Out of the teams in the nba having a worse record

You post like a person who has never actually been to Cleveland.

 

The thing is, your team will be too good to tank next year. Dame and Batum will be a year older, Matthews and LMA will still be in Portland. You guys have some draft picks to work with and a lot of cap room. Obviously this depends on replacing JJ as well, but with a better bench and the team another year more mature, you should improve.

This is your last year to get a lotto talent. You might make the playoffs this year. But if you tank you can get a top 10 pick to add that much more talent to your core before the team starts ascending to becoming a perennial playoff team. Obviously you could pick a bust, but any high pick will have value that can help a trade, and besides, your GM nailed the draft pick last year so why not have a little faith in him?

As a Warriors fan, I was glad we tanked last year. Our situation isn't the same as yours. Your core is better than ours was and we owed the Jazz a draft pick so we had to tank HARD to keep it. But it was the right choice. They were only a couple of games out of the 8th seed when they traded Monta and a lot of fans were FURIOUS because they wanted the team to try to make the POs, even if only as an 8th seed. They knew we would be better in 2012-13 so they tanked like hell to get a top 7 pick, and it was a good call because the pick this year will probably be low 20s. We added a pretty solid prospect to our roster in Barnes who has both potential and value and the team was better for it, even without Bogut playing so far (though you don't have a Monta-type player sucking the life out of your club).

 

OK, I'll bite.

First, we are not the Celtics, L*kers, Knicks or Heat.
Second, no one on our roster is going to get together with his friends anytime soon to team up Olympians in Portland in Free Agency.

Now, let's look at the contenders for the title this year (I'll just stick in the West for now)
OKC built through a #2 pick (Durant), a #4 pick (Westbrook), a #3 pick (Harden) and collecting assets by using cap space (trading Kurt Thomas in effect for 3 firsts, one of whom became Ibaka). Then they traded an All-Star for more young assets and cap flexibility. And yes, I'd take their fucking roster.
SAS who built their team almost exclusively through the draft (Duncan #1, Parker #28, Ginobili #57, Green, Splitter, Kawhi). and then trading assets away for younger role players like Cap'n Jack 2004 version, Matt Bonner, etc). And yes, I'd take their fucking roster.
The Clippers had the #1 pick (Griffin), the #35 pick (Jordan) and traded their #7 pick (Gordon), #8 pick (Kaman), #8 pick (Aminu) and firsts (one of whom became Anthony Davis--#1) to NOH for Chris Paul (a #4 pick). And yes, I'd take their fucking roster.
Where did MEM get their talent? 1. The draft (Conley #4, Gay #8, and missed with Mayo #3 for Love and Thabeet #2--panned even at the draft: imagine Harden with them?). 2. Trading their all-star PF (P. Gasol) for cap space, prospects (M. Gasol) and late 1sts.
How about the GSW? Trading their 2nd-rounder-made-good in Ellis for a #1-drafted C. They were able to get D. Lee by spending more money than anyone back when S&T's were useful. Drafting Curry #7 and Thompson #11 and Barnes #7. Their roster's pretty damned good, too.
DEN? They traded their All-Star for cap relief, prospects (some of whom they traded to get Andre Iguodala) and Danilo Gallinari (#7). They traded us Felton and Faried for Nolan and stole Lawson (#17) from the T-Wolves in the same way as we "stole" Babbitt (#16). They were able to overpay to get JaVale McGee's potential. Lawson/Iggy/Gallo/Faried/McGee/Koufos/others are a pretty good setup for the future, wouldn't you say?
What about Utah? They also traded away their all-star (#3 pick) for a former all-star PG (Harris), Favors (#3), a #3 pick (Kanter), a pick that this year would've been Barnes (#7) but will be top 6-protected this year. Drafted Millsap. Drafted Hayward.

Where did Brandon Roy, LMA, Lillard, and Batum come from? The draft. How did we get the pick to draft Lillard? Trading one of our best players (former All-Star Wallace). How did we get Roy? Trading our PGotN (Telfair) and taking on salary.

Let's look at the Raef LaFrentz super-expiring contract. Would we have been better off with 2 years of Vince Carter and 2 first-round picks (including GSW's 2011 pick) and the MLE, or the right to give Peja an offer and end up with 2 years of Andre Miller before he was jettisoned for Felton? I mean, we did get bounced in the first round three years in a row before last year's atrociousness.

You can't trade one of our firsts until 2018.

Our last free agent signing was Andre Miller. Failed signings include Hibbert, Millsap, and Hedo. All of whom had to be overpaid (or paid 'toxically') to get them to sign here (and even then, Hedo didn't).

In conclusion, I sure as shit want to rebuild through the draft, and would trade LMA to do so if the haul we got back was similar to Melo or Deron or CP3. You bring up CHA/WAS/DET--crappy franchises with crappy draft records. I bring up every fucking team in front of us in the standings as a counter-point. You seem to think that we're either good as we are or that we can buy free agents to come here, and I've shown you that that can't happen for myriad reasons. You seem to think that making the playoffs and, not only losing out at a lotto shot, but giving our pick in the 15-18 range to CHA is better for roster management than keeping a lotto pick this year and giving up a #20 or so next year. Who says next year's draft is deeper? At this point in 2012 no one had a clue Lillard would even be a first-rounder.

Oh yeah, and I love me some Dame, but if CLE offered Irving straight up for him every GM in the league would cry foul and half of POR would help Lillard pack.

Edit: Didn't see the posts above while I was writing war and peace.