Cooper Flagg was apparently beyond impressive in Team USA scrimmages. Unlike 2024, this is a deep, deep draft and there's even a small possibility that Flagg isn't the first guy selected.
For a decent portion of the league, the 2025 season is going to be a race to the bottom, the likes of which we haven't seen since all the way back in 2023. It looks like we will have probably 8 teams (6 of them in the East) actively not trying to win. And Flagg isn't the only prize here.
Looking at the potential tankers, I have Brooklyn and Washington at a tie for 1st (last) place playing completely abhorrent basketball. Both these teams are relatively new to the tank and will embrace it with extreme gusto. It's going to be ugly.
In the next tier, I've got Detroit and Portland. Both have put together some solid tanking the last few years, but don't have much to show for it. They should both still be terrible.
In the third tier, I have Chicago, Toronto, and Charlotte. They all have some decent young roster talent that will fuck around and accidentally win some games. Nothing would be more hilarious than Chicago finally embracing the tank only to have Zach Lavine come back to play 82 games at an all-star level, them still not being able to move his contract, and the Bulls getting back into the play in.
And finally, I have Utah. They need to pick a lane and embrace the tank, but they can't fully do it without unloading Markkanen and they aren't going to give him up for nothing.
The West is so loaded that there are going to be some competitive teams that get pushed into the lottery. The Spurs won't be outright tanking unless Wemby misses some significant time, but even a 15 game improvement only gets them to 37 wins.