With the playoff places almost decided this is the time of the year where tanking teams really decide to step it up. They can no longer make the playoffs and the focus is now on giving themselves the best possible odds for getting a lottery pick in next year’s draft. The NBA has taken steps in recent years to prevent this by disciplining teams who don’t play their best team for an extended period of time. But there is only so much they can do. In reality there is no way to stop a team tanking. Whether it leads to success to tank for a number of years is up for debate. The 76ers seemed to have proven it can after going through the “process” of tanking for 5 years to get high draft picks and put together a young generation of talent. However, this requires extreme patience and a fan base that is willing to accept years of losing. It’s not something we want to see in the NBA but looking at the 76ers this year it is definitely an option for teams to consider. The 76ers definitely didn’t get all their picks right looking at Jahil Okafor and Nerlens Noel who have both now been moved onto other teams. They have however drafted 2 transcendent talents in Joel Embid and Ben Simmons. Both players have had stellar years and have led the 76ers to the playoffs in their first year together.

 

For the smaller market teams it is easy to want to emulate the success of the 76rs. Franchises like the Phoenix Suns and the Atlanta Hawks are not able to compete to sign the top free agents. So, they are faced with a choice. Years of mediocrity, or tanking and potentially drafting a generational talent that can be the face of your franchise for ten years.

 

In reality it is tough for smaller market teams to ever really compete with, but it can be done. The Utah Jazz have proven that in the past where they created a dynasty through John Stockton and Karl Malone, two of the greatest players of their era. The Jazz made to finals during the late 90s and were only stopped from winning a title by the greatness of Micheal Jordan.

 

At the moment the two teams with the highest odds of getting the number one pick are the Memphis Grizzlies and the Phoenix Suns. The Grizzlies have been serial playoff contenders for the last 6 years without ever breaking through to the finals. But this year they lost their max contract point guard Mike Conley and fired their head coach David Fizzdale half way through the season, so their best option was to tank. The Grizzlies have been reluctant to tank in the past because they don’t have the legacy or the history to continue to attract fans during a losing season. The franchise only relocated to Memphis from Vancouver in 2001 and haven’t had the success or huge superstars to create a huge fan base. Their owner Robert J Pera has accepted losing money this year on the hope of drafting a generational talent and with the amount of talent in this draft already they have a good chance of finding one. The Grizzlies are in the fortunate position that whoever they draft will not be joining a terrible team. With Mike Conley expected to be fit again next year and former defensive player of the year Marc Gasol the Grizzlies have established talent to put alongside their new potential star and a squad that has had a winning culture.

 

The Phoenix Suns on the other hand have been bad for a while. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2010 and have been in rebuild mode for a while. They have drafted one outstanding talent in Devon Booker who had 70 points a game last year against the Celtics. However, they have struggled to put the necessary talent alongside him. They have taken Alex Len, Dragan Bender and Josh Jackson with top 5 picks in the last 5 years, and none of them look like being anything but good role players at the moment.

 

Which is why this year’s draft is so critical for the franchise. The fans are growing restless and if they don’t draft a star this year that can be the number 2 option to Booker they might start to revolt. DeAndre Ayton is favoured to go number 1 in this years draft and is one of the most exciting and polished big men to come out of this draft. He has a more consistent jump shot that Karl Anthony Towns had when he was drafted 1^st overall in 2015. He looks like he is NBA ready and would be the perfect complimentary big man to put alongside a talent like Booker.

 

This year looks like its stacked full with talents and draft classes like this deep don’t come around every year. Whatever pick the Suns or Grizzlies get they need to make sure they don’t miss out on talent and draft a bust. If they do, the patience of the fans and the owners just might run out and there will be some general managers looking for a new job next year. That’s the risk you take if you tank your resting the whole success of your franchise and million dollars on the shoulders of a 19 year old kid, and more often than not the pressure is too much.