Ok, we're back. This is actually a bit late in coming, since the Pistons season really died when Brandon Jennings blew out his achilles tendon. This led to Stan Van Gundy working out the Reggie Jackson trade, which was a good trade to do because it helps the Pistons if Jennings can't go next year, but it broke up what little was left of what the Pistons had going on before the injury. The losing streak currently stands at 8 games, and will almost assuredly be extended with a road game at Portland Friday. The loss Tuesday night against the Lakers, one of the NBA's bottom 4 teams, was particularly indicative of where the team is at right now. Last night's game against Golden State (one of the top 2 teams in the league) was surprisingly competitive, but outside of maybe Andre Drummond, the rest of the team played like players who expected to lose.
Tom Gores came out in support of SVG and said, "Stan has a plan." Anyone who follows the NBA like I do can recognize the tanking rhetoric in the sentiment of "bear with us, we're building for the future." That's a paraphrase of what Gores said, but it should sound familiar. Especially if you're a Sixers fan.
The Sixers are in the middle of a multi-year tanking project that was recently reset when they traded away last year's Rookie of the Year essentially for a protected 1st round pick. Since Sam Hinkie took the GM job, the Sixers have embraced tanking like no team has done before. They draft players who are injured so they can sit them out a year. They take players they can stash overseas. And then if they can upgrade an asset for a pick, they'll trade away who they have for the promise of a pick to come. Based on what they've done so far, I don't think the Sixers are going to be good for several years. They might never become good under the current regime. This is not the kind of tanking I would advocate.
In theory you can see how it might work. Cut salary, stash your picks whenever possible, and collect 2 or 3 really high first-rounders to build your team around. I mean, it worked for Seattle/OKC, right? First, the Sonics/Thunder fell into a perfect storm. They had 2 good players surrounded by a terrible team. They didn't need to artificially tank by drafting injured players or guys overseas, they were just BAD. Then they absolutely NAILED their draft picks - Durant at #2 overall, Westbrook at #4 and Ibaka at #24 the following year, and then Harden at #3 the year after that. The Sonics/Thunder ended up with the best player in 3 straight drafts. That's unreal. Is it reasonable for the Sixers to expect a similar return on their picks? Durant has already won an MVP, and Harden & Westbrook are 2 of the 3 or 4 favorites this year, so, uh, NO. First, the Sixers only have 1 draft pick in that 1-4 range and he hasn't played yet. They're one of the 3 or 4 worst teams in the NBA this year so they have good odds at collecting a top 4 pick this year, but they'll have to do it again and really nail all three picks to come close to what OKC did. That's problem number one.
But say the Sixers get their 3 pieces to build around, although they probably won't be as good as the Durant-Westbrook-Harden triumverate were (which we all know got broken up and down-graded to be the Durant-Westbrook-Ibaka triumverate, still pretty good). This Philly team has been tanking for 2 years and will need to tank for at least 2 more years to acquire the players they need through the draft. The front office are creating a culture where losing is acceptable, and I believe this creates disfunction. When a player develops in the midst of a culture of losing, he develops bad habits that are not conducive to winning. I don't mean the player is trying to lose, but he learns to gun for his own stats, to not hustle all the time, and that defense isn't always important. Losing teams don't communicate well, they don't know their assignments on defense, and the players can become jaded and less coachable. This is problem number two.
How does this impact the Pistons? Well, they are currently mired in a 7 year losing streak and 6 straight years of missing the playoffs, but they haven't exactly been tanking. Never in that stretch of time did the Pistons draft higher than 7th (Greg Monroe in 2010), and they never shut down a semi-injured player (like Drummond and Monroe in 2013) to improve draft position. I don't support a multi-year tanking effort like the Sixers are doing, but I do support choosing your moment and tanking in 1 year and then rebuilding on the basis of that pick. Dumars never embraced tanking, so the Pistons have had to suffer through the losing without the benefits of getting a top draft pick.
This year, however, presents a perfect opportunity. Dumars is gone, so some level of tanking is in play. The Pistons have had both the experience of playing for something (they were in the hunt for the playoffs as recently as 2 weeks ago) and now the opportunity to tank for a top 5 pick. The Pistons currently hold the 7th seed in the draft lottery, but they could easily leap-frog Orlando, Denver and Sacramento to take the 5th spot. Since the Pistons are playing as bad as anyone right now, a move up 2 or 3 spots is even likely.
What Detroit needs to do is distinguish their methods from Philadelphia's. Tank the last 18 games of this season. Get your top draft pick. Use the cap space this offseason to sign a couple of players that are going to help you win games. Maybe sign & trade Greg Monroe. The goal next year has to be playoffs. This must be understood from the owner to the last guy on the bench. I think enough disfunction has already been created by losing for the last 8 years, and Greg Monroe is the collateral damage from that. Drummond is in danger of getting sucked into that morass of losing as well, so Van Gundy needs to right the ship next year.
Tanking is fine, as long as you don't make a habit of it.
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