Every other day this month it seems another team decides to blow it up and rebuild. Which teams do you think will give the most competition to Boston this year for the no.1 pick? So far pending free agency I see Clippers, Bulls, Suns, Kings, Lakers, Indiana, Brooklyn, Orlando, Knicks tanking with Atlanta, Sixers and Mavs trailing close. I don't remember another season with such a huge amount of tankers.
It's what I thought would happen after the Warriors did what they did. Lots of teams will realize they don't have much of a shot and immediately fold...other teams will benefit from this folding like the Rockets and T'wolves have.
I suspect the C's are in trouble; Nets should win a few (particularly v some of the race-to-the-bottomers).
I think it's kinda cool to see, really. Some teams see they don't have a shot, so they give their best guys to one of the remaining hopefuls. We'll end up with a handful of superteam juggernauts fighting for the ring and then a whole bunch of teams playing out the string. For the hopefuls, the challenge is getting the right assets to actually be able to compete with the Warriors. For the teams that fold, it is probably even harder, trying to figure out in what year do they want to be competitive again, and how do they time their resurgence so that all the stars align when they do. Maybe it's more interesting for me as a fan of one of the teams that will still compete than it is for fans of teams that gave up.
This is spot-on, and we are truly blessed to have a visionary like Daryl Morey, along with a coach and star tandem that are so open to trying new things to win. We're a destination now because of Morey's ability to stay #fluid, and not ever lose faith that his quest for another star will bear fruit.
so far looking at the rosters I don't even think that Brooklyn has the worst team next year. Bulls Kings and Pacers look worse and their coaches are no comparison to Atkinson.
Porter is absolutely worth tanking for. He's miles better than Fultz or Simmons. So odds are against Brooklyn, since they are not playing for their own pick, even though they were actually unbelievably bad last year. The next-worst team was actually Phoenix, which plays in the West and might not win a single road game in the West. So Phoenix (not mentioned yet) is a solid candidate.
Definitely the KD effect. The problem is that 90% of these teams are still going to tanking half a decade from now, as only a small handful of teams can trust the process and come away with a respectable contender. I'd be surprised if these tanking teams don't lose a substantial portion of their fans next year.
The Bulls have some of their starters play in SL and with the way things look unless they do some signings it will be shocking if they don't finish with the worst record. They are so bad I can't even hate them anymore.