Im not going to lie, I almost pissed my pants laughing so hard once I started clicking on the links hahaha
Don't believe a word of it. The NBA introduced the lottery to draft Patrick Ewing for the New York Knicks. Secondarily to control the placement of the number one prospect at any future time the commissioner so chose.
Tanking doesn't guarantee that you get Tim Duncan or Lebron or Howard or Durant. NOT tanking almost guarantees you'll never have these players. The only exceptions I can think of in recent memory where a team got its first superstar via not tanking in the past decade or two: Nash, Kidd, T-Mac, and Harden with us.
Excluding your "math" you do realize the Heat tanked trying to get Rose a few years ago but got stuck with Beasily, heck all of the teams I've bolded tried to tank one season or another in the last decade, you don't get Blake Griffin or like Memphis a starting 5 at one point full of top picks a couple seasons back with just luck. Tanking is like a controlled burn in a forest, it has its benefits when the people in charge know talent and have the staff to help it grow. Sadly for a lot of franchises that is not the case.
Spur won 1st ring before Parker and Gino get chance to contribute. They did win 2nd with Parker, and at that summer, they try to sign Kidd as FA. Not sure if Kidd will sign with them or not if Parker is not there. Of the teams you say 80% of them get ring without tank, most are not right. Rockets does tank to get their center that is the main player to get ring. After they get the ring, I believe they trade for Drexler to get their 2nd. Barkley never get ring. Clipper is in tanking mode for long while. Knick was really bad at one point in 00 period, and the time they are good in 1990, they actually tank to get Ewing. Heat has been bad several times, but they did get #1 pick on Mourning and they get Wade at the deep draft on 2003 with #6 pick and they basically use Wade's ring to get other 2 stars for their current run. Celtic was really bad since Bird retired and they actually tank several times, twice their super star dies, once they tank really hard and the pingpong ball not fall on them. They did manage to draft "The Truth" and several pieces, than use those pieces to get KD and Allen. Frankly, only Laker trade for super star without tank. SO basically, there is only 1 team out of 8 in your aquire superstar list that actually qualify. That 12.5% Of the 1st group you list that Teams that tried or are trying tanking. Magic tank twice and Get Shak and Howard, Both bring them to final and loss. This is the 1st year they tank in the 3rd times, we will see if things changes. Sun get to conference final, this is like 1st year they really start to tank. Kings was a power house at 2000, if not because the last second referee's whilster, they may get ring, they did in bad shape, but it has more to do with ownership, not that they are in tank mood. Jazz is not really in tank mood. They will do that next year. Same as Rockets, but Jazz did it when they get to playoff. The other difference is when Morey starts to tank, we got Thunder willing to trade Harden to us. If they trade it to Wizzard as reported, I am not sure what group you will put Rockets in. Pelicans (or Hornets not sure why you want to double count 1 team) trade Paul last year, so this is like their 2nd year in tank. I don't know if they will be in play off hunt next year or not. Hawks never miss playoff, so I am not sure about tank. The last 2 years, Rockets never made to playoff. and since 95 we never make to final, does that make us tank for 18 years? Mav was in tank mood for a while they get Jason Kidds than trade him, few draft picks, get Dirk and Nash. They are in tanking for a while. It just took them like few years to be in contender and anther few years to actually become champion, so you did not realize they were tanking badly. Phy tank and get AI and get to final. Blazers was very unfortanute team, but they were a playoff team in serveral period over the 1990. They did loss Roy who could be the one of top sg at this moment. We are somewhere in our path, we are following Celtic's model except instead of "Truth" we have 1 we draft in 2nd round Parson. And instead of trading 1 HOF we trade for 1 that could potentially be #1 in sg. instead of get 1 FA HF, we sign 2 FA that just start to crack into starting role and show what they can do. Instead of drafting one of the top athelic pg at #6, we have few PF that waiting for them to pan out or we could trade several pieces for some players. Instead of Doc Rivers as coach, we have McHale. We will see how long it took us to the next ring. But as of now, we are pretty much few years lag than that Boston Celtic team.
