Luke Walton, January 24th:

“I don’t believe in [tanking]. I believe in trying to play the right way and have a culture where you’re going to try to win no matter what. If you start losing on purpose, I think the basketball gods come back to get you in the long run and good things aren’t going to work out for you.”

Luke Walton’s Lakers, now:

The Los Angeles Lakers have effectively shut down healthy veterans Luol Deng and Timofey Mozgov for the rest of the season to give the majority of playing time over the final 15 games to the team’s younger players, sources told ESPN…

Deng, 31, and Mozgov, 30, had been replaced in the starting lineup and their playing time had been cut dramatically. Rather than play sporadically, sources told ESPN that Deng and Mozgov were comfortable with the decision to shut it down for the rest of the season after meeting individually with coach Luke Walton over the past few weeks.

This season, Mozgov and Deng are making a combined $34 million, which is more than D’Angelo Russell, Nick Young, Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle, and a loose bag of $15 million cash combined. The Lakers are making two healthy players, who make up 36% of the team’s cap, inactive.

I’m not saying Mozgov and Deng are good. They’re not. And playing young players over the veterans you brought in, in order to create growth, is a solid strategy. It’s also called “tanking” and “a disgrace to the game of basketball” when the Sixers do it. And for what it’s worth, neither Brett Brown nor Sam Hinkie nor the extended Colagelo clan voluntarily made a healthy player inactive. At least they had the courage to make up a fake injury first.

There’s a real reason the Lakers should tank. Not only would they keep their draft pick in the top-3 this year – thus keeping it from the Sixers – but they’d also keep their 2019 first round pick (currently owed to the Magic, which would turn into two seconds). Losing at the pace they’re losing, or even worse, secures a better future for the team. Sound familiar?