Just wondering Carl, are you putting Francis above Dikembe and Melo? Because that's completely ridiculous.
Agreed, though I really appreciate the research because I found that incredibly interesting and informative. It seems that draft picks are either amazing opportunities or turn into horrible busts. If we do end getting a pick, well, hopefully it's not the latter. tm
Its way too early to give up on this season. The off season is not yet over. Morey and management might just pull off a miracle. Have Faith.
Well, Rick Adelman has been a little TOO successful to go along with any desire to tank this season. He's only had two losing records in his 16 full NBA seasons, and both of those were with half the team he has here, even without Yao and T-Mac. Plus Morey sure doesn't sound like someone who thinks there's any option other than trying to go as far as possible this year. I'm afraid the "We HAVE to tank!" crowd is going to be bitterly disappointed this year. The rest of us will enjoy watching what a great coach can do with no stars in the lineup.
This is, in essence, the very definition of tanking. Ok, I won't say we should tank, but develop our young guys in 2009-10. *wink,wink*. Then uh, hit the jackpot of sorts in the uh... early first round. We'll have plenty of cap space and Yao back by then. What we do with Battier will tip off Morey's grand scheme for this year.
Nope, just examples of guys who were productive stars but not quite someone who leads an ascent into contender status. Certainly Dikembe achieve more than Francis, but neither of them were superstars. All I was saying is that tanking has a slim chance of resulting in a true elevation of a team to elite status even if you pick relatively well.
its not called "GIVING UP". Its "SACRIFICE THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE" for "PROSPERITY FOR A MUCH LONGER PERIOD IN THE LONGER TERM". People remember our supposed "TANKING' next year isn't tanking tanking like how the Kings were last season. Those teams have little or no future ahead of them other than trying to win again through high draft picks year after year to get their core from the draft. Kind of like what Portland has done. How many years did it take them to build a fringe contender??? Last time the Blazers made the playoffs prior to the Houston series it was 03. So in 04, 05, 06, 07, 08 they all had high lottery picks and if you were to take account how brilliant their manager was in getting LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy as well as a NUMBER ONE PICK OVERALL it took them 6 years to get back to the PLAYOFFS. And they are not even a legit contender as of right now. Our tanking is simply to get a vital piece through next year's draft where we can get a top 10 pick (hopefully top 5) and that rookie can play a key role in us competing for a championship when Yao and whatever superstar Free Agent we sign in 2010. In the mean time Yao can get valuable rest time and more importantly, our young players have loads of opportunity to develop and be part of the title run in 2011. Would you prefer it if we barely made the playoffs and got bounced 4-0 by the Lakers and getting a late first rounder? Or would you prefer it if we sacrifice the upcoming season, get a serious prospect thats top10 in the draft, and with Yao and Tmac coming back make a championship contention run full throttle? The right answer lies in those who understand the long term success of the rockets
I don't see Morey thinking about tanking, because "financially" it's a very bad idea. Who will buy tickets if the team is losing all the time?
Who will buy playoffs tickets in 2011 when we miss the playoffs again? Invest now, and Les will reap the rewards later. When we get the top seed in 2011 Les can get the tickets revenue money for 1st round, semi finals, finals, and nba finals...he will cash in then
Ok...but what about Portland and the Celtics? Those teams tanked as well and got Sam Bowie and some other guy. You can point out those teams who tanked and won championships but every single year, we have dozens of teams who either tank or just naturally suck and they still end up going nowhere. Memphis in particular has been doing nothing but building on the draft, and they have not gotten better from the time they got Rudy Gay to now.
You guys are crazy. What are the odds that we would get a player as great as Duncan? This team wouldn't tank in your wildest dreams.. some people can't realize that.
This is good in theory but how do you do it in real life? Do you sit Scola and Battier down and just put players who are aged 25 and below for 40 minutes at a time? Do you trade away all the guys we have to get even more unproven talent back? How exactly do you tank with the pieces we have? More importantly, how do you sell the idea to Rick Adelman who has been a life-long winner and to Les Alexander, someone who just blew 8 million bucks (not counting Andersen) to get talent? If I'm Les and I just spent a boatload of cash to get young talent and my GM comes up to me and tells me we're tanking next season I'm gonna give him a beatdown.
But who says we're going to miss the playoffs? We have the expiring of T-Mac, I think we can do something good with that next summer. At least I hope so...
