Charlotte Hornets: Why Tanking May be Too Risky

With the upcoming future for the Charlotte Hornets, it may be too risky to go ahead and start tanking.

Undoubtedly, this NBA offseason is primed to shift power balances with top tier players being free agents and multiple teams like the Charlotte Hornets have been preparing for this class of players. Teams such as the Lakers, Clippers, Nets, and Knicks have the cap space to sign these players and are looking for pieces that would make them true contenders.

Kemba Walker is a part of this free agency class that is looking for a new contract; the Knicks, Mavericks, and Lakers are all teams that have openly expressed interest in offering a max contract to Kemba.

Of this group, the Los Angelos Lakers have seemingly the most enticing offer for him: offering the opportunity to play with Lebron James and Anthony Davis in one of the biggest markets in the league.

Kemba has candidly expressed that his ‘first priority’ is to return to Charlotte and continue playing for the organization that took a chance on him. This comes at a heavy asking price, however, seeing as offering Kemba the supermax(or even just the max) contract would essentially tie Charlotte down to this same roster that couldn’t make the playoffs.

For Hornets fans, the decision to offer the contract to Kemba is split. Understandably, no one wants to be stuck in mediocrity and not good enough to actually compete, but the alternative option is to tank and that may not be the best idea.

Tanking has been a staple for the NBA for a while now; teams lose intentionally to attain greater chances at top picks in the NBA draft. Most notably the Philadelphia 76ers have been able to assemble a roster of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, and Tobias Harris from essentially tanking.

The draft lottery has gone through reform in an effort from commissioner Silver to have every team in the league try to be competitive no matter the roster. This new lottery system was on full display this past draft lottery and it may be a sign that tanking is not a reliable option for teams anymore.

This past lottery, the four worst teams (based on win percentage) are going to be selecting at picks three, five, six, and seven. Despite all of these teams having aspirations of receiving the first overall pick only one of them landed in the top 4.

There were never guarantees with tanking in the past, but the lottery now seems even less reliable for purposefully losing.

The Charlotte Hornets have the prime of their best player in franchise history, yet the attendance rate in Charlotte is still near the bottom of the league. If there is low attendance while the franchise is actively trying to win basketball games, the attendance for a small market losing team could be alarmingly low.

Without much on-court production or fan support, this team could become even more irrelevant and potentially even relocated.

Offering some sort of max contract to Kemba Walker and attempting to build around him seems like a more reliable option than tanking, even if that makes the roster more difficult to rearrange for true title contention.