This has gone from what I thought was a worthwhile <a href=http://bbs.clutchcity.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29958>discussion<a/> of the future, to something much much worse. Are there really people in this forum that believe we should deliberately lose games to get a higher draft pick? Should Rudy pull Steve aside and have a talk about the good of the franchise in the long run? Is it short-sided to win games now? The playoffs are a fargone conclusion. We have a logjam at the 4, a backup center, and plentiful mediocrity at small forward. We could really use a nice 3 or 5. We have a nice nucleus in Francis, Griffin, and Mobley. Is it enough? What do you really think? What direction do we take if you have the reigns?
They are playing for next year at this point in time. Might as well be game-testing the rest of the squad to see where they are on the development curve: Collier, Langhi, Brown, Morris. Keep Oscar in the bank, though. Losing 18 out of 25 instead of 12 will not ruin our "winning" mentality. It's not tanking; it's franchise development.
IMHO if you tank once, you'll end up in the lottery for a few years. Looking at the performance of the teams which have tanked in the recent past* backs this up. This is due to the mind set created, the negative impact in morale and the loss of actual confidence. We should aim to win every game, then let CD work his draft day magic again (2 out of the last 3 years he has done exceptionally well) with the extra draft pick/trades. *San Antonio not "rushing back" david robinson did not change the team mind set, as he was already out all season. They chose not to improve the team when they had the chance.
Win at all times. Under no conditions should you lose games on purpose. I couldn't root for a team that took that kind of mentality.
Kind of scary. Most people seem to be more in favor of tanking, or at least not trying to get every win. Personally, my view is a lot closer to the Clutch Take. I don't see any point in scraping out a couple more wins if we're just going to play Steve and Cuttino 42 minutes every night, while Eddie and Terrence get 20, and Oscar only gets token appearances, etc. To his credit, Rudy has been giving Eddie a lot more playing time lately, even when he hasn't played well. And Terrence is getting a lot more time than I thought he would. What about Dan and Jason? Are they in the plans for the future at all? Questions to ponder...
Riding Steve and Cuttino 40+ minutes a game is silly Don't tank, but don't kill you're stars in a sunken season. Langhi not getting any playing time really puzzles me. I mean, for a "mismatch" offense, isn't a 6"10 sf something worth exploring more? Especially after the nice preseason performance. Ah well trust in Rudy i suppose
