Les of the owner said recently that the rockets was not a payoff team, which indicated that he prefer to have a high pick, by not playing Scola (who can not play at all?) could be another indication that the rockets do want to a high pick. If you want a team to be mediocre, then texans is just a good example. The team won one meaningless game resulted in a pick of 11, which could be 6.
You'd think someone getting a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from a top 5 school would be a little more efficient when it comes to common grammar. I'm sure I missed a few since I did this quickly...... As far as tanking....I don't care if we win or lose anymore, I'm just enjoying the remainder of the season. I see it as a win-win situation. If we lose, it helps our draft chances, if we win, then great. Pugs
What's laughable about the tanking contingency is the assumption that its a shorter distance from sucking-to-contender than middle-of the-pack-to-contender. You guys keep bringing up San Antonio but that only worked becuase they had injuries to their two best players. So that season they were able to come back with an all star/MVP candidate, the first pick in the draft, and Sean Elliot who was a borderline all star at the time. All these teams that have gotten top five picks over the last few seasons are still celler dwellers so where does this assumption come from?
Wow,now I see why fans are fans and Gm's are Gm's and losers are losers.How old are clutchfans?They need a 21 or up clause on the restrictions.What is the meaning of Insanity,doing something over and over and expecting a different result.Unless your a a pinball jumping around that circle you have no idea what pick your gonna get.Is anyone here a pinball,oh my bad.Thats right most of you are insane.Try your best to win the damn games and if you dont make the playoffs sucking still doesnt gaurantee you anything.There isnt a star player in the draft and be honest How many "Superstars are left that havent ganged up?Thats right not enough to tank and get picks to draft and trade for.Clutchfans new name should be InsaneFans.
I agree that tanking a lot sooner would have helped a lot more, but I'm all for tanking now. The benefit is much smaller but the sacrifice is also much smaller. Tanking after Yao's injury would actually be pretty risky, whereas tanking now has very little risk attached to it. So, the benefit here is to go from #14 to #10 and double our chances for a top-3 pick? That sounds pretty good to me. We can rest some vets, get a lot of playing time for young guys, and get a better draft pick? The benefit may be merely incremental, but so is the downside. So, the downsides: * Our record won't be as good, so free agents might see us as somewhat less attractive. But, we're likely to end under .500 even if we do try, so I don't know if a few extra losses will matter. It's unlikely we will be players in free agency anyway, given Bima's article. * It may hurt morale and a winning culture to tank. I'm not asking Adelman or a player to lose. Just sit the vets and then try your best. We've got a lot of green guys who will benefit more from the confidence of playing extended minutes in real games than will be hurt by losing most of 17 games. For young guys like these, they are probably thinking a lot more about their individual performance and their place in the league than they are the team's place. They won't see 17 games as losing being acceptable because they still want to become All-Stars. And, if they can actually get some buzz about being promising youngsters it will help in development and in wooing free agents too, despite losing. We improve our pick, improve our chance for a top-3, and improve our young players. That improved pick will be better for trading up. Plus we can help Phoenix a little bit, and move that pick up from ~#24 to #15 if they make it. And, in a poor draft like this one is supposed to be, you'd want to be as high as possible to get one of the few good players available. In return we give up a dubious negative impact on our attractiveness as a destination and a dubious impact on our culture. That looks to be worth it. (Though, I'd suggest that when looking at moving up to #10, you should calculate the risk of falling to #11-#13. Of course, you should also show chance of moving to top-3, not just top-1.)
Morey has a track record of getting solid players all over the board so I'm not too concerned with a couple of spots. He has missed on a couple of second round picks (Dorsey and Novak) but I still trust he will do something nice this summer. Oh Landry Fields went undrafted. It's better to be lucky than smart sometimes.
I think that's why people would advocate tanking instead of honestly sucking. San Antonio got their star by tanking with a good team, so they're now great. A team like the Clippers got their stars by being genuinely bad, so they continue to be bad. The Rockets are now closer to the old San Antonio team than they are the old (or any) Clippers team. So, they can probably expect to follow more closely in San Antonio's footsteps. Of course, San Antonio had the sense to start tanking from the start -- we can't match that now.
Sons of CLUTCH CITY! Of ROCKETS! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of our ROCKETS fails, when we forsake our team and break all bonds of fellowship, in favor of tanking but it is not this day. An hour of the suns and Grizzlies shattered Blazers when the Age of Rocket Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the Western Conference fight the Wind, Rain and the SUNS TONIGHT! Of course if we lose tonight, let the tanking begin.
If you take 2007 into consideration, not all of the teams are cellar dwellers, the oklahoma city thunder are really good and they got durant (#2) in that draft.
I'm sorry, I thought it was obvious... Sons of CLUTCH CITY! Of ROCKETS! My brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of our ROCKETS fails, when we forsake our team and break all bonds of fellowship, in favor of tanking but it is not this day. An hour of the suns and Grizzlies shattered Blazers when the Age of Rocket Men comes crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, Men of the Western Conference fight the Wind, Rain and the SUNS TONIGHT!
Clippers are purposely being bad. If Clipper go all in like Rockets did, such as having league's top 7 payroll and trading their picks for veteran helps, Clippers would be as mediocre as Rockets too. If Rockets have traded Martin, did not sign Miller or did not sign Scola, Rockets will be genuinly as bad as Clippers too. In most cases, being genuinly bad is tanking. For a GM, the easiest thing is to build a mediocre team like Rockets. Morey is wasting his talent here.
It also helped that they drafted Parker (Round 1, 28th overall) and Ginobilli (Round 2, 57th overall), but I see what you mean. but if the Rockets were to tank, they should have done it from the start. Imagine if they would have tanked last year, we might have had John Wall this year.
Try our best for the end of this year. It's too late, and it's not a great draft, and there will be some people in the draft late anyhow that can fill some needs. If you can't get Dwight Howard, CP3 or Deron Williams (which you probably can't), then tank NEXT YEAR and go for the #1 pick in the first round 2012 and get a kid like Austin Rivers.
