I actually had the chance to interview Mr. Morey himself for my high school newspaper, and he said that he thinks tanking is the best, easiest, and fastest way to turn a team around and thats what the Rockets probably should have done that. It seems obvious Les wanted differently, and credit Morey for being able to do what he says has never really been done before.
Look, Lowry despised McHale. He was gone if we could get a good asset in return, and we did. Dragic they tried to keep, but weren't willing to give him the player option. We knew at that point that Chandler was better than Bud, and we had reason to believe that Asik would be better than Dalembert. We now know how Hinkie defines tanking, it's safe to assume that Daryl agrees with him, and we know that it's something that Les refuses to do. Bottom line, we weren't going into full-tank mode, even by the old definition of the phrase. We were accepting the possibility that it'd be a tough season, while hedging our bets by signing guys like Lin and Asik and keeping Martin around. At worst we were probably a 30 win team. That's not enough to put you in great draft position, historically.
Martin, Lin, Asik and Delfino would have been a 20 - 25 win team (Yahoo's preview is still online and predicts 25 wins before the trade, 3rd worst in the league). Really bad. With hindsight we can see that Martin wasn't very good, Lin was a flash in the pan, and Asik has oven mitts for hands. Morey was quoted as saying that either one of our young players was going to develop into a star, or we'd get a high lottery pick. We know now that none of those players, even Parsons, was going to be that type of lead dog.
We will have to disagree then. I felt that team would have netted us a top 3 pick. I believed they were THAT bad.
Still don’t think tanking is the answer! Feel like this thread has come full circle with Harden being traded and us getting Victor Oladipo!
Yes, we traded Harden for Oladipo that put us further on the treadmill to nowhere. We are a 40 win team with the roster we have. Go read Hinkie's resignation letter. He also would have drafted Tatum before the league sent the Colangelo's to sabotage that team. If Hinkie was left alone your opinion would likely be very different and all of their assets wouldn't have been pissed away. That team may have had Embiid, Simmons, Tatum, and Butler and a championship or two by now. If we tanked this year and next and developed our young players we would have the ability to open two max slots with a ton of young players and trade assets. I don't want this team to be the pre-Harden Rockets again. Next big FA, LA and NY aren't going to be able to be destinations again and likely not Miami and their assets are GONE. The cupboards are empty and stars are locked in with only one group able to move.
And some of the good teams that didn’t tank actually do have a championship by now. There are multiple ways to build a top-tier team, and only one of them requires multiple years of misery and creating a losing culture.
If this was football yes I agree fully. Who on this team still remains from our 65 win team? Only Gordon and Tucker who will be gone. Not even the coaching staff. Clouds of discontent and lack of direction create losing cultures. We tried to build a top-tier team that really won a chip if not for the refs but made a mistake with Ryno. Now we have assets we never had before with the ability to get more and rather quickly turn this thing around over two years. Yes, there are many ways and sometimes it takes creativity to see a path that is not just two options. Lakers tanked and were gifted players (nothing attached to LBJ qualifies), Raptors owe us a thank you, GSW tanked and drafted well and got the lucky cap break (they are your best example). SA tanked for Duncan, CLE tanked for LBJ. Including LBJ teams most chips are Lakers, Celtics, Spurs because of dominant players. Our best shot is the GSW route with some tanking, some luck, using assets, and then striking in FA.
You are using very old examples from a very different draft system. None of the current best 8 teams except Philly got good from tanking. That’s one example from tanking and 7 from either FA moves or getting steadily better year after year. You will not keep Wood with tanking. You will not attract a FA with tanking. You will be consigned to misery for years and then have to start building up from a collection of good players. Which is what they have right now.
