Anything wrong with blatantly tanking?

General discussion and team advice concerning Redraft & Keeper leagues.
ajf235
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Anything wrong with blatantly tanking?

Postby ajf235 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 8:44 am

This legit contender in my league just blatantly tanked. He was in playoff contention but had subpar keepers and was still well behind the top 3 teams in terms of overall firepower. I know noncontenders often trade unkeepable studs to contenders in contract leagues, but what are your thoughts on a contender who trades an unkeepable stud to another contender for keeper value assuming there are no explicit rules against it in the league? The trade was Melvin Gordon (unkeepable) and Rams D for Derrius Guice ($7) and Christian Kirk ($2) on a $200 budget half ppr.

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moishetreats
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Re: Anything wrong with blatantly tanking?

Postby moishetreats » Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:19 am

ajf235 wrote: Mon Oct 22, 2018 8:44 am This legit contender in my league just blatantly tanked. He was in playoff contention but had subpar keepers and was still well behind the top 3 teams in terms of overall firepower. I know noncontenders often trade unkeepable studs to contenders in contract leagues, but what are your thoughts on a contender who trades an unkeepable stud to another contender for keeper value assuming there are no explicit rules against it in the league? The trade was Melvin Gordon (unkeepable) and Rams D for Derrius Guice ($7) and Christian Kirk ($2) on a $200 budget half ppr.
Respectfully, I think that your mindset is what's off, not the owner's.

First of all, he didn't "blatantly tank". He didn't start a guy on buy or trade Melvin Gordon for an unkeepable, say, Jamaal Williams. He made a conscious decision to give him a shot at a run this year to try to stack the deck for next year.

Second, he doesn't have to run his team based on your assessment of it. You think that he is a "legit contender". Fine. Maybe you're right. (Of course, you also acknowledge that he is a distant fourth... :think:) But, he might evaluate and his players and his chances differently, and he is certainly free to act on his own evaluation of his team rather than on yours.

Third, he might even agree with you that he is a legit contender but might want to make this trade anyway! Why? Perhaps he hates fighting for third place and would rather lose, lose, and lose to have a better chance at first. Right or wrong, good or bad, that's his prerogative. Or maybe he believes that he can cover for the loss of Gordon. Or maybe he has a purposeful plan for the cap room that he is saving to acquire another player or free agent now. Or maybe he believes that he can flip what he got for more. Who knows? And, truthfully, it doesn't matter.

Finally, this is a contract/keeper league. These kinds of trades happen all the time for a variety of reasons. Even in the NFL, competitive teams sometimes trade top-end players for future picks for multiple reasons. Just call Brandin Cooks twice to hear about it.

Bottom line, this is nothing even close to "blatantly tanking". He's running his team as he sees fit. If you think that he's making mistakes, then don't complain about it -- take advantage of it.
10 tms 27 plrs PPR
Start: 2QB 2RB 3WR 2TE 2Flex / best ball

QB: Herbert, Love, Rodgers, G Smith, Stidham, T Taylor, Hall
RB: McCaffrey, Mixon, Pacheco, Montgomery, Z White, Allgeier, Dillon
WR: Hill, St. Brown, Kupp, Allen, Lockett, B Johnson
TE: Kelce, Kmet, Kraft, Okonkwo, Dulcich, Tremble

2024: 2.09, 3.07, 3.08, 3.10, 4.08
2025: 2nd (x2), 4th, 5th (x2)
2026: 1st, 2nd (x2), 3rd, 4th, 5th



12 tms 22 active plyrs. Salary Cap $300 PPR
Start: 1QB 2RB 3WR 1TE 1SF 1Flex / best ball

QB: Lawrence (contract through 2026), Love ('24), Rodgers ('24), Stidham ('25), Lock ('25)
RB: Bijan Robinson ('25), Pollard ('27), Dillon ('24), Rodriguez ('24), Spiller ('24)
WR: G Wilson ('26), AJ Brown ('26), DJ Montgomery ('25)
TE: --
2024 Cap Spent: $186

IR: --
TAXI SQUAD (4 max): --

Mjvb5
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Re: Anything wrong with blatantly tanking?

Postby Mjvb5 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 11:33 am

This isn't tanking at all. Tanking is benching a stud for a low end player with no legitamate reason as to why (there are many cases where this is fine and I'll accept almost any reason for why you chose A over B, for instance week 1 I loved the idea of John Ross v the Bengals and he was a must start for me), playing a hurt player, playing a player on bye, not submitting a full lineup etc. Tanking is making a conscious effort to not put forth your best line up on a weekly basis.
What this trade is is a rebuild, if you play dynasty,keeper or any kind of multi year league this is gonna happen a lot. Team A realizes he's not in contention, notices team B is. Team A has say Shady and Team B has Mckinnon, team A trades team B Shady for Mckinnon. These kinds of trades happen all the time


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