Adam Zagoria covers basketball at all levels. He is the author of two books and an award-winning journalist whose articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide.
Adam Silver Insists the Sixers Aren’t Tanking. Um.
You can tank in a number of ways.
One is to straight out try and lose basketball games, which I find hard to believe any NBA team is actually doing.
The other is to purposely construct a roster that is simply incapable of winning many games, thus insuring your team gets a lottery pick.
The latter appears to be what the Philadelphia 76ers are doing, and have been doing for a couple of years now.
The Sixers are 0-5, could threaten the NBA record for most losses in a season (9-73) and have the league’s youngest roster (23.97 years).
When I asked one veteran NBA scout if the Sixers were tanking by purposely assembling a roster that can’t win, the answer was a simple “Yes.”
Said a second NBA scout: “They are completely rebuilding through the draft on a 5-7 year plan.”
Yet NBA Commissioner Adam Silver insists the Sixers aren’t tanking.
“First of all, no team goes on the court trying to lose games,” Silver told Harvey Araton of the New York Times via email for this great piece in Friday’s editions. “What’s sometimes labeled tanking in our league is, in my view, more accurately described as rebuilding. Unfortunately, rebuilding a team is not easy in any league and takes time and careful planning.”
Silver added: “I am concerned by the often cited conventional wisdom that finishing at the bottom (in order to acquire better draft picks) presents the only reliable path for some teams to build a championship roster. The draft is structured to help the teams with the worst records, but it’s an imperfect system. In fact, many top picks do not transform their teams.”
The Sixers have stockpiled lottery picks in the past couple of years, but they have also been injured big men incapable of immediately helping the team.
Former Kentucky star Nerlens Noel was the No. 6 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, but did not play at all last season while recovering from ACL surgery.
In five games this year, Noel is averaging 7.2 points and 5.8 rebounds.
In the 2014 Draft, the Sixers took Kansas big man Joel Embiid with the No. 3 pick, but he may miss the entire season while recovering from a broken foot. Their other top acquisition, power forward Dario Saric, who was taken at No. 12 by the Orlando Magic, remains contractually tied to Turkey for two years.
The leader of the Sixers is second-year point guard Michael Carter-Williams out of Syracuse, the No. 11 pick in 2013.
“Definitely, I feel like I am the leader on this team,” Carter-Williams, out until next week with a shoulder injury, told Araton.
The Sixers may not be actively trying to lose games, but they sure look like they could threaten the NBA mark for the worst record in a single season. Even if they win 20 games, as Fivethirtyeight.com projected, they would be in line for yet another lottery pick.
That puts them squarely in line to “Lose More for Okafor,” “Play Like Clowns for Towns,” or “Cede the Day for Mudiay” in order to land a Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns or Emmanuel Mudiay in 2015.
The Sixers’ players may not actually be trying to lose games. In fact, I’m sure they’re trying the best they can.
They just won’t win very many, and that seems exactly how ownership and management want it.
Photo: Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
Adam Zagoria is a Basketball Insider who covers basketball at all levels. A contributor to The New York Times and SportsNet New York (SNY), he is also the author of two books and is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker. His articles have appeared in ESPN The Magazine, SLAM, Sheridan Hoops, Basketball Times and in newspapers nationwide. He also won an Emmy award for his work on the SNY mini-documentary on Syracuse guard Tyus Battle.
A veteran Ultimate Frisbee player, he has competed in numerous National and World Championships and, perhaps more importantly, his teams won the Westchester Summer League (WSL) championships in 2011 and 2013.
He lives in Manhattan with his wife and children.
You can tank in a number of ways.
One is to straight out try and lose basketball games, which I find hard to believe any NBA team is actually doing.
The other is to purposely construct a roster that is simply incapable of winning many games, thus insuring your team gets a lottery pick.
The latter appears to be what the Philadelphia 76ers are doing, and have been doing for a couple of years now.
The Sixers are 0-5, could threaten the NBA record for most losses in a season (9-73) and have the league’s youngest roster (23.97 years).
When I asked one veteran NBA scout if the Sixers were tanking by purposely assembling a roster that can’t win, the answer was a simple “Yes.”
Said a second NBA scout: “They are completely rebuilding through the draft on a 5-7 year plan.”
Yet NBA Commissioner Adam Silver insists the Sixers aren’t tanking.
“First of all, no team goes on the court trying to lose games,” Silver told Harvey Araton of the New York Times via email for this great piece in Friday’s editions. “What’s sometimes labeled tanking in our league is, in my view, more accurately described as rebuilding. Unfortunately, rebuilding a team is not easy in any league and takes time and careful planning.”
Silver added: “I am concerned by the often cited conventional wisdom that finishing at the bottom (in order to acquire better draft picks) presents the only reliable path for some teams to build a championship roster. The draft is structured to help the teams with the worst records, but it’s an imperfect system. In fact, many top picks do not transform their teams.”
The Sixers have stockpiled lottery picks in the past couple of years, but they have also been injured big men incapable of immediately helping the team.
Former Kentucky star Nerlens Noel was the No. 6 pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, but did not play at all last season while recovering from ACL surgery.
In five games this year, Noel is averaging 7.2 points and 5.8 rebounds.
In the 2014 Draft, the Sixers took Kansas big man Joel Embiid with the No. 3 pick, but he may miss the entire season while recovering from a broken foot. Their other top acquisition, power forward Dario Saric, who was taken at No. 12 by the Orlando Magic, remains contractually tied to Turkey for two years.
The leader of the Sixers is second-year point guard Michael Carter-Williams out of Syracuse, the No. 11 pick in 2013.
“Definitely, I feel like I am the leader on this team,” Carter-Williams, out until next week with a shoulder injury, told Araton.
The Sixers may not be actively trying to lose games, but they sure look like they could threaten the NBA mark for the worst record in a single season. Even if they win 20 games, as Fivethirtyeight.com projected, they would be in line for yet another lottery pick.
That puts them squarely in line to “Lose More for Okafor,” “Play Like Clowns for Towns,” or “Cede the Day for Mudiay” in order to land a Jahlil Okafor, Karl-Anthony Towns or Emmanuel Mudiay in 2015.
The Sixers’ players may not actually be trying to lose games. In fact, I’m sure they’re trying the best they can.
They just won’t win very many, and that seems exactly how ownership and management want it.
Photo: Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
