To Tank Or Not To Tank?

So called fans all around Portland are talking about the Blazers “tanking” this season. Tanking refers to losing games, purposely to acquire the best draft pick they can, in order to rebuild for the future. Over the course of this column I hope I can convince all readers that tanking is not the answer.

Professional athletes are at the level they are at because they are some of the most driven, competitive and in some cases, egotistical people. They have competed since they started playing and that is the reason that they are so successful. If it weren’t for that drive, they would not be where they are at today. That certain drive and competitiveness can’t all of a sudden be turned off to lose games.

Aside from the athletes, the rest of the organization has so much riding on the remaining games of the season. Coach Canales is getting an audition of a life-time. This opportunity is what he has worked for his whole life. Being an interim head coach and succeeding could propel him into an opportunity as a head coach here or somewhere else in the league.

Entering this summer of so much potential and optimism I will give you three major reasons to compete throughout the end of this season.

1 – No GM is going to want to come to Portland to take the helm of a losing team. This team has so much potential but if they give up at the end of this season, it shows so much about their mental make up. A high profile executive such as Steve Kerr or Danny Ainge are not going to be interested in a Portland team that is fine with losing. Kerr especially is a winner. He played on one of the best basketball teams of all time and he would hope to help cultivate that same winning atmosphere here.

2 – Portland is always talked about as a place that has been difficult to lure free agents. With the current financial state of the team and with the possibilities that await this franchise, anything to attract a potential free agent will help. The Blazers could really improve the future of this team with a key acquisition this off season. Deliberately losing games is possibly the worst thing the Blazers, as a free agent suitor, could do.

3 – The fans! As of the New Orleans game on Thursday the 29^th, the Rose Garden had been sold out for 185 consecutive Trail Blazer home games. That is a huge number! By comparison, the best in the west Oklahoma City Thunder, have 40 consecutive sell outs. Blazer fans are fully committed to this team, and have been through thick and thin. If this franchise really cares about the fans of this team, there would be absolutely no internal talks of tanking.

For now, we are all left to sit and watch this team go through the rest of this year with a depleted roster, limited momentum and spotty effort. No matter how the end of this season plays out, there are better days ahead for this team. This off-season is going to be a whirlwind.

Personally I am pushing for Ainge over Kerr for the GM position. But if Kerr is named the GM, I hope he comes as a package deal with Coach Mike D’Antoni. There is a possibility to trade away some draft picks for established NBA players, there is a possibility of entering training camp with 4 rookies, and there is always the ordeal that signing Nic Batum is going to be.

Hold still and have fun the rest of this tumultuous season. And as you chat with friends, yell at the TV, or comment on forum, just know that tanking really shouldn’t be an option for this franchise.

-Garrett Thornton (@GTPort74)