That's entirely your assumption that it would alienate payers and kill team morale.
This is an entire thread of assumptions, but it's not entirely my assumption that tanking would alienate players and kill teem morale. C.J. himself said that tanking is management's way of letting you know they are looking to draft your replacement. Not exactly a vote of confidence in his eyes.
You have also made the assumption that the 13th pick will get us a better player than the 15th pick. The draft is an inexact science. Teams evaluate and rate players differently. Once they know where they are picking, based on watching film, combine results, workouts, interviews, etc. teams target specific players. Because the process is so inexact, it would be very rare for the teams picking 13th and 14th to target the exact same player as the team picking 15th.
Teams also look at their own needs. The two teams we would have passed to move up from 15th to 13th are DEN and MIA.
DEN will most likely look to draft a PG. It fills a need and this draft is deep in PGs. Their once PGotF, Emmanuel Mudiay lost his starting job to old, fat, slow Jameer Nelson. They need an influx of young talent at the PG spot and this draft is their chance to acquire that talent.
MIA will probably target a wing, likely a SG at 14. Dion Waiters is an unrestricted free agent who will command a much bigger contract this year then last. I doubt if Pat Riley will pay the big bucks necessary to keep him. They will also look for an upgrade of Rodney McGruder, when started when Waiters was injured.
So, assuming we will get a worse player, or even a different player, at 15 than we would have gotten at 13 is just that, an assumption. I'd be inclined to say the exact opposite, that it's very likely we will take the exact same player at 15 as we would have at 13. Again you can call that an assumption, but given that it's only to spots, and the two teams drafting immediately ahead of us have different needs and will rate players differently, I'd say it's at least as valid as the assumption we would get a worse, or even different, player at 15 than we would have gotten at 13.
BNM