Tanking

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Tanking in sports refers to the practice of intentionally fielding non-competitive teams to take advantage of league rules that benefit losing teams. Tanking teams are usually seeking top picks in the next draft, since league rules generally give the highest draft picks to the teams with the worst records in the previous season. Teams that decide to start tanking often do so by trading away star players in order to reduce payroll and bring in younger prospects. While the terms tanking and rebuilding are sometimes used interchangeably, there are differences between the two concepts. In rebuilding, losses may result from trading veterans for assets such as young talent, salary cap space, and draft picks. In tanking, losses are deliberately pursued as the primary strategy for draft positioning. Tanking is a much more common practice in American sports that utilize closed leagues than open sports leagues in other nations, which typically penalize poor performers using a promotion and relegation...

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