No one likes to lose, but in the NBA, you don't get rewarded for being mediocre. Winning 42 wins like last year without a playoff spot is ironically the worst position to be.
This pretty much sums up how I feel about tanking with a tinge of alcoholic influence and half assedness to drive it home: Spoiler
You win in the NBA by taking risk's, not by playing by the book, or being conservative. You take a risk tanking, but if the risk pays off, you win big. You take a risk in clearing cap room for star players, and if you win, you win big. By do nothing, and playing safe, you are dooming your team to being mediocre. Look at the Wizards and Clippers, both tanking this year, to get pieces around there stars, no need for those team to win a whole heap, because in today's NBA you need more then one superstar. Morey seems to be taking a huge risk in trying to get CA, but if he re-signs with Houston, then the risk pays off. If Morey wasn't going to take that risk, then he is not doing his job.
The risk will only pay off if we win the championship. The Clippers are nowhere near winning a championship. Same goes for the Wizards.
True but they have young potential stars that their fans are actually excited about seeing. I love our guy's but none of them are exciting to watch.
WTH is this talk?!? Seriously. First of all, T-Will and Hill belong on the bench! Second of all, you play to win every single game. What the "F" word do you mean let our young players develop? They invented a whole league for developing players called the D-League. That's where you develop! Third of all, we are not effin tankers. We are Rockets fans! We are not the Wizards. We are not the Clippers. And we d@mn sure ain't the Bucks or TWolves. I becasme a Rockets fan in 1986 when i was in the 3rd grade. The year they played the Celtics in the Finals. Ever since then, I have seen heartbreaking losses to the Sonics in the semis like 3 straight years, clutch city and double clutch, the 15-0 start to the 93 season, and like 23-1 to open the following season, I remember where i was when SF3 was at the draft lottery and we wont the first pick we eventually used on Yao. I remember 22 straight. I remember always putting our best team on the floor and competing. I think it is the under 30 crowd that is calling for us to develop the young players ,i.e. TANK, and the over 30 crowd begging for MAX EFFORT to win every game. No one drops $5k on season tickets to watch our players develop! A lot of younger guys feel that since we wont make the playoffs, lemme see TWill dunk and lemme see Ish make no look passes. B/S. I would rather see Miller hit Martin on a sweet backdoor cut or Shane hit an open 3 off good ball reversal. I wanna see team Basketball. I remember the day and the exact play I grew up as a basketball fan. Moochie Norris had Derek Anderson of the Spurs in an iso on the baseline. He went to his and 1 routine and beat Anderson off the dribble so bad Anderson fell down. Moochie had a clear path to the basket, but he dribbled back out and motioned for Anderson to come back out. I shouted and laughed "Get him Moochie! Break his ankles!" Then 3 seconds later Moochie jacked up a 3 point airball as the shotclock expired. Point being, we need players on the floor capable of playing in a system. Not good 1 on 1 players who will get you dunks but lose by 20. I say we fight. I say we compete!
The Clippers have been in the lottery just about every single year (28) I have been a basketball fan. Hell I remember when they drafter Lamar Odom, Darius Miles, Quinten Richardson, hell Danny Manning. In the past 20 years, the Clippers have had 10 top 5 picks! 10! Of those, 6 (YES 6) we either #1 or #2. THEY STILL SUCK!!! So, just how many years do you plan for us to "TANK"?
Tankers et al.....take a look at the NBA standings....the Rockets are not going to get a top five pick this year even if they lost every single remaining game on their schedule. They are committed to playing out this year and trying to win as many games as possible...with the remote hope of breaking into the playoffs in the eighth spot. As fans, we should be mounting an attitude shift toward winning instead of the whiny loser bull crap that I read in this forum... "Oh, let's lose, I'm tired of mediocrity, we ain't never gonna be a winner, let's tank now, let's rest the veterans and play the young guys, let's just lay down and die because we are ashamed of our team." Here's the link to the standings....http://espn.go.com/nba/standings At this point, the Rockets will gain nothing by losing on purpose. Our only hope rests in mounting a valiant effort and making the playoffs. That will do more to enhance Houston's image and marketability to a potential free agent than demonstrating a gross loser image. Finally Tankers...please take a look at the current crop of NCAA kids and tell me which likely top ten pick is worthy of laying down and dying for?
Ummm no. They were 3rd in line at a 21.6% http://www.nba.com/history/lottery_probabilities.html 21.6% vs 0.5%. 3rd worst record vs 14th worst record. Your post is irrelevant.
Not with your own lottery pick, for sure. But this is where total rebuilding and with DM's hunting abilities (based on CF members). Trade away long contracts (Scola, Martin, Lowry), get picks, combine picks and cash for lower picks.
How many times have they been past the LT? Exactly! I really hope OKC doesn't pan out like that, but not going after a big this off season is worrying me.
Here's the deal: wanting the team to develop the young guys does not make you a bad Rockets fan. Nor does it make you a fair-weather fan, especially considering the team will lose more than it wins. Watching the young players develop is just as fun for me as watching the old veterans. Win or lose, they're still my team. The difference is one of expectations. I want to see the Rockets raise another banner in my lifetime. To the people who are happy with 40-win seasons, I commend you. Your ability to be satisfied with so little is truly impressive, but some of us want to see more. Also, the whole 'losing culture' argument is silly. Do you know what brings a winning culture? Winning lots of games. How do you win lots of games? By having lots of talent on your roster. The Thunder sucked for years while they stockpiled picks. Does their 'losing culture' seem to be a problem? The Celtics sucked for years before The Trade. The Heat were mediocre for four years since their championship, including 07-08, in which they had the worst record in the league, but their 'losing culture' didn't prevent them from nabbing three top 10 players. I could go on and on. In the Superfriends era, stars want to play with other stars. We aren't a flashy city that free-agent stars are naturally attracted to,so they're going to have to come via trade or draft. In either scenario, high lottery picks greatly improve our odds of success. And you don't need a top-three pick to be successful, a number of superstars have been taken outside that range, but the higher you pick, the greater the odds you can get your guy, and the more desirable an asset that pick is in trades.
