I think "tanking" makes some sense, I think "the Process" was a mistake, because it didn't recognize how teams that tanked built. Most of those teams quite quickly surrounded their new star with talent and vets, built to best take advantage of their abilities.... also, a lot of teams who tanked never won anything either. Cleveland got the best prospect since... Kareem? They didn't win a single title in his 7 years. Other prominent tank teams in the last 10 years... Charlotte, New Orleans, Orlando, Minnesota..... most teams that tank and end up with a bunch of top 5 picks.... don't win titles.Not a fan of tanking in theory but practically speaking - particularly in the NBA - it's super rational. As you point out, teams need a superstar in the NBA to compete, and if a team doesn't have one, it's either FA or draft. And while MIL and DEN both got super lucky, the odds of drafting a superstar outside the top 5 aren't great (yes it happens but it doesn't happen frequently).
To me, the real problem is that the draft incentivizes losing. We've talked over a variety of threads of how to address that but I don't have any easy answers.
If anything recent champions (2012-2022)