Friday, February 20, 2015

When will the Tanking Stop?

Right before the trade deadline, the Philadelphia 76er's general manager, Sam Hinkie, traded away Michael Carter Williams, a Rookie of the Year winner, for more first round draft picks. Yep, more draft picks.  I believe he's a little carried away with this tanking strategy.  Next, he might trade Nerlen Noels and Joel Embiid for future draft picks.  Who knows?  The problem with all of this player movement is the team will never get better and there will not be any team chemistry.  Team chemistry is vital to a team's success.  You can't just get the best players and expect them to all get along.  What if everyone wants to be the alpha dog?  The 2003-04 Lakers consisted of Gary Payton, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Karl Malone.  They lost to the Detroit Pistons in the NBA Finals, a team that played together longer than the Lakers.  During the 2011 NBA Finals, the new look Miami Heat lost to the underdog Dallas Mavericks.  The majority of people expected the Heat to win because they had Dwyane Wade, Lebron James, and Chris Bosh--three superstars compared to the Mavericks, who only had Dirk Nowitzki.  Only after that NBA Finals loss did the Heat win in two straight Finals appearances.
When players are constantly moved around, there's a sense of job insecurity.  That creates anxiety and the players might under perform because they don't feel comfortable.  Plus, no player enjoys losing all the time.  Ask any Detroit Lions player that was present when during the 2008 season if he loved losing every game. 
Rebuilding and tanking only works if it is temporary.  A general rebuilding time table is about 4-5 years.  But since the 76ers just traded away their best asset, they're going to take even longer to rebuild.  Constant rebuilding also wears out the fans.  When fans feel despair, home game attendance drops and there is loss of revenue.  Hinkie should be fired before he causes any more damage to the team.



Robert Lin enjoys basketball and anime.  Follow him on Twitter and/or Google.