Tanking is not the road to redemption for the New Orleans Pelicans

The New Orleans Pelicans have not been as good as many fans expected, yet the idea of “tanking” the season away would still be disastrous for the franchise.

The New Orleans Pelicans have had a disappointing start to the season, moving them from the group of playoff teams last year to the group of bottom dwellers so far this season. It’s caused a lot of cussing and foul language from many of those rooting for this team’s success. But one word stands out most when talking about the Pelicans.

That word? Tanking.

The term has become popular with the emergence of the controversial strategy of the Philadelphia 76ers, one that directly involved the Pelicans a while ago. In 2013, Philadelphia traded one of their stars, Jrue Holiday, in exchange for the Pelicans first round pick in 2014 and the draft rights to the #6 pick in the 2013 draft, Nerlens Noel. Noel was a young rising star out of the University of Kentucky who some had going first in the draft, but he was injured and would likely be out for the entire 2013-2014 season. That move along with the 76ers trading away all their star power and signing mostly D-League players and fringe NBA players to fill their roster began the “tanking” saga. The idea was to be as bad as possible in order to get better chances at getting a superstar in the NBA Draft. That trade happened three years ago, and where are the Sixers now?

They have Noel finally getting healthy and showing what he can do. The pick the New Orleans Pelicans gave them turned into Dario Saric, who still has yet to see a minute in the NBA due to his commitments overseas. Their poor play got them Joel Embiid in the 2014 draft, who also has yet to see the floor in the NBA due to injuries. The 2015 draft got them Jahlil Okafor, who is finally getting to show what he can do on the floor, yet he is still lacking in many areas. Talent wise, it’s not bad. It’s looking at the fabric of the organization as a whole; that’s where it gets painful.

The 76ers have left coach Brett Brown with a team that has barely any players with actual NBA experience. The management has purposely traded away NBA caliber players in exchange for picks on numerous occasions, leaving players unaware if they’re part of the team’s plan for the future. They made their reputation as laughing stock to other players and teams alike, leaving their players isolated from the rest of the league. While the talent is starting to get there, are they really any closer to “contending” in the NBA? Not really.

So why have so many called for the New Orleans Pelicans to purposefully sabotage themselves this season in hopes for better draft position? Sure, New Orleans isn’t going to pull a full-frontal tank. The plan would probably be to sit Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday and let the other players have full reign on the minutes, making the team worse in an attempt to lose games. It would also likely involve trading away Ryan Anderson for something along the lines of a draft pick or an injured player. It makes sense in theory, but a lot of things that work in theory are not the right course of action for many reasons.

Reason number one is the superstar involved with this decision, Anthony Davis. He just got his first massive contract in the NBA, which puts him on the team until 2020 at the minimum. That being said, the Pelicans goal is to make the next four years a proving point they can go from a “fun and exciting” team to a real contender. Attempting to shut him down and telling him that losing on purpose is the direction they’re going this season is the wrong message to send a superstar. No player likes losing, and the best hate giving up a million times more than losing. It would only make Davis wonder if another destination that has a “winning” mentality is a better situation.

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You also send a bad message to Jrue Holiday and the NBA as a whole. The New Orleans Pelicans fought hard through last year to achieve the playoffs, earning the respect of the league. Backtracking would take that respect away and send a bad message to free agents who could consider New Orleans as their next destination. The Pelicans got respect last year that could sway a talented player’s considerations, and with Anderson and Eric Gordon‘s expiring contracts, they could get involved in talks with major players this offseason. It would be a disaster if they allowed all of that to slip away for a “project” halfway through the season.

The second reason brings up a point in why the “tanking process” would bring no extra value to the Pelicans. In the 76ers case, they have younger players they can look at who aren’t ready for the big league, but some may show talents where the team would consider them for the long-term future. That’s what those players are fighting for: stability within an organization. Before Bryce Dejean-Jones, the Pelicans had zero of those players. For a team to get any further in the process with tanking, they have to have younger players they can almost “try out” and see how they could possibly fit into that scenario. New Orleans doesn’t have the cap space nor the roster space to get guys who could fill that role.

Along with that, the New Orleans Pelicans can not expect veteran players to lose games on purpose. New Orleans is full of “effort players”, such as Dante Cunningham and Alexis Ajinca, who give their heart out on the floor no matter what. Asking those players to follow through on a plan to lose as many games as they can would seem like a near impossible task with how hard they work every game. Ajinca just battled his way into a longterm deal last season, and Cunningham fought his way into the league in Minnesota just a few years back. These are not guys who are going to lose games on purpose. They’re fighters. It’s part of why “tanking” really is a myth in the NBA.

It’s a fun idea when you think about how the NBA lottery is done, yet it’s shown that players are not going to give up on games. Let’s look at the Sixers again and their final standings each year since the 2013 draft trade. In the 2013-2014 season, the 76ers did everything in their power to be the worst team imaginable. They finished…with the 2nd worst record in the league behind Milwaukee, a team that was in the playoffs a year prior and was fighting to get back in. Milwaukee was set back by decisions made before the season that changed the team around. They weren’t trying to be a bad team; however, they just didn’t fit at first. The very next season, they made the playoffs as the team jelled together.

However, the Sixers didn’t have such luck. They continued to be as bad as possible and finished with….the 3rd worst record in the league in the 2014-2015. They were outdone by New York and Minnesota. The Timberwolves traded away Kevin Love and suffered from being a young team that lost the one player they centered themselves around. The Knicks suffered from the changes made by new GM Phil Jackson that, like the Bucks, made the team completely different. Neither of those teams “tanked”. They just went through many changes. Then comes the 2015-2016 season.

It’s kind of amazing that the Sixers are FINALLY the worst team in the league with quite possibly the best roster they’ve had in three years. Why? They now have talented players, but the fact is that they don’t fit together. They drafted three in three consecutive drafts and spent much of their time developing young players that have odd skill sets that don’t fit the others on the team. Their development has made them worse than their tanking attempts. No team has really “tanked” to success, but arguments to the contrary have been made. Take, for example, the 2011-2012 Golden State Warriors, who are often listed as the most successful team to “tank.”

Many consider what the Warriors did during the end of that season “tanking”. The argument is centered around the decisions made by coach Mark Jackson to sit players such as Nate Robinson and Klay Thompson in big moments of the game for rookies and inexperienced players. The Warriors were in a position where, if they finished any higher than the seventh seed, they’d lose their pick. They were close to falling in that range late in the year, and their losses in games they could have won netted a lot of  cheers for “tanking” from fans. So, was it tanking? Don’t be so sure.

Yes, they sat players that should’ve been playing. However, Jackson was quoted in saying it was “an opportunity to see what the young guys were made of”. As much as Warrior fans weren’t buying it, that may be just what it was. If a team is bad, why not see what the young guys are made of? Letting players who are fighting to prove their worth and want to show what they can do is “tanking”? Also, this was the first year in Mark Jackson’s coaching tenure. From what many saw in his time as coach, he made some weird decisions on a regular basis. The team was also decimated with injuries to Stephen Curry, Andris Biedrins and David Lee. It’s hard to say letting younger guys who wanted to give it their all for a shot in the league is trying to lose on purpose. It seems more like letting those who want it the most go for it.

It brings up the biggest reason tanking is just a myth. You can’t get NBA players to lose on purpose. These are young men who have spent every level of their development fighting and grinding to win every single basketball game they play. They’re on the biggest stages of their lives with thousands watching. It is impossible to tell those guys looking for a contract in this league “Nah we don’t want you to win this game. Go lose it.” They won’t. No coach whose fighting for his reputation is going to lose on purpose. No player who is trying to get more time in this league is going to lose on purpose.

However, management trying to sabotage the process of development is no myth. It’s what Sam Hinkie has done. And what has it brought? Nothing but a stalled process that hasn’t gotten Philadelphia much closer to contending in the league. Does the roster look sort of fun? Sure. Are there pieces to fit it together? Sure. But, has it already set the team on the course towards success? No. Other teams have gone against this and done much better in developing young players, giving them core pieces for the future. Many teams that have been bad for some time have decided to develop in other ways than losing on purpose, causing their players develop into solid role players and even some stars. That is the direction New Orleans should take. Because, in reality, New Orleans has sabotaged their team’s development without even tanking.

By deciding against drafting young talent or trying to find it in the D-League, they’ve given up big opportunities to find and grow players into pieces of the team that fit. They’ve decided on signing and trading for players who probably don’t fit how the Pelicans want to play but make the team’s overall talent level better. These are players such as Norris Cole, Alonzo Gee and even Tyreke Evans. They’ve given up on younger prospects who could pan out to do great things such as Pierre Jackson, a former draft pick that looked promising that Dell Demps sent over to the 76ers. Every time this team has had opportunities to get younger players, they’ve passed on it. Whether it’s giving up draft picks or going for veterans in free agency instead, this team goes against youth.

The draft is fun for people to dream about, but this is a team whose last player on the current roster that was drafted by New Orleans is Anthony Davis in 2012. FOUR. YEARS. AGO. Fans are asking a team to be bad so they can cash in on a pick when they have shown no inclination to draft at all in the past three drafts. They instead decided to trade three first rounds pick for Holiday and Omer Asik. How can you expect a team to have the smarts to cash in on a young player that fits the core of this team’s future when they have not even attempted to do it since 2012? It seems ridiculous. Instead of calling for the “tank” to show up, it’s time to start calling for another word. Development.

If this team TRULY wants to change their ways and move the roster past the “fun” point, they need to begin doing what they are trying to do with Bryce Dejean-Jones. Alvin Gentry worked with him to fit the role they needed: scoring. He’s done what Eric Gordon’s job was prior to his injury, attack the basket and be able to shoot from long range. His numbers look decent, but his effort is spectacular. While his game does need some work, he’s fit into the team. Now, instead of having to re-sign Gordon to a deal for way too much money, the Pelicans can look at Dejean-Jones for a cheap price and develop him into what they want on the team. For the first time in a long time, this team has a youngster to look forward to….if New Orleans decides to bring him on the roster long-term. He has no contract at the moment, something that has been a work-in-progress for the Pelicans. The hope is he’ll be signed to a deal through, at least, the end of the season. Until then, it’s up in the air if team even decides to stick to his development plan.

This really will show fans if the New Orleans Pelicans are dedicated to not making the same mistakes they’ve made before. Dejean-Jones is not an amazing player by any means. His defense is a disaster and a lot of his game, including his ability to finish at the basket, needs a lot of work, but he’s a young player with potential, something this franchise has strayed away from for far too long. Sure, a top-10 pick would be better overall than Dejean-Jones, but he represents the concept of being able to develop talent that needs to be embraced before thinking about getting a lottery-tier pick in the first place.

What’s ironically funny is the last time New Orleans tried to develop young players was the time they won the lottery for Anthony Davis. In the 2011-2012 season, Pelicans coach Monty Williams was known around the league for going against the grain of tanking. He got his young roster to play extremely hard and work every second to try and win each and every game. This developed younger players such as Greivis Vasquez, Al-Farouq Aminu, Gustavo Ayon, Xavier Henry, Jason Smith and Lance Thomas. Those players were mere youngsters trying to carve their spot in the NBA on a subpar team.

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Vasquez, Aminu, Smith and Thomas are now seeing meaningful minutes on other teams and have earned their place in the NBA. However, these players were originally coveted by other teams due to their effort and development under Williams during the season New Orleans was dreadful. That team could have been by far the worst in the league if they tried to be, but instead, they attempted to win games. New Orleans finished tied for the third-worst record in the league with the Cleveland Cavaliers. They beat out Cleveland, Washington and Charlotte for the rights to the first pick and Anthony Davis, a luck of the draw that has changed the look of the franchise drastically.

Anthony Davis is another animal. The New Orleans Pelicans are not drafting another player like that in a long, long time. This team needs to learn how to develop talent before they can think about contending; that’s how the good teams get there. The Warriors developed Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green. The Spurs developed Danny Green, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard. The Miami Heat even developed Mario Chalmers and had developed Udonis Haslem over many years. The Lakers developed Derek Fisher to go alongside Kobe Bryant. To put it simply, championship caliber teams know how to take young players with potential and turn them in NBA talent. The Pelicans are missing that key and essential piece to the puzzle.

For fans that are panicking and desperate for New Orleans to get over the hump of being a mediocre basketball team, the next step is the exact opposite of throwing progress away for hopes of hitting another jackpot lottery. They need to go back to doing what they did so well in the 2011-2012 season, finding younger players who want to find their role in the league and thrive. And, it’s not like the Pelicans haven’t done this at all recently. They attempted this with Alexis Ajinca, Luke Babbitt and Quincy Pondexter. Babbitt and Ajinca were foreign players who had not found a home in the NBA, and Demps gave them a chance to thrive in their minor roles. Pondexter was still a young, low minutes guy in Memphis. He got his shot in New Orleans and thrived as well.

Those success stories are needed more often and consistently. The team recently has gone after trades that sacrifice the youth and development of the team for talented players who the management is not even sure will fit the future, and that needs to change. Whether that happens with Demps under center or not, the team can not keep trying to fit square pegs in round holes. Even if it takes some time, Anthony Davis is more likely to stick with a team that’s progressing in the right direction with younger players, a team that’s ready to give it their all. That’s a team more likely to keep Davis around than a team consistently trying to just patch together talent or a team intentionally trying to lose.

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The New Orleans Pelicans’ time to show they can become a potential contender in this league starts right now. The team needs to stop shooting themselves in their own feet with deals that tarnish the opportunity to have room to improve as a team and look into youthful additions to the roster they can turn into key pieces. It’s not an easy task, by any means, especially for a team that has not done it in a very long time with any real success. That being said, it’s the biggest difference between the Pelicans and the major contenders of the NBA. It’s what the title holders of the past in this league have perfected and showcased on their roster. For the New Orleans Pelicans to become one of those teams, the “tanking” talks have to end and the talks of this team acquiring and developing younger players needs to be the center of this team’s short and long term future.