In the NBA, “tanking” means a team is intentionally getting worse in the short term so it can be better in the future , usually by improving its draft position.

What “tanking” means in the NBA

  • A team makes decisions that lower its chances of winning now so it can get a higher pick in the next NBA Draft.
  • This doesn’t usually mean players miss shots on purpose; instead, the front office builds or uses a weaker roster.
  • The goal is to land a top prospect or future star , because in the NBA one superstar can change a franchise’s destiny.

Common tanking moves

Teams that are tanking might:

  • Trade away solid or star players for draft picks and young prospects.
  • “Rest” veterans more often, shut players down with minor injuries, or limit minutes for guys who help them win.
  • Give heavy playing time to inexperienced young players who need development but aren’t ready to win yet.

You can imagine a team that realizes it’s stuck around the 10th seed: not good enough to contend, not bad enough for a top pick, so it leans into losing more games to chase a future star.

Tanking vs. rebuilding

These two words get mixed up, but they’re not identical:

  • Rebuilding :
    • Long-term plan to get younger, develop talent, and reset the roster.
    • The team still tries to compete and improve , even if it loses a lot.
  • Tanking :
    • Short-term focus on maximizing losses to reach the very top of the draft order.
    • Decisions are made with the idea that losing more now is actually “good.”

Think of rebuilding as a natural growth phase, and tanking as deliberately flooring the brakes this season to go faster later.

Why teams do it (and why it’s controversial)

  • The NBA draft rewards bad records with better lottery odds , so losing can bring a shot at elite prospects.
  • In a league driven by superstars, franchises see tanking as a shortcut to getting that next franchise player.

But:

  • Fans paying for tickets feel cheated if their team clearly isn’t trying to win right now.
  • It can create a bad locker-room culture where losing is tolerated or even quietly encouraged.
  • The league has tweaked the draft lottery odds in recent years to reduce the incentive to tank, but talk about “tanking culture” still pops up every season.

How people talk about it online

On forums like Reddit, fans argue over what “real” tanking is:

  • Some say it’s blatant: purposely sitting good players, blowing up the roster, and chasing the worst record possible.
  • Others think it’s softer: trading vets, playing young guys, still trying to win games but not caring much if you lose.
  • Many fans agree that players still play hard; it’s usually a front office strategy , not players throwing games.

You’ll see “tanking” trend most around:

  • Seasons with a hyped draft prospect (for example, when there’s a widely viewed “generational” talent).
  • Late in the regular season when lottery odds and standings become clearer and fringe teams pivot from chasing the play-in to “embracing the tank.”

TL;DR: In the NBA, “tanking” means a team’s management intentionally makes the team worse in the short term—by trades, rotations, and rest decisions—to lose more games and improve their chances at a high draft pick and future stars.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.