The tanking was expected to be gloriously blatant this season. What with Victor Wembanyama as the top prize in next year's NBA draft, you were supposed to either be contenders or in a race to the bottom.

Instead, the teams expected to pace the tanking party have been very visibly trying to win. The Utah Jazz are atop the West standings. The San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Indiana Pacers haven't had as much success, but they've piled on a few wins and are clearly competing against every opponent.

Is tanking, even for Victor Wembanyama, out this season? Did Adam Silver's preseason warning scare teams into playing hard each and every night? According to a recent discussion featuring NBA execs by The Athletic, front offices aren't buying the anti-tank approach just yet.

Via The Athletic:

“No, it’s early enough to where you can just throw everybody off your scent and say, ‘What are you talking about? Look how hard we’ve been playing,’” one general manager said. “Don’t get it twisted. Once people start taking on a little bit of water around the trade deadline, you might see the longest 10- to 15-game losing streaks by multiple teams in NBA history.”

With the exception of the Jazz, whose 10 (!!) wins likely will hurt their lottery chances down the road at Wembanyama already, most expected tanking teams have tons of leeway to give it their best shot first. With the flattened odds, falling a spot or two won't hurt as much if teams mess around and win a few games early on. Massive losing streaks, after all, aren't as conspicuous when they're three months into a season.

“Nobody starts 0-10,” said a different front office exec. “You just can’t do that. But yeah, (the tanking) will happen.”

According to these execs, phantom injuries and perplexing rotations are bound to penetrate these teams trying their darnest to win now. Nothing a few minutes of watching Victor Wembanyama highlights won't soothe.