The Thunder absolutely held out players last season in order to tank! It's one thing giving Eric Gordon the month off to let Josh Christopher play. It's another thing entirely to shut down 19 year old Josh Giddey in February with thigh soreness and then sign UFAs to 10 day contracts, and then cut them when they score too many points in favor of worse UFAs.
We will get him via Brooklyn's pick. And Scoot with our own. Scoot, Green, Bari, Wemby, Sengun are the starters. Tari, JC, Garuba off the bench.
Why in the world would you knock the Rockets off that list? We were the worst team in the league last year and we got younger. How is that going to result in more wins?
Sure, the Jazz and Spurs are still in/or just finished the worst parts of "tear it down" mode. They are basically where the Rockets were in 2020, post Harden trade. Just a collection of spare parts and future draft picks. The Thunder are already down Chet & SGA; are looking at a lost season, and have no qualms about insane, fine-worthy tanking maneuvers. Magic, actually they might be out of the tank race, too much Paolo, so I shouldn't include them really. The Rockets meanwhile for next few years should be able to count on "organic improvement", if nothing else, to get them into the 30 win club.
The Jazz in particular have probably the worst roster in the NBA - and they're seemingly looking to get worse
i'm totally down with this. Trade tate, KPJ, and gordon at the deadline for some firsts. stash tari and tyty in the gleague, along with Kenyon. play nix, matthews and garuba. That should put us in reach.
We just need to stay within striking distance. Can leave the rest up to the basketball gods & a little lottery luck. I want our young core guys to play well but that's about it. Other than that sacrifices must be made.
Tonight on espn wemby vs scoot henderson. I know those two are getting the most attention for next years draft but I like Nick Smith from Arkansas.
