The Sacramento Kings Can't Even Lose On Purpose:

Now that losing is exactly what they need to do, they have turned into an accidental juggernaut, proving in the process that the essence of incompetence in the NBA is not losing so much as it is a lack of cohesive vision. Amid all the anxiety about tanking, the Kings stand as a potent counterexample to the notion that the practice is simple and thoughtless. It is, as they demonstrate, something you can be bad at.

One aspect of the aforementioned anxiety about tanking that I find to be misplaced is the idea that fans of tanking teams are necessarily experiencing anguish because their teams are losing. This imagines the fan as a sort of noble savage, conceiving of poor Wizards or Jazz fans as confounded at the idea of trying to get the first overall pick in the draft. Fans aren't stupid, and while the experience of paying American dollars to go watch Micah Potter hoist 11 threes doesn't carry the same thrill as getting to watch a good team, not only do ticket prices reflect the ugliness of the hoops on offer, I think fans of any team that's been rewarded for tanking (read: every team except Miami) would tell you that sacrificing a few months of faux-competitive basketball for an All-NBA talent is more than worth it.

A few days earlier, the Kings narrowly avoided a disastrous victory against the Charlotte Hornets in which DeRozan scored 39 points. The Jazz were put in the uncomfortable position of having to deal with Cody Williams's heater threatening their own tanking efforts, though DeRozan stepped up for the road team and put in 41 on 21 shots, dooming the Kings to victory.