 2013 with the number 11 overall pick. Michael Carter-Williams had a breakout season and won rookie of the year honors this past season, averaging 16.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game.
(credit: rantsports.com)
It was obvious that the front office was shaking in their boots when the team started 3-0, but thankfully the team did poorly enough to land the third overall pick in this year's draft with a 19-63 record. The 76ers needed to draft somebody who could start helping them right away and give the fans a reason to come watch them play. Michael Carter-Williams did just that for the organization and in the process he has proven worthy of being the first player who they can truly label as a "cornerstone" for a championship team of the future.
The second drafting technique that the team has used is called"draft a talented guy who is hurt for the year." This technique takes guts, but the 76ers aren't ashamed. When they traded Jrue Holiday to acquire Nerlens Noel in the 2013 NBA draft, they knew Noel was going to be out for the season with a torn ACL, but they also knew that he was likely the most talented player in the draft.
Standing at 6'11 and weighing around 206 lbs, Noel saw his draft stock fall purely because of injury. His potential to be a rim protector and a force in the paint was enough of a reason for teams to gamble on him, but nobody wanted to take the risk until the Pelicans called his name.
The 76ers really liked his upside even with the injury and saw an opportunity to get themselves a second potential cornerstone of a championship team who would help them win games in the future but in the process help them lose games in the upcoming season due to his inability to play as he recovered from his torn ACL. It was perfect. They got the most talented player in the draft while also ensuring that they would have another lousy season even more lousy than before! It was all starting to come together at this point.
(credit: csnphilly.com)
The 76ers used this same technique again in this past draft when they drafted Kansas center Joel Embiid with the #3 overall pick. Embiid came into the draft as the most promising talent in the league due to his Hakeem Olajuwon-like qualities but he too saw his draft stock fall due to injury concerns about his back. When Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker got drafted with the top two picks, the 76ers swooped in and drafted Embiid knowing that they once again landed the most talented player in the draft who wouldn't be able to help them win in the upcoming season. The 76ers now have two potential beasts in the paint with one of them out for the upcoming season and the other (Noel) already looking like a front runner for rookie of the year.
The third technique the 76ers used was once again in this past draft and that is the "draft and stash" technique. This technique is simply drafting a really talented foreign player who can't play in the NBA for a few seasons due to obligations to a foreign team. The player they used this technique on was Dario Saric, a 6'10 power forward out of Croatia whom they landed in a draft day trade with the Orlando Magic. Saric is incredibly talented and has point-forward potential which means he has the potential to play some point guard as a forward. He's got a good shot and great skills for a big man who easily has the skill-set to play with Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid. What makes this move great for their quest for tanking is that he once again will help them win in the future, but not next season which ups their odds of landing another high draft pick.
In addition to these draft techniques, the 76ers have already found a home for promising guard Evan Turner by trading him to the Indiana Pacers for Danny Granger whom they went on to cut. In addition, they are also rumored to be looking to move their very talented young forward Thaddeus Young (17.9 points and 6.0 rebounds per game last season) to the Timberwolves to help facilitate a Kevin Love trade.
The wheels are still in motion in this tanking process for the 76ers, and so far things are going good. They have two young bigs in Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid who can form another "Twin Towers" duo like the Rockets had back in the 80s, a budding all-star point guard in Michael Carter-Williams, and a very promising international talent in Dario Saric. In addition, they are sure to get another high draft pick in the 2015 NBA draft.
The bottom line is that what the 76ers are doing is necessary for them to contend in the future. They've acquired quality building blocks already and are on track to acquire more. Tanking may not be the most honest thing to do or be one filled with integrity, but it is a technique that can work provided that you know what you are doing. The 76ers clearly know what they are doing and they are doing it quite well. Several teams lose games with the hopes of landing the #1 pick, but only the Philadelphia 76ers have actually orchestrated a multi-part tanking job that is bringing in the most promising young players to their city.
It may not happen overnight, but before long we may eventually see a dominating team in Philadelphia that features Michael Carter-Williams, Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, Dario Saric, and some other promising young lottery pick. If we do see a dominating team with those guys as the key players, it will all be because the 76ers succeeded at pulling off the most masterful tanking job the league has ever seen.
---Ben Parker: follow me on twitter @nba_lord
