The only thing I can possibly think of is that the Magic told them they would trade them Howard for a package that either included Wallace or a top 3 pick or both. If that trade wasn't made specifically for the Magic it makes zero sense.
Since the 01-02 season the Nets have made the playoffs 6 times with two finals appearances. Over that same ten year stretch the Rockets have the playoffs five times with one series victory.
What do you mean? They DID waste three years tanking for picks, and they traded them all away. Unless I misunderstand you.
yeah, i'm right there with the OP. I want all the fans who rooted for the Rockets to make the playoffs to feel even more like ****. yep, that's what I want.
prove to me that always works. This is just theory. don't be stupid to say every team who sucks instantly because championship caliber. it is so weird how tankers think. we can't argue with this tanking thinking...or is the word "thanking"
This stuff about Morey's big trade that little big man David Stern quashed being proof that he's a genius but for interference from the authorities? There is always interference from the authorities. Refs decide games every single night unfairly. In a close game, one bad call -- at any point in the game -- will make the difference and the refs will have decided the game. In how many games do you think that doesn't happen? I'd say approximately zero; that approximately zero percent of the time that there is a close game there is at least one atrocious call by one ref and that that call decided the game. Almost all games are decided by refs, people that are less qualified to decide games than any numskull with a remote control with a rewind button on it. And owners interfere when they feel like it. Stern does it with the NBA, but when he arbitrarily blows off the plans of others, why should we like him less than Alexander -- the man that has made an art of disrespecting hall of fame coaches. How great are Nene and Gasol? And for how much longer? There is no good reason to believe this would have more than a lateral move for us. And Gasol didn't want to come here either. I get the vibe that he would be very Pippen. I'm sorry, but one big trade that didn't work out, for whatever reason, after all those years, actually doesn't count. It doesn't count because it never happened.
you're creating a strawman, hp. no one is saying that every team who sucks instantly becomes championship caliber.
Why does everyone who is opposed to tanking think that people who support tanking are actually happy about it? No fan wants their teams to tank and no basketball fan certainly wants to tank. However, at the end of the day, what other optionss do we have? I am serious about this. Most of us fans in support of tanking want our team to win long term and if sacrificing a season or two while letting our young ones get excess playing time can help that cause, I rather the team do that instead of being stuck outside the playoffs looking in for another decade. Seriously, what are the rest of you hoping for? We can't seem to trade for the star. Ending the season out of the playoffs again would give us the same draft pick again. I here a lot of irrational arguments against tanking, so again I ask, how do you propose we win then? Unless "basketball fans" just don't care about winning in the longer run and prefer simply winning a game here or a game there.
Rockets not making playoffs shouldn't change anyone's opinion on tanking. It doesn't prove that tanking is better or not.
Not mired in it? How old are you? The Washington franchise hasn't sniffed an NBA championship since they were the Bullets about 40 years ago. You can't count the number of "rebuilding or tanking" efforts that have taken place on the part of that franchise. Rocket fans want to complain about a 15 year drought? Suggest you don't take that sore subject up with a "pro tanking" Washington fan who probably won't see a championship in his lifetime. I thought the conversation centered around tanking as a strategy for winning titles. Nothing about competitive teams. If you're going to shift to "competitive" in an attempt to justify Charlotte's prior, futile attempts to tank and become championship contenders, we can talk competitive teams all day long. For instance, the Rockets are a competitive team. In each case, one of their players would have to elevate their play to elite status as Dirk did last year which is certainly not impossible given the personnel make-up of those teams. Either way, not a foregone conclusion. Knick fans might be surprised by that considering how long it's been since they won a championship which was again, about 40 years ago. None of it is terribly efficient if you're talking about elapsed time between making serious championship runs. How long has it taken the Bulls to get back to a championship contending level post Michael Jordan? How long did it take the Celtics following the Larry Bird era? These are championship pedigree organizations and it still took them the better part of 20 years to be back in that position. I'm not talking about competitive make the playoffs. I'm talking legitimate threat to reach the finals and win a title. Rocket fans are talking about 1 series in 15 years as a disproportionate drought but it's not as if the evidence supports those misgivings if nothing short of a championship is acceptable. It's the way it works in all sports. Do the best you can to put yourself in a position to win and when the opportunities come along that offer the prospect of making a leap forward through a trade or the draft or free agency, you take them. Obviously the opportunity to take a quantum leap would be better but franchises have to remain patient in the interim because those opportunities don't grow on trees. Tell that to the Denver Broncos. You think that a year ago John Elway had an inkling that Peyton Manning was going to fall into his lap the way he did? How many circumstances had to go a certain way for the Broncos to have a chance at acquiring the exact player they needed to become instant contenders for the Super Bowl? These blanket generalities don't work. Every sport is star driven when it comes to winning championships. Funny you mention Dumars in all of this. He's the poster child for the dangers of what can happen with GMs and extremely high draft picks. Why that doesn't pan out with regularity. Even if you manage to get the high pick, often as not you wind up with Darko instead of Melo.
We know. You dont want high draft picks yada we prefer this highly successful playoff run for the last 3 years of middle round draft picks and such. We have Patrick Patterson, Budinger, and Morris of the D league to throw in your faces of the tankers to Moreys god like powers. -anti tankers/no rebuild evar!!!!!!
It's just so frivolous. You're talking as if there were missed opportunities ou there. What were they? Just dumping the quality players off the roster who might've been responsible for assuring that the team would remain competitive in exchange for future considerations? That's it? You call that a strategy? A direction? Towards what? It doesn't seem to register with you that the majority of franchises in the league have not had teams that legitimately contended for championships in decades. I'm not talking about teams that make the playoffs. Just count the franchises that have never won one. Or have only won it once. Take away Boston, the Lakers, Chicago and the Spurs and we've pretty much identified who's won 80% of all the NBA championships. Make friends with reality. The Rockets are from being bottom feeders when it comes to frequency of championships in the league. Try talking to a Suns fan.
