NBA Power Tankings

[Azlen]

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on...wer-tankings-the-race-to-a-rebuild-begins-now


With such an important and hyped draft class expected to grace the league with the talents of Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle, and even more top prospects. It's why we're seeing teams forgo their responsibilities this season and looking ahead to the NBA Draft Lottery. To help include the fans of teams at the bottom of the Power Rankings that Matt Moore provides each week, we've decided to rank how well teams are tanking this coming season and as mystery injuries pop up and wins go out the window in the later months, we'll welcome more teams to this list and analyze how they're doing it.
NBA fans of crappy teams with no hope for this season, welcome to CBSSports.com's Power Tankings:




2. Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are doing tanking the way you'd want to do it. They're providing exciting young players, they have twins on the floor (everybody loves twins), Eric Bledsoe is going to probably lead the league in steals, they have a project big man that fans will love tracking the progress of, and they're going to play a chaotic style of basketball that will be entertaining to the fans while still accomplishing the goal of bringing home the ping-pong balls. The Suns are even one of the few teams in the league that have a good social media presence while providing a hashtag for the Twitter followers that isn't stupid. They have "IgniteTheFuture" which is a really good, honest hashtag that doesn't sound like you're catering to eight-year olds.
The Suns will still be really bad. 20 wins could be a struggle for them throughout the year, but if they're providing you with fast break highlights, Gerald Green dunks, and a bevy of plays that make the fans feel good about the future while planning for it at the same time, isn't that what you want out of an organization that is focused on losing now to be set up for later? The Suns aren't the most tanking team of the 2013-14 season but they're doing it arguably the best way from a basketball and business standpoint.




We have a chance to move up to number 1 with a loss tonight. The 76ers who were number 1 on this list already beat the Heat.

 

[Sunburn]

Does anyone else think the Lakers' 1st rounder in 2015 is going to end up being quite valuable? Imo, that team is going to be a train wreck the next couple of years. I think it's top 5 protected in '15. After that, top 3 protected. Thank you Nashy. Even after you're departure, you've still got our back.

 

[Sunburn]

In the very likely event we land Wiggins or other super friend this year. . . holy crap, we could be loaded in a hurry.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Does anyone else think the Lakers' 1st rounder in 2015 is going to end up being quite valuable? Imo, that team is going to be a train wreck the next couple of years. I think it's top 5 protected in '15. After that, top 3 protected. Thank you Nashy. Even after you're departure, you've still got our back.

Don't they have a lot of money to spend after this season? I'm just not sure we can pencil them in as horrible given that it has always been a fairly popular FA destination.

Steve

 

[Errntknght]

The tanking teams got off to a rough start. Philly beating Miami was the biggest shocker, of course. Charlotte did manage to lose both of their games but they were both on the road and they had pretty strong showings at that. We surprised the devil out of Portland but I imagine we'll surprise most every team that thinks they are in for an easy game.

Running two point guards together might become popular around the league - Detroit won with Billups and Will Bynum - 35 points and 10 assists between them.

 

[Sunburn]

Don't they have a lot of money to spend after this season? I'm just not sure we can pencil them in as horrible given that it has always been a fairly popular FA destination.

Steve

That's a good point. I don't know their cap situation. I do believe Nash's contract comes off the books after this season. All depends on who they bring in.

 

[AzStevenCal]

That's a good point. I don't know their cap situation. I do believe Nash's contract comes off the books after this season. All depends on who they bring in.

I'd love to see the Lakers go through a decade long slump. I'd love to see the economy rebound. I don't feel too good about either possibility. On the plus side for us, I think Magic's public comments about the new Buss driver can only hurt them (if they have any impact at all).

Steve

 

[Jay Cardinal]

Good idea to rank the teams backwards based on tanking ability. Most sports I do not care for this, but with basketball you must to build a dynasty.

I cannot believe how bad the roster of the Suns and the Sixers are. I cannot believe both teams won their first game. The odds of that happening must have been very low. If you combined the two teams' rosters, I would still not expect much over 20-30 wins.

 

[Errntknght]

Good idea to rank the teams backwards based on tanking ability. Most sports I do not care for this, but with basketball you must to build a dynasty.

I cannot believe how bad the roster of the Suns and the Sixers are. I cannot believe both teams won their first game. The odds of that happening must have been very low. If you combined the two teams' rosters, I would still not expect much over 20-30 wins.

The Sixers roster is so young that no one knows how bad or good they are. They didn't show much of anything in the pre-season and trading Jrue Holiday should hurt them in the short run but young guys are full of surprises - good and bad. Beating Miami was certainly a fluke but I wouldn't give long odds against Philly winning 30 games. They have decent players in Thaddeus Young and Spencer Hawes. I'm not too impressed with Evan Turner but he's pretty well thought of. They had two young PF's in Moultrie and Lavoy Allen that put up good stats last year
and Carter-Williams may be the real deal. Tony Wroten is still only 20 so his poor showing in Memphis last year doesn't mean the world. They purged themselves of lots of guys who didn't produce well last year - Royal Ivey, Justin Holiday, Charles Jenkins, Nick Young and Jeremy Pargo. They also let Damien Wilkins and Dorell Wright go, who it might have helped a bit to keep.

 

[Azlen]

Philly won again tonight in Washington. Still a whole season left but they don't look anxious to be leading the league in ping pong balls anytime soon.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Don't they have a lot of money to spend after this season? I'm just not sure we can pencil them in as horrible given that it has always been a fairly popular FA destination.

Steve

This. Lots of FA's like to go to the Lakers.

 

[TJ]

That's a good point. I don't know their cap situation. I do believe Nash's contract comes off the books after this season. All depends on who they bring in.

He's owed $9.7 mil next season if he doesn't decide to retire.

Actually, he's one of two guaranteed contracts next season (Sacre is the other).