Are you kidding me Pacers? You were potentially going to be a top 3 pick in the NBA draft and you have won so many games lately, you have went to 7th. What are they doing? Bird is an idiot...
The draft does not guarantee anything. At some point winning and getting playoff experience is key to the maturity of a team.
Rockets have a lot of maturity from previouis. Now they are in the bottom of the draft with nothing to show from maturity. Meanwhile, immature teams like the Trailblazers, Cavaliers, Nuggets, and Orlando that were worse than the Rockets have surpassed the Rockets. Bird is an idiot. Those lottery teams are going pass him up, while he continues to languish as a borderline playoff team.
Brooks and Landry have given us 2 more seasons as playoff fodder and a season in the lottery. The Rockets have about 14 1st round playoff exists or lottery season in the last 15 years. While playoff busts have passed us up to become playoff contenders such as Duncan-Spurs(1997), Wade-Heat(2003), Lebron-Cavaliers(2003), Roy-Trailblazers(2006),Carmelo-Nuggets(2003), Amare-Suns(2002), Dirk-Mavericks(1998),Pierce-Celtics(1998), DWilliams-Jazz(2005), Durant-Westbrook-Thunder(2007-2008), while the Rockets have built up lots of character for those 15 seasons.
I prefer winning the last games than tanking, and tanking doesnt mean you get the draft pick you want, because if you got the 3rd worst record, you still could end up, with the 6th or 5th pick. And by that logic you are saying that the browns in the NFL are idiots, because they could have the 1st or 2nd selection in the draft, but they won they last 5 games.
Amazing how you cherry pick the teams that manage to get franchise players via draft. Each year there are 15 lottery spots, based on your 15 year sample you should have more than 10 teams listed, no? If tanking really worked why don't you explain how Charlotte, Memphis, LA Clips and Milwaukee still haven't been to 2nd round of the playoffs even after going to the lottery year after year?
Brooks has two years of playoff experience, only one where he was a significant factor. Landry is gone, and Budinger has no playoff experience whatsoever. The point remains, if you can make the playoffs, go for it. Once you are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, then by all means.... tank.
You do know that the year the Suns picked Amare, the Rockets had the #1 pick, right? So you're saying the Rockets should tank more because they never get top picks yet you list as evidence a player they could have drafted if they wanted. Also, Pierce and Nowitzki were not drafted that high. The Rockets have had picks higher than that twice in the last fifteen years.
It may not be reasonable to fans who pay for tickets to see the Pacers play. I never want to see my team tank. I can be honest and say that I'm not sad when they lose if it helps draft position, but I don't want to see the team purposely lose. Also, because of the lottery system, it doesn't always work out. We saw what happened with the Celtics. They've tanked twice in the last fifteen years ('97 and '07), finished with the second worst record, and come away without a top 3 pick.
What I've notice about the people who want teams to tank is that most of them only watch the game on TV and are not at the actual arenas to watch these games. People pay a lot of money to go watch sports teams play and if teams were to "tank" they would be cheating their fans. These are millionaire players, coaches, and organizations so if im going to pay $50 to an NBA game that team better play to win or I wouldnt go back for a very long time.
It's a list of teams in the playoffs this year that used to be lottery dwellers, since the Rockets 15 years of mostly 1st round exits and failing to make the playoffs.
This late in the season with no chance for the playoffs. Many of us, especially the Arizona fans, would rather see Budinger and Hill over Hayes and the no-stats all-star with their boring intangibles.
Dunleavy has been a huge bust for them...not sure if its the GRanger effect or not, but he's wasting alot of money for them sitting on the bench most of the time.
Last year, he started having knee pains and was shooting career low in FG%. He missed most of the season to the knee pain and a knee surgery. Since he has come back from rehab, he is still shooting a career low FG%. He got another injury in the 4th quarter of the last game on the 25th and went to the locker room. He might never recover to what he was 2 years ago.
