Over the past two weeks, NBA fans have been treated to some of the most egregious tanking in recent memory. Not just trading away good players for draft picks, or using vague and suspicious injuries designations to keep stars out of the lineup. The Jazz have been just pulling key players out of the second halves of games, keeping them on the bench during key stretches (or in some cases, entire fourth quarters) when a win is within their grasp. The Wizards have been holding key players out of games without even bothering to claim an injury, and broadcasting that the Trae Young and Anthony Davis probably won't play this season, even if they get healthy.
Both the Wizards and Jazz are angling for draft lottery odds for the sake of talent, but also to keep their picks in the first place — they would be sent to the Knicks and Thunder, respectively, if they fall out of the top eight. As of this writing, they have the second- and sixth-worst records in the league. But even with their current shenanigans, they'll have the work cut out for them trying to catch the Sacramento Kings.
The Kings may be approaching a franchise rock bottom
The Kings are heading into the All-Star Break with a 14-game losing streak and the worst record in the NBA. This is a franchise that is used to lean years — they have just one playoff appearance in the past decade and have finished with a winning record just 10 times in the 41 years since they moved to Sacramento.
This is an organization that knows losing and they're still on a historic track — by SRS (strength-of-schedule adjusted average scoring margin) this is the worst iteration of the Kings in franchise history.
And even if they somehow stay at the bottom of the standings and luck into the No. 1 pick, don't expect their fortunes to change quickly.
Remember, they have the third-oldest roster in the league this season. Assuming Zach LaVine picks up his player-option, they'll be paying him, Domantas Sabonis, DeAndre Hunter, Malik Monk, and Keegan Murray more than $145 million next season, roughly 87 percent of their cap. (They also have DeMar DeRozan on the books for $25 million but his contract is nonguaranteed so they could waive him, getting nothing in return exept the cap savings).
Their two most-recent lottery picks are Devin Carter and Nique Clifford. Carter has played in just 56 games across his first two seasons, playing 20+ minutes only 12 times. He's shot just 37.8 percent from the field and 24.8 percent from beyond the arc as a pro, and clearly hasn't earned any trust from head coach Doug Christie. Clifford has been a regular part of the rotation but is shooting under 40 percent from the field and just 31.7 percent from beyond the arc.
The Kings are bad and they're almost certainly going to stay bad for the forseeable future. They are short on talent, extra draft assets, financial flexibility and anything resembling a winning culture.
Tanking, competing, mediocrity and more
When fans and media talk about team-building strategies, the default is to separate teams into three categories — teams are trying to win, trying to lose or stuck in the middle ground. But that ignores a four path, of which the Kings might be the most terrifying exemplar. I'm talking about teams who are trying to win but aren't even good enough to make a running leap onto the treadmill of mediocrity.
This is why tanking is such an appealing strategy, not just because it appears to be a shortcut to winning, because it offers a theoretical escape from catastrophic losing. It's hedging bets, if you know you're not good enough to win half your games, lose as many as possible but in a way that will allow you to change your team in the future.
To be clear, the Kings aren't brave — they're stupid. They have made a serious of terribly short-sighted and ill-advised moves, often because they'd put their own backs against the wall and often because they talked themselves into outcomes everyone else saw was impossible. What's happened to them isn't going to happen to most other franchises for a bare minimum of front office competence.
But the Kings are a cautionary tale nonetheless and the Jazz and Wizards aren't exactly unethical for taking notice.
If you're a 34-win team with a dim future, the upside of tanking is flexibility and hypothetical possiblity, which can be packaged and sold to a certain kind of fan, and might actually result in a contender. The cost is a few years of losing that you might be headed for anyway. For that same 34-win team, the upside of going for it is the same but the potential cost is what the Kings are facing. Not just losing, but losing in way that offers no hope and no silver lining. Tanking may actually be easier but the costs are easier to stomach as well.
That's why, when it comes to the bottom of the NBA standings, the Kings are in a class all their own.