Bizarro Wide World of Sports Lin Championship

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No team seems more determined to lose than Chicago riding their 7 game losing streak. Poor Orlando today will do their best to lose at home but my guess no such luck. Should be a comical game to watch. I recon Phoenix will try to win again once they have the worst record secured. They are almost there with Memphis recently winning a couple. So Phoenix may come out to play against us at home. What a crock these last couple weeks have been.
 

Capt. Factorial

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Well, outside of the one guaranteed win (which did move the Bulls up and away from the Kings, at least for the time being) the Lintenders were perfect tonight, despite near wins by both Phoenix (wouldn't have mattered) and Dallas (would have mattered). Phoenix collected the biggest one-day haul thus far, snapping up 36 guaranteed lotto combos by virtue of guaranteeing at worst a tie for 5-6-7. The Kings' chances to win the top spot, long on the ropes, are now one game away from gone altogether, and even then the Kings are out of the running for the full 250 combos, which they can now at best share with the Suns.

Saturday is a much lighter day for the Tankathon, with only three relevant games. The Kings will play host once again (seems all of our games are at home!), this time to the Warriors, who may get Klay Thompson back for the game. The other two games are also pretty relevant for the Kings, with the Knicks hosting the Pistons and the Nets traveling to Miami.
 

Capt. Factorial

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After a scary spill, word is that Patrick McCaw has regained feeling in his legs, and let's face it, that's more important than the Tankathon.

That said, the Kings did well today, moving into 6th place on their own with a loss to the Warriors and the Nets pulling off the overtime win in Miami.

Sunday is a very busy day, with every Lintender in action except for the Knicks. (This is because Monday is the NCAA national championship game, and the NBA does not schedule against it presumably for ratings purposes.) The marquee game on Sunday is probably the somebody-gotta-win matchup with the Hawks hosting the Magic, but it's not clear that either team has much chance to catch up the Kings. The Kings of course head down to Staples Center to visit the inferior of the Los Angeles teams. Other games: The Bulls host the Wizards; the Nets host the Pistons (this game is mildly interesting if only because the Nets have no draft pick to protect and the Pistons are fighting to stay alive for the #8 spot in the East); the Mavericks travel to Cleveland; the Warriors will host the Suns; and the Grizzlies travel to Portland.
 
Going to be hard looking at the standings at end of year, grinding teeth over a few meaninless wins gathered when the rest of the liners were tanking hard.
Remember when Vlade anounced we would be resting 2 vets each game?
That was just brilliant lol. The other bottom hopefules heard that as the start of the Tank race and wasted no time doing what was needed...the kings then, after starting the whole thing, waffle back and forth with a halfways commitment as we climb the standings. Now we are praying to maybe get back to 4th but likely, with a lot of luck, will end up 5th before lotto.
Easily could have been top 3 if management began the "tryout" phase a lot sooner.
 

Capt. Factorial

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With their loss and the Kings' win (in fact, one of the two would have sufficed) the Suns have eliminated the Kings from the #1 slot in the lottery.
In honor of the occasion, I thought I'd start graying out the lottery slots where the Kings cannot land just for clarity. About the only good news for the Kings lotto position today was the Bulls' big win over Washington. All other (non-King) lintenders lost except for Atlanta - and frankly, had Orlando beaten Atlanta it might have been better.

There are no games on Monday because the NBA does not schedule against the NCAA Championship, so we can take a look at Tuesday's matchups instead. All of the teams that the Kings are still competing with will be in action except for Memphis. The Kings will be traveling to Phoenix, who are looking really pretty in the lottery about now (and have little incentive to tank from here on out) but are also really bad. The other main game on Tuesday will be the Magic visiting the Knicks, where New York will get a very good opportunity to starting sealing up the #9 slot. The Bulls, hot off a big win, will host the Hornets, who now have nothing to play for (but nothing to lose for, either). In other games, the Nets will travel to Philly, the Hawks will travel to Miami, and the Mavericks will host the Blazers.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
How can a team be as actively bad as the Suns for as long as they’ve been (feels like they’ve been in the tanking game as long as the Process Sixers) and still wind up being mindnumbingly bad enough to be the favorite for the number one pick in the draft (which still won’t help their gaping PG problem)?
 

Capt. Factorial

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How can a team be as actively bad as the Suns for as long as they’ve been (feels like they’ve been in the tanking game as long as the Process Sixers) and still wind up being mindnumbingly bad enough to be the favorite for the number one pick in the draft (which still won’t help their gaping PG problem)?
All they have to do is take Trae Young if they get the #1! Problem solved! ;)
 
6th pick, wll after a lotto leap, 7th pick seems like destiny.

Lucky 7
I would seriously doubt that. We're going to win at least 3 more games due to fireable incompetence, I'd expect us to end up at 9. We're only 2 games out of 9 and I fully expect us to outwin the Knicks by more than 2 games before the end of the season.
 
Ok please tell us whose minutes you're unhappy with this time. Did Jack Cooley and Sampson play too much for your liking? Smh.

I'm being narky because I'm pissed we're in this position at all, when we absolutely shouldn't be. Incompetence is the only reason.

If we're talking specifically about last night's game, yeah there's not much to complain about in terms of minutes. My comment was a manifestation of weeks worth of incompetence.

Beating a terrible Lakers team without Ingram and Ball doesn't compensate for the damage we're likely doing to our future.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Ok please tell us whose minutes you're unhappy with this time. Did Jack Cooley and Sampson play too much for your liking? Smh.
Vince was literally the only vet we played and he sucked last night. Nigel Hayes played 21 minutes last night and he wasn't even on the team before the weekend started.

Literally the only thing the Kings could have done to "tank harder" would have been to bench De'Aaron, Buddy, and Bogs which is a self-defeating endeavor in itself.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
I'm being narky because I'm pissed we're in this position at all, when we absolutely shouldn't be. Incompetence is the only reason.

If we're talking specifically about last night's game, yeah there's not much to complain about in terms of minutes. My comment was a manifestation of weeks worth of incompetence.

Beating a terrible Lakers team without Ingram and Ball doesn't compensate for the damage we're likely doing to our future.
I agree if you're talking about incompetence on the part of the half dozen teams who are worse than us.
 
I'm being narky because I'm pissed we're in this position at all, when we absolutely shouldn't be. Incompetence is the only reason.

If we're talking specifically about last night's game, yeah there's not much to complain about in terms of minutes. My comment was a manifestation of weeks worth of incompetence.

Beating a terrible Lakers team without Ingram and Ball doesn't compensate for the damage we're likely doing to our future.
"This position".. kids getting good experience, growing.. apparently it's ok for Cousins to win 27 games year after year but when a bunch of first and second year players do it our future is doomed. Would I prefer a higher pick? Yes, and today would have been a good day to lose and close the gap. But we still have a decent chance of top 6 or 7 pick, it's not the end of the world.
 
I agree if you're talking about incompetence on the part of the half dozen teams who are worse than us.
I would expect a more well thought out post from you. Presumable you're happy hovering around the dreaded 8-10 draft spot. Good for you. I've been watching the NBA long enough to know where that leads teams. Coincidentally we have rarely done a good job tanking and surprise, surprise, we're consistently poor/mediocre at best. Must be a coincidence I guess.

P.S. apologies for the mess above. I have no idea how that happened and I can't seem to delete them. Would appreciate if a mod could help out.
 
They played Hayes 22 minutes. I don’t know what else we are supposed to do. Coming into this season it should have been us, Atlanta, the Bulls, and maybe the Mavs just playing bad and getting top four picks. Memphis shut down Conley in January—they should be neck and neck with the Clippers right now. How are the Suns and Magic still tanking? Somehow, of the three “tank” teams heading into the season only Atlanta was able to keep up with Phoenix/Orlando/Memphis. How are the Nets this bad in the East? The mind boggles.
 
They played Hayes 22 minutes. I don’t know what else we are supposed to do. Coming into this season it should have been us, Atlanta, the Bulls, and maybe the Mavs just playing bad and getting top four picks. Memphis shut down Conley in January—they should be neck and neck with the Clippers right now. How are the Suns and Magic still tanking? Somehow, of the three “tank” teams heading into the season only Atlanta was able to keep up with Phoenix/Orlando/Memphis. How are the Nets this bad in the East? The mind boggles.
I give the Nets a pass as they are still under "The Curse of Billy King" and suffered injuries to Jeremy Lin (out since opening week) and D'Lo.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
They played Hayes 22 minutes. I don’t know what else we are supposed to do. Coming into this season it should have been us, Atlanta, the Bulls, and maybe the Mavs just playing bad and getting top four picks. Memphis shut down Conley in January—they should be neck and neck with the Clippers right now. How are the Suns and Magic still tanking? Somehow, of the three “tank” teams heading into the season only Atlanta was able to keep up with Phoenix/Orlando/Memphis. How are the Nets this bad in the East? The mind boggles.
Because they've somehow done a worse job of accumulating talent in the past half decade than we have.

Also whereas the Suns and Magic have, for the past several seasons, seemingly pinned all their hopes for changing their losing ways on striking gold in the high lottery, Vlade, for better or worse, has chosen a more proactive approach.
 
"This position".. kids getting good experience, growing.. apparently it's ok for Cousins to win 27 games year after year but when a bunch of first and second year players do it our future is doomed. Would I prefer a higher pick? Yes, and today would have been a good day to lose and close the gap. But we still have a decent chance of top 6 or 7 pick, it's not the end of the world.
You seem to be confused and conflating two issues. Winning 27 games with a top 10 NBA player wasn't fine, in fact it was symptomatic of the incompetence this organisation has suffered for the better part of 15 years. Nobody was happy with winning 30 games with Cuz and it's disingenuous to suggest as much.

Winning 27 in our position is absolutely unacceptable. Progressing the kids is fine, again you're not debating in good faith as I don't have an issue with that, which is pretty obvious. We shouldn't be in this position. Playing the vets heavy minutes until recently is unforgivable.

You may not like the game (tanking), but that is how it's currently played, and we're not hurting anyone but ourselves by refusing to play.

People on this forum always make fun of the likes of Hinkie. Well Hinkie was the fall guy, he played the game perfectly given the situation they were in, and now they're reaping the rewards and with a hugely talented young team. No doubt some expert will be along to tell me that the Sixers haven't won a championship yet, as the salient point passes completely over their head.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
I give the Nets a pass as they are still under "The Curse of Billy King" and suffered injuries to Jeremy Lin (out since opening week) and D'Lo.
And D'Lo after a hot start has now sorta reverted to the bad player he was in LA and is sorta in the way of New Jersey's actual best player, Spencer Dinwiddie, and they're following the late-era Geoff Petrie strategy of accumulating as many mediocre/kinda good in small doses swingmen as humanely possible while their only good young big man is Jarrett Allen.
 
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