Around the NBA, “tanking” is a source of much controversy. 

For the uninitiated, tanking is the practice of prioritizing first-round picks and young players over wins. In fact, if a team is truly tanking, they’re hoping to lose and prioritize their lottery odds. 

People don’t like it. That’s understandable. It feels counterintuitive for a professional sports team to prioritize losing. 

With that said, it can have benefits. For example, look at the Oklahoma City Thunder. They’ve got a cache of draft capital unlike any the league has ever seen.

Meanwhile, they’re having a decent season – if the Thunder wanted to trade for a star, they could justify it. 

Here’s a trade that has them landing Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers.