Sixers

Laying Out Three Arguments for the Sixers to Completely Tank the Play-in Tournament

By Matt Schultz

Published: Apr 15th, 2026 · 2:22 PM EDT

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The Sixers’ playoff journey begins Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. with the 7 vs. 8 play-in game vs. the Orlando Magic at Xfinity Mobile Arena. If you haven’t been paying attention for the last couple weeks, you might be surprised to hear that no one in the world is optimistic about their outlook. Joel Embiid had an emergency appendectomy, so he’s out, and is probably going to miss the playoffs unless the Sixers go on a miraculous run (they won’t!).

If it were up to me, I’d go ahead and completely remove that as a possibility right now: 

I hereby formally submit that the Sixers should openly, proudly tank the play-in games.

Please don’t be mad at me; hear me out. My case for why this makes sense breaks down into three sections: The Practical Argument, The Emotional Argument, and the Big-Picture Statement Argument. Let’s get into it:

Let’s try to get that top-four protected pick (The Practical Argument)

Here’s a very simple way to look at this year’s pick situation: all 14 NBA teams that don’t make the playoffs get entered into the lottery draft. Play-in games don’t count as the playoffs, so if the Sixers were to lose both games, they’d be in the lottery. However, as a lingering gut-punch from the 2020 Al Horford salary dump (lol), the Sixers’ 2026 first round pick belongs to OKC — but is top 4 protected! So if the Sixers lose both play-in games, they have a chance at a top four player in the draft. A very small percentage chance, but still!

According to Tankathon, teams 13 and 14 have less than a 5% chance at a top four pick, which is around the same percentage chance of beating either Boston or Detroit in round one without Joel Embiid. It’s probably not happening! Gimme a shot at the pick instead! Why not?

Are you mad at me yet? Don’t be mad, I still have two more arguments here. These ones are good, you’ll like these ones.

Imagine actually having to sit down and watch these Sixers lose a full playoff series (The Emotional Argument)

Sadly, if the Sixers win the play-ins, they will have to play at least four games against either the Celtics or Pistons. They cannot forfeit. The games must be played, they will be televised, and we (I imagine if you’re reading this, you suffer from the same sickening compulsion toward this team as I do), will have to watch it. 

Who wants that? Not me! We’re gonna get smoked! Imagine all the time that’d be spent watching this beatdown. Four games is like, what, 10ish hours? 10ish hours! Of Andre Drummond being unable to jump! Of Tyrese Maxey running on fumes after playing a billion minutes and cradling his mangled finger during timeouts! Of poorly-acted Cure Auto Insurance commercials! Of Kate Scott excitedly screaming after a Kelly Oubre dunk (something like “The Kellster Junior just made himself Franz Wagner’s senior!) that means nothing and ultimately will not matter!

I, for one, would be glad to not have to endure this. But to be clear, I don’t just want to lose. I want to choose to lose. There’s empowerment there! There’s agency! We are choosing our emotional well-being! 

And, maybe most importantly, this choice would be making a statement. 

Tanking the play-in as a form of righteous protest (The Big-Picture Statement Argument)

We all know that tanking – and, more generally, players not playing despite being healthy – is an epidemic in the NBA. This is extremely top of mind for me because I was in the championship of my fantasy basketball league last week, and was forced to watch on in horror as 90% of my roster, at some point, was listed as unavailable. Even now, when I close my eyes, I’m haunted by visions of the big red ESPN App font reading OUT beside Pascal Siakam’s head.

(NOTE: I still won the championship. Back-to-back champ. Third title since 2018. I won this year by one assist! Tradition of excellence!) 

The players simply do not play in enough of the games, and in my opinion… it’s a disgrace! I truly believe this! It’s one of my biggest old guy-isms, but really can’t stand it. I want to watch the good players play basketball! Isn’t that what we all want? It certainly doesn’t seem like Adam Silver wants that! 

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And that’s the crux of the issue: The buck stops with Adam. Maybe I’m out of line here, but I believe the NBA Commissioner should care about the NBA product. And he can talk all he wants, but his actions (expansion in the midst of this mess!) undoubtedly show he doesn’t. 

So what can we do? How do we make our voices heard? How can we sound the alarm for this league we love, and declare that we’re tired of popping on national NBC games to see a 40-point blowout in the third quarter played by 80% two-way guys? 

We wholeheartedly and unabashedly tank the play-in game! We publicly embarrass Adam, in the very play-in format that he created (a dumbass format no one cares about, another Adam failure)! We run out a ridiculous team on national TV! I want Adem Bona bringing the ball up! I want David Adelman guarding Paolo Banchero! I want Franklin the Dog standing on a folding chair under the opposing basket and swatting all of our shots away with a broomstick! Sorry Adam, you’ve left us no choice!

So yeah, those are my three arguments for tanking these play-in games. I think I made some pretty good points there. Please don’t be pissed at me.

Kinkead: I will actually give you a fourth option. Tank the FIRST game, then try to win the SECOND one. I’d take my chances against a less-experienced Detroit team vs. having to lose to Boston again.