In way i agree with you, but I also disagree with you. Agree - More than likely aren't going to contend for a title this year, but have some of the assets to make the playoffs. We need to get a big time free agent or someone in the draft. Disagree - I personally don't think that tanking is the solution to anything. I can go with kind of waiting till next year to really make a big move, but tanking just seems like you have given up. Although unfortunately, if there was going to be a year to tank, it would more than likely be this year. Still got hope in my Rockets, if not this year, then in the near future. We gotta wish for the best.
You are right...tanking does not neccessarily land u the top pick in the draft...but it does give u a chance right? we play hard and get lucky this season and make the playoffs...whats going to happen then? win the trophy? I highly doubt it. Even with a health tmac, what are the chances of us getting a high seed? what are the chances of us again lakers, spurs, denver, portland or even the mavs and jazz? I would think if we face the hornets or the suns in the first round, we would have a chance at winning, but those chances are very slim (i mean facing those teams). I would rather have a chance and a high pick, maybe not the top pick, but even a top 5 pick would be nice, than us getting knocked out of the playoffs. Again i don't agree with deleberately loosing games by the players. But I think this season would be perfect for adelman to use the rookies for long periods in games. Even if they don't perform well, but give them a chance to learn and gain experience. In other words, if the rookies don't perform, then we loose games and have a chance at a high pick. In we are lucky and our rookies does perform and become great players and we make the playoffs, I would be really happy as we gained low pay but high performance players with experience (even though they are rookies, with the playing time they got they would be experienced toa certain degree). I mean if we make the playoffs because of the strong performances of our rookies, I would still be happy, cause we would have solid players for the future. But I would hate to just make the post season on the back of Tmac, cause that would achieve nothing other than tmac showcasing himself in his contract year.
Tanking does not mean that the team automatically gets the 1st pick. Chances are high but as previous drafts have shown it does not mean its a lock.
I don't know how I feel about 'tanking' but it is irrelevant as the team would never do it. With that said, I think there's a good portion of the population on this board that simply doesn't grasp the distinction between purposeful losing and tanking. Tanking is taking avenues which would directly ensure the accumulation of losses. What I call 'purposeful losing' merely has the indirect consequence of accumulating losses. Purposeful losing is trading off aging vets and playing only young prospects to promote future overall growth in assets. It usually results in losses, but doesn't necessarily have to. If it doesn't result in losses, hell, that's great, but the point is that there is a planned approach for building the team where any consequence has some positive benefit in an otherwise lost season. This is in direct contrast to the mass hysteria here to retain Scola and acquire stop-gap contingencies to secure the 8th seed, an utterly counter-intuitive course of action. Thus, it's not too surprising that when the folly in this is imparted, the natural response by the masses is to create a false dilemma in decrying the 'tanking' bogeyman/strawman.
We missed out on Brandon Roy, because we didn't tank the last few games of the season. Tanking guarantees a higher pick. If the Rockets had lost the Minnesota game on March 7, we would have Brandon Roy, instead of Shane Battier. JVG instead played Yao too many minutes and won the game, even though McGrady was out for the rest of the season.
I expect the Rocket's front office to answer a lot of these wants/concerns. As of now, T-Mac is a big question mark. If you want to run with DD's theory, you may see him with an early return. If that is the case, he gets minutes to do nothing, but lift the worth of his stock. When the trade deadline gets closer, teams are going to either abandon ship, or make the moves they feel necessary to contend. Now then, don't expect TMac for Amare, TMac for Bosh, or TMac for CP3 (none of these are going to happen straight up), but i do believe we will get a better value for him when the pressure is on. So deadline strikes, how many games does that leave us with? I'm not totally sure, but its a chunk of the season none the less. In that time, we play our young guys. Get them minutes and prove their worth. From there, we are potentially sitting at the mercy of the lottery. Either way, I don't see us full on tanking; however, tactfully moving players around so that it isn't advantageous to the immediate future, but instead for seasons to come. Don't count on the Rockets tanking.
Not that high, 25% at the most which means there's a 75% chance you don't get the top pick. Since the NBA went to it's current lottery format in 1994, I believe only 2 teams that have had the worst record have won the lottery.
And just think, if we had tanked even more than that, we could have been in position to draft ADAM MORRISON!
Maybe the title of the thread has something to do with that mass hysteria......but only maybe I freely admit im only speculating here
We ain't gonna tank. In Adelman's 1st year, we won 22 in a row, half w/o Yao. In his 2nd year, we won our 1st playoff series w/o McGrady and pushed the eventual World champions to 7 games, half of the series w/o Yao. So those of you hoping and praying that we do, keep dreaming cuz it ain't gonna happen, thank God.. __________________ boom goes the dynamite
What is missed in this "tanking" proposal is the effect it has on players. No athlete worth his/her salt wants to lose. If it is obvious to us that we are tanking, it is reasonable to assume it would be obvious to the players. Deciding going into a season we do not expect to contend is a morale killer. It destroys confidence in coaches and ownership. Making personnel moves (or not) with 25 games left in the season when the club is 10 games out of the #8 slot because it looks unlikely we can make the requisite push to the playoffs is a practical business decision that does not destroy player morale.
The only time you tank is at the end of the season and you've been mathmatically elimated from the playoffs - the games don't matter. And you don't exactly tank, you just put your reserves in to "get a better look at them for next year". {Jeff V could have pulled a page from this and we'd have Roy on our roster now instead of Battier}
QFT No tanking, we simply move the team into a different philosophical direction; namely, one that's free of expectation and ambition (for the time being). That way, giving inexperienced (and inevitably inconsistent) players loads of time for the sake of developing our players for the future is consistent with our goals. Even with this mindset, I think this team (as it stands right now) has what it takes to surprise people next season. I think we can make up for our lack of talent with chemistry and hustle. With lowered expectations, next season is a win-win. If our scrappers make some noise, we enter next season feeling like we're just a few pieces away from contending. And if they bomb, we can blame it on youth and we get a chance at a high pick anyways.
