This thread makes no sense. You call it an extended turn around, and then list the most successful tanks in the last 20 years. A More realistic analysis of your evidence would suggest that if we had EXCELLENT management AND deep pockets, our average turn around time would be 4 years. We have neither. Good analytics involve not cherry picking data, so you need to include teams like the kings and wolves, who have been tanking for the entire lives of most posters on here. We're most likely going to such for a VERY long time. Luckily most of the posters calling to tank during the Harden Era are gone now, so at least conversation will be somewhat intelligent now.
My whole point with the thread was to try and highlight exactly what you call a "realistic analysis"; that under the best of circumstances, where teams hit on their draft picks, have long-term vision for the team, and get lucky enough to either lure hall-of-famers in free agency or draft them in the second round, it still takes a really long time to recover from being the worst team in the league just to make the playoffs again, which is a really low bar in a league where more teams make it than don't. Many posters here believe that the current Rockets can short-cut this timeline, that their situation is somehow unique, or better than past contenders who fell on hard times. I am not a believer in this theory, although I definitely reserve the right to be massively surprised if they do, and will be happy to be wrong.
This whole rebuild thing doesn't matter if we have the worst NBA leader in John Wall creating bad chemistry and resentment among the promising rookies. John Wall is the worst player we could have going into a rebuild process, because even if he helps us tank for good picks, his contract is so terrible that we couldn't get rid of him even if we attached those picks with him, and the rookies potential are going to be wasted playing next to this garbage player.
Big Yao goes down in the summer of 2009. Rumors that he'll never play again begin circulating in the Western media. Truth is out there but Houston is in denial. Everything looks like doom and gloom. In comes K-mart and Camby. Lowry and Gogi don't know it yet but they will become holy phenoms. 2010, 2011, 2012, no tanking and no playoffs. On the eve of the 2012-2013 season an opportunity presented itself and the Morley man took it. Should an opportunity present itself use those willy wonka bars the Nets gave you, all of them if you have to.
Celtics traded the #5 pick for Ray Allen on draft day, so they announced the pick, but the Sonics were the ones who made the selection of Jeff Green. https://www.espn.com/nba/draft2007/news/story?id=2920183
