I like what Michael Jordan has done over the past 18 months.
He finally has that team heading in the right direction.
The Bobcats ownership and management should be praised for their recent work. Not criticized. They are finally taking the long view and building for a title instead of some 45 win team that isn't going anywhere. They are doing everything right ... for the first time in a long while they are actually running that team properly.
No.
Tanking is not something that should be praised.
Tanking and rebuilding aren't the same thing. Rebuilding involves moving assets that could help win games now to put yourself in a position to win in future years. It's taking a mediocre team and trading or not resigning players to get prospects or cap space. You're making your team worse now but helping its long-term outlook.
Tanking is being able to win (some) games now but trying not to, by sitting healthy guys out or not playing hard to lose down the stretch. It's taking a team that's already mediocre-to-bad this year, and deliberately making decisions to try and make your record worse. But usually the personnel stays the same, you just try to come out with worse results.
Put it another way, the Pitino Celtics teams were rebuilding (or trying to). They just weren't very good no matter how hard they tried. The 06-07 team had the players to be a mediocre team, but had injuries screw up most of their season, so they tanked down the stretch to look even worse.
Charlotte has gone the rebuilding route by moving guys like Wallace and Jackson, but they've done little if any tanking - their injuries have been legit and they haven't been sitting players for no reason. They're just really, really awful.