The Houston Rockets Are The Perfect Example Of Why Tanking Works In The NBA

Good article!!

 

Dismantling a mediocre lottery team + acquiring James Harden for Kevin Martin and going to the playoffs= tanking?

Even worse "textbook tanking"????

This is just stupid. Tanking as the term is commonly understood means playing for a high draft pick- something the Rockets were expressly forbidden from doing (much to our chagrin at the time). Hence the years of 9 seeds and just missing the playoffs.

Whoever wrote this garbage should be embarrassed - I hate the internet sometimes. It just gives stupid a megaphone.

Do they still do analogies on the SAT? This is the kind of stuff its designed to weed out.

 

Please. The purpose of tanking is to get a high draft pick by having a poor record. Houston never had a poor record. It can't be cited as an example of tanking. It's an example of intelligently gathering assets, so it could acquire a superstar without needing to tank. What would have happened if it wasn't able to deal for Harden is speculative and irrelevant. It isn't an example of successful tanking.

 

Morey himself has said he told Les Alexander before they got Harden that this could finally be the year they were a bad team.

 

We were gonna be like a 4 games under .500 team with Martin Lin, Asik

There was no way we were losing 60 games with that roster

 

You guys are missing the point. We were going to play young players and would have tanked like 6ers right now. However, we were lucky Presti made the call to Morey to changed the fate of the Rockets. We would have been terrible and would have been top 3 in lottery pick almost for sure. A lot of us fans on CF had already came to terms the Rockets would suck that season before the season started. We shed all the veterans and older players to completely rebuild and gave us flexibility to make moves and play our rookies.

 

Exactly. Keeping Martin and then adding Lin and Asik doesn't make sense if you really want to tank.

 

If they were tanking they would not have signed Lin and Asik.

They were maximizing flexibility and picks while still trying to be competitive.

 

I disagree. In Omer, they definitely saw the potential for a solid C for at least 3 years, and those don't come up often (or ever) in the FA market for just 8 million a year. Regardless if the Rockets were tanking or not, they would've signed him.

I think people need to read the article more closely. The Rockets most definitely were planning to tank right up until Sam Presti gifted Harden to us. We all knew our season was going to be bad until the trade occurred, so yes, while the Rockets never had the losing record they were aiming for, the offseason plan was definitely to tank.

 

This is stupid. "Tanking" is purposely losing. It can be used in the context of 1 single game. "They tanked"... meaning, they lost that game on purpose.

He's trying to change the definition.

 

There is no way to know for sure... but projections before the season had the Rockets being one of the worst teams in the NBA. I think 3rd worst was the most common answer.

 

We planned to tank but did not actually tank. There are much perfecter examples out there.

 

I wonder how many posters are employees or their family members of the Rockets. The posts can be so unnatural at times. Les Alexander is King but I don't know if it's good to be king.

 

Possibly one of the worst articles I've ever read. Coincindently, would this be from a Yahoo 'contributor network'. There's no way I'm clicking the link to find out.

So the writer is basically trying to redefine the term 'tanking' by comparing Morey's rebuilding strategy to Hinkie's in Philly. The Sixers have secured a top 5 pick in June by purposely trading away mediocre assests (Holiday, Turner, Hawes, etc.)--while in the process setting an NBA historical mark for god awful basketball. Either you trade away all of your starters or you bench them due to injuries (i.e. Spurs/Robinson for Duncan pick). Both strategies
accomplish the same goal: more ping-pong balls. Morey did neither. That's why owners like Cuban desire to model their basketball ops after Houston's. It takes years to rebuild a winning organization after sucking by epic proportions.

Now, if the writer wants to say Morey failed to secure a top 5 pick for (Lowry and other trade assests) during the offseason of 2012, only to have Harden fall into his lap days before opening night, thereby saving him from 'tanking' the 2012-2013 season, then that's a discussion worth having. And yes, the GARM has talked about this at length. It's no secret Morey coveted Drummond in that draft, but instead won the super lotto months later in Harden.

Worthless article is worthless.

/thread

 

So let's see....we took a .500 roster, made a ton of trades and free agent signings, ended up winning 45 games and making the playoffs.....and that is considered tanking?

 

Article is trying to change an existing definition.

Tanking in sports is, by definition, losing games with an ulterior motive.

It has nothing to do with how the GM plans to collect assets or rebuild the team.

 

those projections are nothing but bull if you look at previous seasons of the rockets

that lineup was not gonna be third worst team in the NBA no matter how they play because Martin was still really good

 

This team was never going to be as bad as the suxers.

Terrible out of touch article. Morey never assembled a team that wasn't competitive.

 

This all comes down to your definition of "tanking". To me, tanking is losing games in order to gain more ping pong balls for the #1 draft pick. What we were doing was gaining cap flexibility & role players to get FAs by trade or out right signing. If you "tank" (by my definition), FAs won't want to come here. So you won't be able to sign them & if you trade for them, they won't resign with you.

Manfred applies the term "tanking" to any team that trades for role players or cap flexibility. We would have signed Dragic if he hadn't demanded a 4th year player option. We basically don't give 4th year options, so standing your ground in contract negotiations is "tanking". Lowery traded because he wouldn't buy into the team concept, so trading a malcontent is "tanking". The others were traded or amnestied to gain cap room, so that is "tanking".