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Message: [QUOTE="auror, post: 3157909, member: 1329"] There is a cost to losing, usually coming from pressure from fans, owners, and sometimes the league. There is also a direct financial opportunity cost from not selling tickets when fans don't support the team's losing. Giving yourself a 60% chance of a top 3 pick (generally the only picks that are team changing) is a much different reward than giving yourself a 60% chance to MISS the top 3. The financial reward is not there anymore compared to the cost. The Knicks beat the odds to get the #3 pick (they had a >50% chance to be 4 or 5). That was statistically a good outcome for them. Do you think Dolan thinks this is a good outcome for the franchise? No, because the losing wasn't worth the 3rd pick in a weak draft. Not trying your hardest in 5 games at the end of the season is different than putting together a roster that intentionally can't win. The former is not tanking. Adam Silver has been very candid that bottoming out and rebuilding is a valid and acceptable thing for a franchise to do. Bottoming out and then intentionally not rebuilding until you've amassed enough lottery talent is not acceptable. And with this new system, your success rate with that strategy is lower AND will take longer, making it far too costly. If instead of a race to the bottom it's a crawl to the middle-bad, that means the average bad team is winning more games. That's what the league wants. A few more wins from bad teams. [/QUOTE]