The All-Star break is almost behind us, which means NBA tanking season is upon us, and there’s reason to believe this — the final season before the league’s draft lottery reform goes into effect — could be the most glorious display of losing we’ve ever seen.

At least eight teams have no incentive to win for the rest of this season and every incentive to improve their lottery odds in a draft projected to go seven or eight deep with potential All-Star talent: the Phoenix Suns, Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Orlando Magic, Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks.

The Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers are bad, too, but neither team owns its first-round pick this season and therefore has some motivation to remain competitive. The Charlotte Hornets should join that aforementioned group. Whether Michael Jordan would ever allow his team to give up hope on a playoff seed is another matter.

View photos Will the Knicks hand the keys to the tank over to Frank Ntilikina? (AP) More

That’s practically one third of the league that could be willingly losing games over the final seven weeks of a season that features hotly contested races for the top two spots and fairly wide-open battles for seeds three through eight in both conferences.

With personal pride and future earning power on the line, it’s hard to imagine players throwing games beyond the natural apathy that seeps in once they’ve been eliminated from playoff contention. The same can’t be said for front offices that recognize a higher draft pick could mean the difference between rebuilding and delaying construction.

These five steps to tanking will ensure your team gets the job done right.

1. Start early.

If you’re going to be bad, be really bad. The earlier you understand there’s no hope, the better, because you can get a jumpstart on the teams that tried to win games for a time.

The Suns and Hawks, who are tied with the league’s worst record at 18-41, seemed to know from the start. Neither killed their salary cap signing players who might help in the short-term. Quite the opposite. Atlanta let Tim Hardaway Jr. walk and dealt Dwight Howard. Phoenix took the extra step of trading its best player weeks into the season.

The Hawks are among four should-be tanking teams that won four of 10 games entering the All-Star break — along with the Magic, Kings and Hornets — but at least Atlanta’s front office constructed a team poorly enough to build in a cushion for such an untimely stretch of OK basketball. Meanwhile, the Suns and Grizzlies are really hitting their stride, each entering the break winless in February. Here are the current tank rankings:

Suns (18-41)

Hawks (18-41)

Mavericks (18-40)

Magic (18-39)

Kings (18-39)

Grizzlies (18-38)

Bulls (20-37)

Knicks (23-36)

Hornets (24-33)

So, what can be done if your team is winning too many games for its own good?

View photos Willy Hernangomez might help the Knicks this season after all. (AP) More

2. Dump anyone who helps win games now and isn’t needed later.

Greg Monroe, Marco Belinelli, Joe Johnson, Brandan Wright and Tony Allen were all waived in recent weeks, and not just as a favor to a handful of veterans who might help a playoff team down the stretch. Because you can’t have them winning games for you.

The Bulls, Kings, Mavericks and Grizzlies traded Nikola Mirotic, George Hill, Devin Harris and James Ennis, respectively, in deals that will benefit them through future draft picks in the long-term while making them worse in the short-term. Two birds, one stone.

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