The art and agony of the tank (split from game thread)
- Thread starter New Era
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Cannot be better than 9th - you mean draft position? Also I thought 4-1 is realistic, but 5-0 is a possibility. Other teams do not care except for seeding possibility. People are mentioning not playing the vets, but its really about playing whoever the weakest players are on the team the most minutes or lineups which are outmatched at positions on the floor. These utterly meaningless wins are costing the Kings PG selection in the draft. They will basically have leftovers selection, or worse trade up and take on bust-risk. Either way its myopic when 3-6 wins take considerable percentage points for the Kings, and with it potential selection. Big difference between 9/13 and 6/13 in terms of selection.
The lottery was developed to supposedly guard against tanking, but organizations don't care. NBA management might as well move it back like the NFL and take the mystery (and inherent unfairness) out of it. I think fans rationally may feel bummed when their team's drafting gets hurt late in the season already stricken from the Playoffs. After so much losing in the season, the draft becomes the glimmer of improvement for next season that unfortunately gets muted with late season wins.
The Knicks trotted out a lineup of 5 undrafted rookies and also lost whats left of D Rose for the remainder of the season.
Do what we have been doing and deal with it after the lottery. It sucks but even if we tried our best tank job, how are we going to "compete" with the likes of what the Knicks are doing(sans the Rose injury)
The system is broken.
Do what we have been doing and deal with it after the lottery. It sucks but even if we tried our best tank job, how are we going to "compete" with the likes of what the Knicks are doing(sans the Rose injury)
The system is broken.
@Kingsfan23
No argument about winning with youth over vets. My point is not sure how much we can do against all the Erwin Rommels in the league.
No argument about winning with youth over vets. My point is not sure how much we can do against all the Erwin Rommels in the league.
Then they should have known that they couldn't have pulled off a successful tank this year unless they traded DMC at the start. It made no sense to surround him with vets, only to try to tank with vets later in the year, especially after having survived the hardest part of the schedule. 1.5 games back when DMC was traded?That, to me, shows lack of smarts and effort, and they fully deserve the results of this "tank".
Vlade probably wanted to see what would happen if he put Cousins with a fitting coach. With Karl, there were all sorts of stylistic issues. If they put Cousins with a half court, grind it out coach, maybe they could see if he was still going to be too perimeter oriented, or if the team was going to take off into being a consistent winning team.
The decision to let Cuz go bviously was difficult for all. The decision was the big deal no the trade nor the "tank". As I've pointed out before the decision as tough, tough, tough and whether we liked it or not it person was a significant, gutsy achievement. Why did they do it? Why did they do it then? Interesting questions in hindsight but not as mportant as the decision. It is and I has been a rocky road and I have confidence in the Kings' decisions and their management.
I am not sure why people get worked up about tanking or not tanking. This front office does NOT want to go the full tank mode. They want this team to suck enough not to have a worse record than Philly so that pick swap does not take place. That way they can save some face. Imagine the backlash if the Kings win the lottery and Philly ends up 5th or 6th?!
The franchise wants to avoid that at all costs, hence why they suck enough to be bad but not as much as you would normally do in a foll mode tank job. I don't disagree with it. I do believe that what Joerger is doing is correct. Teach these guys to compete regardless of whether they are up by 30 or down by 30. By being competitive you are going to win your fair share of games against bad teams or teams that underestimate you.
This approach builds culture and develops right habits in players, especially younger ones. The only thing I would like to see in these last few games is some of the youngsters getting a couple of extra minutes than they have been getting but that is easier said than done.
The franchise wants to avoid that at all costs, hence why they suck enough to be bad but not as much as you would normally do in a foll mode tank job. I don't disagree with it. I do believe that what Joerger is doing is correct. Teach these guys to compete regardless of whether they are up by 30 or down by 30. By being competitive you are going to win your fair share of games against bad teams or teams that underestimate you.
This approach builds culture and develops right habits in players, especially younger ones. The only thing I would like to see in these last few games is some of the youngsters getting a couple of extra minutes than they have been getting but that is easier said than done.
I just saw the Lakers actually won today beating Memphis. Without Gasol that is not the best team. Anyways assuming Suns lose today to the Rockets, Lakers will be in that very dangerous 3rd position with a strong chance, assuming the lotto is not rigged, of being bumped out. I wonder if Laker fans are taking that win better than many of us with yesterdays win over the Wolves.
We were never going to be worse than Brooklyn, Phoenix and LA. Our best-case draft scenario would have been sharing the 4/5 spots with Philadelphia. That way if we do get a top three pick and have to swap, we only fall down to 5 where we miss out on Fultz, Ball, and Jackson but still have a lot of great options left to choose from at either SF or PG. We were actually on pace for exactly that scenario but these last 3 wins have allowed the Knicks to leapfrog us meanwhile Orlando keeps doing just enough to lose games. While we won two 1 point games they lost to Boston by a point and lost an overtime game to OKC. Most likely they take the best SF on the board but what if they go PG instead? The problem now is that we could lose a tie-breaker with Minnesota and pick 8th overall where we might miss out on Fox and Ntilikina. That's why this matters. At 5 you may have your choice of PGs and at 8 you might not get any of them. Maybe it won't matter but it feels like self-sabotage to me.
I so hate all of this talk every year, and I am not just talking about the talk here, I mean league wide. I can't emphasize how much I hate it. I am so ready to go to a system where each of the 14 teams that doesn't make the playoffs gets one ping pong ball. The first team ball to pop out of the machine gets the #1 pick and so on.
No more racing to the bottom.
No more racing to the bottom.
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