Honestly...Do you think that we may have been tanking games to get Yao Ming? I know that we had the 5th worst record but that may have been not to make it too obvious. I mean....the bulls needed a pg. The Wizards still want Kwame to be their big man and we may have gotten a slip in @ 3 with Yao. Other squads might not have dealt with the hassle. I know that we might not've either but it is just fruit for thought. What would be scary is Duwan Wagner with that HS kid next draft if the Cavs lose on purpose.
is it tanking? or just giving the end of your bench some playing time and experiance since the games dont count anymore?
I don't think it's tanking at all, I think it was a lack of talent (do to injuries), and the team was essentially playing without something like 70% of the line-up. Think about it, early in the season when injuries hit and the team was trying to win, they lost something like 15 games in a row, so when the injury bug hits even worse later in the season why are people surprised that the team struggled even worse?
No it was tanking. Remember the lineup the last few games? Norris Torres Morris Thomas Cato Steve and Cat were not injured.
Who cares? We got the #1 pick and we took Ming..period...end of story. The definition of tanking is what San Antonio did when they sat the Mermaid..err I mean the Admiral for the last half of the season and got the pick that they used for Duncan. I am not complaining about it but the Rocket did NOT tank.
Lets see..... Cat had a nagging ankle injury that never healed but still fought through until the games meant nothing. So you think you should play one of your best players in meaningless games in which he could have a more serious injury or at the very least cause a greater ankle problem. Steve was fighting through migraines and a bad shoulder( of which was much worst than expected). By your standards, you should always play your best players in meaningless games the finish out a lost season even when they are NOT 90% let alone 100%. Least we forget that MoT and Rice were already gone for the seaosn by this time as well. The Wiz was banged up as well and missed a few games.
The Wiz didn't have the second worst record this year. The Warriors did. Therefore, they would of had the second pick if no one won the lottery. Back to the question, if injuries cause you to tank than yeah the Rockets did. They didn't do it on purpose though.
Absolutely not. We did not tank games to get Yao Ming. We would likely have picked 5th if we hadn't won the lottery and there is no way the Rockets could hope Ming would have been there.
We wern't tanking. At the end we were just giving our bench players experience in games that didn't mean anything from a playoffs standpoint. I don't think anyone was shaving points or anything like that.
We were tanking, the Spurs did it to get Duncan, we did it to get Hakeem, and we did it again to get a better shot at Ming. Anyone who says otherwise is simply not looking at the situation in a realistic manner. DaDakota
Francis & Mobley were both top 5 in minutes played this year. No objective person can call that tanking.
Come on, they knew that losing the games they did and winning the ones they did would land them the #1 pick somehow.
It's important to make the distinction between 'tanking' and simply no longer having 'winning every game at all costs' as your #1 priority. By the end of the season, the Rockets were banged up, out of the race, and in serious need to see whether or not Langhi, Collier, Brown, etc would be able to show anything to merit keeping them around. Frankly it would have been stupid to keep putting your stars out on the floor in such a situation, especially considering the health issues they were going through. Did the Rockets 'tank' games at the end of last season in order to have a 'better shot' at getting Ming? Of course not. Tanking means losing on purpose. Did the Rockets care more about evaluating their young players than about W's and L's at the end of the season? I think you'd have to say yes. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's called making the best of a bad situation, and taking advantage of the opportunity to get some guys playing time who would not otherwise have gotten it. We can thank the ping-pong balls for getting the #1 pick, nothing else. Nero
