I'll reverse the question. Name a team that has chosen a player in the top five since 2006 that has made it past a conference finals.
I'm torn. On one hand, I see a team full of young talent with limited upside (Hill, T-Will, Thabeet) and veterans who have reached (or are past) their prime. On the other hand, I see a team that has the pieces for a blockbuster trade that could transform this team into a contender.
I got no problem with rebuilding... If we trade away some older players for some young talent/picks and let some guys develop - cool. 'Tanking' to my mind, is losing on purpose (ie to secure a top draft pick) - and I want no part of it and have very little respect for a team that does....
then we're talking semantics here and you're not as opposed to those you think are on the other side of the fence. i'm unaware of anyone on this board who advocates coaches telling players to miss shots and commit turnovers. what we're talking about is exactly what you call rebuilding...trade for picks...play the young guys..see where that puts you in the lottery. that's what people are asking for.
Seriously? Miami tanked and got Wade. They brought Shaq in and won a ring. Shaq got old. Miami tanked some more. Only got Beasley for that but Lebron and Bosh are there because of Wade and Wade is there because he was drafted by the Heat after a very bad year. Boston tanked and stayed in the tank for years. They walked away with Pierce and enough "assets" to trade for KG AND still keep Paul. Clippers? They stayed in the tank so long they should make them wear fins. Lakers? The knew when to buy low and sell high. I might give you that one. Trading for Kobe was unexpected luck. And picking up Pau for abosulely nothing still boggles my mind. The Rockets don't have that kind of luck. The Lakers did have a bad year to pick up Bynum. The Lakers are on their way down but they have a draw to reload. The Rockets don't. And Dallas? Traded Trayor for Dirk and Garrity (which they traded later for Nash). How lucky is that? Dallas has not been afraid of picking up bad contracts with the good ones. Paying was never a problem for their owner. It FINALLY paid off. The Rockets have never had an open pocket book owner. So maybe 2 teams out of the 30. But the Rockets don't have a draw, luck or "I don't care what it costs" owner, so following that model is foolish homer thinking IMO.
What I'm getting at here, and its what makes me sick of all the tank talk. Is that the attitude with most of the pro tank posters is that our attitude should be "Finals or Bust". But none of the teams you come up with have won anything. OKC has not won, the Clippers haven't won, Chicago hasn't won. The only true example then is the Duncan Spurs who tanked more because of injury than anything else. Basically, something never working is not evidence of how good it works.
I noticed you stopped later? Is there a reason you don't want to go back a little further? Heat got Wade via draft Celtics used a top 5 pick as part of the assets to get KG Bottom line is there are contenders now on the horizon that have those top 5 picks. The Rockets have 2 top 5 picks: Flynn and Thabeet. We need a Batman. Any team out there wanting to trade theirs?
I think it's unethical to tank, and moreover, I think being terrible is not a very good indicator of future success. There are plenty of teams we see who are terrible year after year for a long time before they even have winning seasons, let alone make the playoffs.
Put the best team on the floor and win - thats my opinion. If theres a young talent we can get for an older player - cause DM feels the youngster has a better upside - cool. But tanking for a high draft pick - no.
This would be the best year to go all in on developing the young players, and trying to move Scola and Martin at the trade deadline. It just is what it is. 'Tanking' is a poor choice of words, any athlete will compete and try to win every game. If they don't try, we don't want 'em.
....and win just enough to barely miss or barely make the playoffs...pick 14 again...rinse. repeat. this roster isn't a contender. it's not in the discussion. put your best team out and win what? of course the players should be working their asses off to win every single game. of course they should. but i certainly don't buy the notion that you're going to put your best team forward with this roster and win anything other than a ticket out of getting signifcantly better anytime soon.
You are ignoring the elephant in the room. The Rockets tanked for Hakeem. They lost all their games in the end in a very tank like fashion - I watched them all. The only game the won? Portland. That was a fun game. After that the NBA put in the lotto.
What do you have in mind? No seriously? Trade Scola and Martin to contenders for late first round picks? Are you aware that after the "perceived" star potential in the very top of this draft, the depth is arguably worse than last years? Even if we went this route, the team as is would not be bad enough to warrant a top 5 pick. We would have to trade a lot of our players to get there. For starters, you could say bye to Lowry. People say that we should surround a top 5 pick with the quality players we currently have. If we were bad enough to warrant a top 5 pick, and then by chance have the pick pan out, it would likely suggest that we didn't have anyone of real quality on the roster, hence the need to completely rebuild around that player. I don't see us trading away our whole team for that big of a risk. We are two deep at every position with quality players who all have room to grow. While we are certainly not bad enough for a top 5 pick, I fail to see how it is even a real possibility. Even if we were bad enough to land that high in the draft and drafted a star, we would arguably be on par with the Wizards, if not worse. Do you see them getting any better? There is entirely too much negativity on this board. Basketball has just started again. We have a game tonight that we should all be excited about. But when I look at the GARM, all I see are negative threads everywhere. It is nothing more than blind impatience. If you want evidence, just remember that we are one game into the season. At least give the team a chance. At least let our own prospects develop. Would you at least allow for that to happen? Maybe instead of hoping that we suck, you can wish for a productive season which stems from the development of our players, leading to an increase in value for all of our players and team as a whole.
The Clippers have never tanked in their lifetime but they sucked so bad for so long that they are in the "even-a-blind-squirrel-finds-a-nut" category. I still see the FO trying harder now, but you really can't say that the Ciippers are not the product of high draft picks (earned on purpose or just being a fool).
You lose me here..entirely. Growing up in this city, I watched my Rockets get to the Finals 4 times in 15 years. It was a proud franchise that brought home 2 titles and made playoff runs. Over the last 15 years, I've watched them win exactly one playoff series. One. They've defined NBA mediocrity for the last few years. This isn't blind impatience...this isn't a reaction after one loss to the Magic.
