Hy.
I have been playing this game for over 15 years. I wasn't always very committed or cared too much, but casual playing for very long period of time proved me one thing: Being mediocre in this game is most pointless position to be, results vise. That is why managers either compete or tank, and there is no objective reasons to stay in between.
In past i would have very little money, refused to tank, invested some money into drafting but in 99% cases never got desired players. Matter of fact, in my +15 years of playing, due avoiding to tank, i only drafted i think one player with potential over 10. And that player also was complete crap with terrible starting skillset.
Trying to stay competitive in past meant that i would spend very few money i got trying to upgrade roster, while still not being good enough to be promoted, or after being promoted in 1st division, having no money to buy actual players to compete with best players.
Such desire to be competitive, while having no money as safe net, got me demoted to second division with like 300K in bank, with group of 34 years old players that were worth nothing.
Over last several years i started to pay attention more what works and what does not work, and what you call "unsportmanlike" behavior in reality is just players being proactive, smart and planning their future. There is no "cheating", players who now have $15-20M on their bank account didn't steal that money. They are very patient and play long game.
Planning rebuild for ground up is already massive pain in a** and going further with making already ineffective training even less effective is complete nonsense move.
Root issue with this game boils down to a fact that tanking isn't penalized (and that's on you and people who made system), second biggest issue is limited amount of training slots that leads into having very few elite players available and price they cost is only affordable for 1st division players.
Also, due their bloated salary most of players who actually spend real life years developing players, are forced to sell their beloved prospects because they no longer can afford them (while staying competitive due salary restrictions ). And this is why players who horded $25M on their bank account take full advantage of hording money. They can afford them, while losing manager, after trading favorite players often lose interest in game due knowing new cycle will take 3 freaking years.
As long as draft order is set backward from seeding, tanking will be a thing.
As long as there is no serious financial penalty for tanking, teams will tank because in 1st division tanking can them even $500K a week.
As long as training is super slow process and takes ages with limited amount of players on specific positions that can be trained, retooling own team around own draftees while staying competitive will be impossible.
And lastly, biggest issue among them all, in this game, is terrible game engine, that now, instead of fixing it, has you "nerfing" 3-2 zone. if game actually can run more like actual, modern basketball, where centers can shoot and where power forwards are no longer stiff woods for rebounding, it would solve your shotblocking issue + 3-2 zone + 2 Cs with +20 SB meta scheme.
This is why nobody is trying to be creative. Engine simply punishes any sort of creativity. You can in theory train your C into 19 JS & 14 JR and that should be "anti 3-2 zone" where, no matter what offense you set, your C will end up with 50 -threes-taken- a season-at most and in all of them it won't be C to guard him, but due terrible implementation of 3-2 zone, almost all his 3s will be contested by - guards?