LOL. Tanking won the Spurs 4 championships if you don't remember. I believe they tanked with extreme prejudice in 1997 for as many ping pong balls as possible.
The 2nd round is not a place to get alll-star caliber talent. Manu and Ginobili are very rare. Who was the Manu/Arenas in 2009 draft? Dejuan Blair? He's not somebody you can build a team around. How about the 2008 draft? CDR? Your target players are either or they aren't. Once they are gone, you can't get a similiar player.
What big player free agents like the Rockets have done, since Morey has been GM? 2009 Trevor Ariza 2008 Brent Barry 2007 Steve Francis A bunch of solid roleplayers isn't going to bring the Rocket's a championship. You need 2-3 stars to compete. Even the Lakers couldn't win it with Kobe, Bynum, Odom, etc. Kobe was not enough. Rockets have plenty of roleplayers. Drafting more roleplayers doesn't make them a playoff contender.
At the end of the day it's all just a crapshoot pretty much. What's the difference between 12 and 14? Forget that, what's the difference between Chase Budinger and the guy who was picked one pick lower than him? Or Aaron Brooks and the guy who was picked one pick lower than him? But wait, what's the difference between Chase Budinger and the guy who was picked one pick AHEAD of him? **brain explode** See my point? So basically, the OP is correct, there's no point tanking because we can't really know these things before hand. But that doesn't change the fact that whichever way it turns out, you can guarantee people will be b***hing on these forums afterwards, as if we should have been able to predict the future.
Don't be obtuse. The same thing is true for the top echelon of the draft. There are number 2 picks that have ended up more successful then the number 1 pick of their draft. The future is unpredictable.
I have faith in the league's other GMs to pick the wrong players in the 2-3 spots above the Rockets, while DM always manages to find guys who should have gone much higher. Tanking to move up a couple of spots is indeed pointless.
Wow! What a game last night! I think Wall, Turner, Cousins, Favors will all be all stars in this league. The more ping pong balls the more chances we have. How I would love to win of the top 3 picks in the lottery. The odds are against us but what about 12th vs 14th. This year their appears to be more bigs than in a long time. Their is a slim chance Greg Monroe might drop to 12th. He won't make it to 14th. Greg Monroe will contribute right away. He has better hands and plays better defense than Jordan Hill. He doesn't have as much upside. Ekpe Udoh will probably be available at the 14th. He also can contribute right away. Who would you rather have Udoh or Monroe. The Rockets were so undermanned last night. Yao Ariza, Battier, Jeffries, Martin on the bench. That team with Greg Monroe, Brooks and some minimum contracts could make the playoffs next year. With all that firepower missing we won. Is the 12th pick vs the 14th pick worth trading in for a game like last night? For me the answer is NO! Keep playing the youth. If Scola gets an ingrown toenail bench him for the rest of the season. But always and I mean always leave your heart on the court. The heart of a champion is not about wins it's about how you play the game.
I'm not trying to take a one-sided view, I'm just pointing out that it's hard to say how this will affect us in the future. Everyone thought that winning that game against Dallas was bad - but if we don't win, the Nuggets get the first overall pick and we don't. Tanking to get a slightly better mid-first round pick seems odd - if we were in contention for a John Wall or Evan Turner - yeah, roll out the scrubs. But the difference between Monroe and Udoh? meh. This should be one of the deeper draft classes, as far as marginal rotation talents go because of the fear of a lockout after the CBA expires - so we should be able to get good talent anywhere we land. And Morey's track record with draft picks is pretty exceptional so far.
Is that a pic of your crystal ball that they made into the trophy?? lol, at making decisions on the basis of unpredictable future events, said future events having even more unpredictable future consequences, said unpredictable future consequences having even more unpredictable risks and rewards. But good for you, for packaging the whole problem up so neat and nicely in your mind.
If you're one of these people who want to tank you should have wished we tank from the start of the season. I want to see wins.
