Lose em all, let's lace em up next year !

It's a good idea to let our youngins get the playing time, however, tanking is not a good message to send to the fans, organization, city, and even the team.

Don't worry, no matter how hard we try, we're losing them anyways, so what's the point of tanking?

At least Yao has matured.

 

DD:

What you say has merit. However, I just cant tank the season until we are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. I am just too much of an eternal optomist to do that to my teams.

However, if and once we do become eliminated, I definately think we need to start Swift. First being, lets see what he can do with extended playing time and secondly if he is going to be here and not traded the extra repetitons are only going to help continue to learn JVG's system. I am tired of being a Swift apologist and really want to see what this guy is made of.

The same goes for Head and Lampe. I know eveyone considers Lampe a bust, and honestly, I have no idea if he can play. I dont think I have ever seen one minute of Lampe play. I would be interested in seeing what he can or cant do. Head on the otherhand has some potential and we need just get him minutes so that next year he can become more of an asset.

That being said, I hope Yao continues his tear and continues the upward trend and becomes a legitimate MVP candidate next year.

 

I totally agree, let's start to shut it down now. Look at the upcoming draft and play the youngster's to see what we have.

 

IMO, tanking the season is totally crazy and not even worth discussing. Then again, this is a chat forum and crazy stuff is brought up all the time. After we are elimated from the playoffs, I agree there should be some specific focus items:

1 Keep playing Yao hard and see how much he can continue dominating now that teams are focusing on him more and more. Fatigue from the season is a non-factor because Yao has missed so many games. He needs to continue playing serious (35+) minutes to prove to himself and everyone else the domination and endurance can be sustained over a long period of time.

2 Play Luther more at the point. Unless he craters and just blows it entirely, this is where Luther needs to stay. He needs the experience of being put in position to make decisions about what to do with the ball. Sorry Brunson, you gotta stay on the bench while we do what's best for the team. Nice knowin' ya. Of course, playing Luther a lot at PG depends on Wesley coming back and starting at SG. While Wesley is hurt, just giving Luther a lot of playing time will help since he's recovered from hitting the wall.

3 At PF, JH should remain the starter but Stro should rotate in sooner. If Stro leaves his brain on the bench, bring in Chuck Hayes. There won't be any benefit in playing JH heavy minutes once we are eliminated.

4 I'm not a Lampe guy at all but I have no problem with giving him a few minutes. Couldn't hurt.

 

I agree with you DD.

Tanking is lossing on purpose. Playing your younger players (to win) is evaluating talent for next year. The season is toast, and even if some miracle happen, this team is not ready for the NBA finals. So lets get a high lottery pick, pick up a shooter via FA and start with a bang next year.

Same people that feared the texans would tank their last game, are the sames ones who rejoiced when they lost.......

 

apostolic3:

Good post, but I have to disagree with you with playing Yao 35+ minutes game. He does need to play significant minutes while we are still in the hunt for the eighth seed, but again if and once we are eliminated resting Yao seems to me to be the better option. I know you cant play your season and games afraid of injury, but in this cursed season resting Yao would probably have great benefit. Yao has turned the corner. This is not just some fluke stretch and we can expect him to totally dominate. The Rockets are sitting pretty with their known commodities (McGrady and Yao) and it is now time to see who needs to stay and who needs to go.

 

Ditto, DD. The NBA really should maintain an extensive farm system, the way baseball and hockey do. If we had a farm team, now would be a perfect time to try out our younger prospects.

 

OK, then play Yao 30+ mpg instead of 35+ mpg. (There are only 16 games left). If we had a 15 mpg backup center things would be a lot easier, but we don't. I still say Yao should be pushed and pushed to see what his limits are because fatigue for the season is a non-factor. It's obvious his recent domination isn't a fluke but he must maintain it for the rest of the season except the last 2-3 games maybe. Yao himself, JVG & the coaching staff and the other players need to learn as much as they can about the extent of the abilities of our newly dominant center and how teams will defend him. Yao is the main building block for next season and if Tracy comes back strong, we can have a special team.

 

i agree 100%.

Jho can continue to start, but shouldn't play more than 12 minutes a game. let stro and hayes get LOTS of PT.

keep yao's run going. confidence is huge for him. however, we don't need to play him too many minutes.

also, get every scout we have...infact hire extra scouts to start preparing for the draft. we have to make the right choice. this will be one of the most important drafts for us.

 

Yeah tank all but the 4 games against the teams in the Southwest Division. I could care less about other games, but we need to fight in these 4 games to avoid the worst all-time divisional record. It would be too much to stomach if we ended up with 0-16.

 

NEVER TANK

TANKING IS FOR TEXANS .
er . .
uhm ..
I mean the Football team . .not the people
but ya'll knew that . .. right

Rocket River

 

You will never see a JVG-coached team tank. He would quit if told to tank.

 

*gasp*
DD a TANKER!!

Rocket River

 

Why not? I wanted the Rockets to tank after T-Mac went down twice. San Antonio tanked a season, got Duncan and went right back into the thick of things. Not saying we're gonna get Duncan, the sending a message of losing thing wasn't necessarily a refection of future with the Spurs case.

 

LOL!

Tank? The way we're playing, there's no need. I agree that we should fight, as long as there is that slim chance, but slim and none would best describe it. Great point about giving heavy minutes to the youngsters, and guys we have to evaluate.

 

Yes, we need to test our inknown commodities.

 

Why is such a bad idea to tank the season? San Antonio did it a few years ago and built a dynasty