We have reached the point of the season where some NBA teams aren’t trying to win games, and are instead angling for increased odds in the draft lottery.
Of course, team officials will never admit that they prefer better positioning in the NBA draft over winning meaningless games in the doldrums of March basketball. Otherwise, the franchise risks getting fined.
However, there are some ways to frame this strategy to make it look like a legitimate coincidence. It is called tanking and basketball writers including Yaron Weitzman and Jake Fischer have even written books about the subject matter.
