Fansided

5 NBA teams that should start tanking now

By Adam Cox

Oct 13, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton talks with Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell (1) while playing against the Sacramento Kings during the first quarter at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 13, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton talks with Los Angeles Lakers guard D'Angelo Russell (1) while playing against the Sacramento Kings during the first quarter at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joshua Dahl-USA TODAY Sports /
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1. Los Angeles Lakers

Luke Walton is a good coach, that much was apparent last season with the Golden State Warriors. Now that he has moved to the Lakers and shed the interim tag, Walton has continued to prove as much. The Lakers are 7-7 this season with largely the same team that finished last season 17-65. If the NBA playoffs started today the Lakers would be included. D’Angelo Russell and Julius Randle have had another year of development and the Lakers added another lottery pick in Brandon Ingram, but this improvement is largely Luke Walton’s doing.

The question is whether this improvement is sustainable. The answer is, no. The Lakers are averaging 109.8 points per game, second in the NBA behind only the Golden State Warriors. The Lakers are giving up 109.6 points per game, 27th in the NBA.

Nobody expected the Lakers to perform so well so early this season. For their part, it’s better if Lakers do not continue to do so. This is a team with zero depth. Timofey Mozgov is their starting center and what talent they do have is young and not ready to win yet.

If the Lakers did somehow manage to sneak into the playoffs as the 8th seed, what’s their future? Lose in the first round and a middle-of-the-road draft pick that will not help next season.

There’s no point in trying to get a low playoff seed this season, especially when it’s unexpected. The goal of the Lakers needs to be to stockpile as much talent as possible in the short-term in order to win in the long-term. Beginning next season, with another starter-quality talent added, the Lakers can begin to challenge for a better playoff seed.

Tank now.

Next: 5 NBA Players who could be First-Time All-Stars

Numerous other NBA teams may want to think about losing now. The Dallas Mavericks, New Orleans Pelicans, Brooklyn Nets and Philadelphia 76ers are bad. They need to lose in order to get a good draft pick and add talent for the future. However, they don’t need to tank –tanking implies some conscious effort. Thereby, trying to lose. Those teams are losing all by themselves. The five teams on this list should try to lose. 

Finally, tanking gets a bad name, but it can work. Ask the Chicago Cubs.

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