Forget about "who wants it more." There are a handful of NBA teams on the fringes of playoff contention who flat-out need a playoff berth this year.
Jobs are at stake, reputations hang in the balance and fanbases are perched on the railings of listing ships, ready to leap overboard if the postseason doesn't appear on the horizon. In other words, there's a lot riding on the last couple of available playoff spots in each conference.
Unfortunately, the "tanking discussion" has taken over this year, which makes it seem like any team with the choice of bottoming out or clawing its way into the playoffs should opt for the former course over the latter. The prevailing wisdom seems to agree that the middle is the worst place for an NBA team to be.
But that's not always true. Sometimes, the middle isn't so bad.
Especially in situations that fall into one of the following categories.
Saving Face
Since Mikhail Prokhorov bought them in 2010, the Brooklyn Nets haven't had much interest in managing expectations. The Russian billionaire promised a championship withi ...
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Article written by Grant Hughes
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