Did the Nets Tank Last Season?

Chuck seems to think they did, but according to Marv Albert, they were just simply awful. Fox Sports has the quotes: “They tanked it last season,’ said Barkley, who is now a TNT analyst. ‘That team has some good players, but they tanked it to get the No. 1 pick.’ If that was the Nets’ plan, it didn’t work. They finished the regular season with the NBA’s worst record, but lost out on the first pick to the Wizards in the draft lottery. They settled for the third selection, which meant no John Wall, and instead picked Derrick Favors, a power forward out of Georgia Tech. The Nets started the 2009-10 season with a record-breaking 18 consecutive losses, but avoided total infamy by not being the worst team in NBA history — an honor that still belongs to the 1972-73 76ers, who finished the season 9-73. ‘If you just go out there and compete on a nightly basis, it’s impossible to only win 12 NBA games,’ added Barkley …  Marv Albert, who is a part-time broadcaster for the Nets on YES, defended the team from the tanking charge. ‘Players could care less about the next season,’ Albert said. ‘It was more of a case that they were so bad that psychologically they got despondent, (so) that you just go through the motions.'”