Some things we know to be true and need not be told. This came to mind when ESPN The Magazine rolled out a report by Jeff Goodman that detailed an anonymous NBA GM’s intentions and plans to tank this coming season in a bid for the top overall pick in the 2014 draft.
Presumably this GM would be focusing on Andrew Wiggins, the kid out of Toronto and currently at the University of Kansas, the projected No. 1. No guarantees in this sort of thing, of course: The lottery gives the team with the worst record in the NBA a 25 percent chance of landing the top pick. In this year’s class, though, the thinking is that a top five pick gives you a chance at a franchise player, something like the talent in the 2003 draft (LeBron, Melo, Bosh, Wade and, lamentably, Darko).
“Our team isn’t good enough to win and we know it,” the GM told Goodman. “So this season we want to develop and evaluate our young players, let them learn from their mistakes and get us in a position to grab a great player.”
Seriously, does anyone who follows the sport think for one second that every GM goes into a season with the intent to squeeze every last win out of the schedule? Or that no GM looks so far forward as June to think how his slot on the draft board might affect the team’s fortunes? If this is what leagues imagine they’ve led us to believe, then they presume our heads zipper up in the back. On the contrary, fans halfway knowledgeable know when it’s time for the tear-down and would pillory a GM who either missed it or was in denial, a criticism that fell hard on Bryan Colangelo formerly of the Raptors. And the reason that the GM was willing to speak not for attribution to Goodman is the fact that he is probably one of six or maybe even eight execs who are going into the season with this mindset. Is it Boston? Is it Phoenix or Philly? Orlando or Utah? The GM with the plan to be pragmatic in losing could be from any of these teams or another unnamed. Do you suppose that these teams are going to make any moves in mid-season that might bring a bit more talent, another win and maybe have them fall in the draft from fourth overall to ninth?
There were some interesting points in the ESPN story, notably what seems to be the conventional wisdom of the NBA GMs that players on a tanking team have no problem with reprising the role of the Washington Generals. As Goodman notes, so long as players are getting their minutes, getting their numbers, getting their money and setting themselves for contracts down the line, they’ll lose games but no sleep over it. It would seem pretty cynical or realistic. Maybe both. Or wrong.
Even given the fact that a majority of the roster of a tanking team would be turning over in two or three years time, there would be risk of collateral damage. If you had a first-rounder from this year’s draft and broke him into the league with a 12-win team, you’d fear that he could develop nasty habits, nastiest of them being a tendency to mail it in. After all, these kids usually come from programs where they’ve developed good habits that lead to winning.
I hate to draw all things to hockey but I will because it’s entirely germane. Years back, I spoke to George McPhee about his tear-down in Washington that positioned the Capitals for a shot at the No. 1 pick in the 2004, namely Alexander Ovechkin. McPhee gutted his roster and brought in minor-league veterans—the majority of them never played in the league again. For some, their entire NHL careers were limited to the Caps’ downward spiral. Funnily enough, though, the Caps blew their shot at the worst record in the league by picking up unexpected points near the end of the season. The Penguins “worsted” Washington but Pittsburgh lost when it hoped to win: namely the NHL lottery. Washington got Ovechkin and fans, Pittsburgh Evgeni Malkin and a Cup. Who won or lost I’ll leave to you. McPhee could speak his mind and even laugh about blowing up the Caps because it came a few years after the fact.
A few years from now a GM will be recounting the teardown that netted his team Andrew Wiggins. The reason he couldn’t say anything about it during that awful 2013-14 season? Not that the fans didn’t know. They knew all along. To a one they’ll approve of it after the fact. But a GM who put his name to tanking this winter would put himself and his team in the crosshairs of David Stern and Adam Silver. The Association has to keep up appearances, just a formality, just for its own sense of righteousness.