Nope. That is where DM's strategy was genius. He collected assets and repeatedly flipped them. We were competitive the entire time and repeatedly had real shots at greatness. His record is unrivaled by other Rockets GM's when it comes to continually reinventing the team with mostly very smart moves.
Not true. DM loathes tanking and has said it repeatedly. He even helped change the rules to make tanking the giant waste of time it is today since worst record usually doesn't get the #1 pick. He even told a story about the Celtics who went to the playoffs with the worst ever record at the time. Had he lost the last regular season game he would gain 4 slots in the lottery. Even this story was an argument against tanking as he felt some teams (but not his) would have taken that way out. He felt the rules needed to change (which was done) to eliminate any incentive. He feels strongly that such practices damaged the game for decades.
DM was not allowed to tank by Less. He said he hates but he never said it was a bad stargety and he supported the new rules but that doesnt mean its a bad strategy now. It's not a giant waste of time. The worse your record is, the higher a chance you still have, its still relatively the same. Just because DM hated it doesnt mean he wouldnt have done it if not given the opportunity to do so, especially back then. There IS STILL INCENTIVE THOUGH, that's what you dont get. The Mavs literally got Luka doing this. It doesnt matter if it does, the point is it still works. The rules havent changed enough for it not to matter.
The fact that some slub won the $500M mega-millions lottery doesn't mean it's a good idea to play. That is what you do not understand.
Almost every team that is good right now has tanked to some extent, that is what you are not getting. We are not Miami, we are not LA, we cannot be like them. You have to draft your players.
