Game Thread GAME# 21: MAGIC @ BLAZERS - NOVEMBER 28, 2018 - WEDNESDAY, 7:00 PM, NBATV & NBCSNW

Yeah, okay, say that now that you have no response and realize how it wouldn't work.

 

Lol

 

Fair enough, I just dont (still) understand why you kept telling me I needed to propose a plan for how they tank, when I wasnt the one saying they should.
I still believe when we say tank in the general sense like I was, that we all generally know what it means. Lose games in hopes of landing a super star in the draft.

Now if I said they should tank, I think its perfectly fair to ask me how I would go about doing that, because there are different forms of it, and some are long term where you’re hoping that sometime in the next decade you’re relevant again. Some are more short term.

 

I would give Leonard the start just to see if he can put two decent games together. If he shows up and rebounds well and shoots the three then maybe he earns a better spot in the rotation. He's trying Jennifer.

 

Once again, you kept bringing up "tanking" as something that is fair game to be discussed. I simply pointed out that this type of thing usually happens when people say we should tank and that I think they should be called out on it. I never meant that you personally had to give your proposal but that you shouldn't defend crap like this.

 

Sure? You said “you” a lot in your replies to me, may have been the more general you, I suppose...

I get that it frustrates you when people say lets just lose and get zion and all will be well, because they could lose a lot and end up not getting Zion. So I get why its frustrating.

 

That part doesn't even really frustrate me. They could trade Dame and CJ, lose every game the rest of the season, and still not end up with the #1 pick. Since the lottery rules change this year I think the team with the worst record could end up with the 6th pick now. In reality I think it is way easier to hit on a later pick than it is to successfully tank.

The part that gets to me every time is that certain people (not YOU) seem to think the Blazers could just decide to tank.

 

So how do you define tanking? If I propose the team should give more minutes to Leonard/Collins/Layman is that tanking? What if I say we shouldn't waste minutes on 1 year rentals, and should bench Curry/Stauskas in favor of Simons/Trent? At what point do short term sacrifices for potential long term gains become tanking? Is sacrificing wins to build a better team always tanking?

 

If so, then BRING OUT THE TANK!

IMO, unless you have a legitimate shot at doing damage in the POs you have to CONSTANTLY be developing. Maybe that doesn't mean that Curry/Sauce don't play at all - but it certainly means that Simons/Trent get at least an equal amount of playing time over the course of the season (ditto for the Collins / Aminu position). With a middling team such as ours we have to balance the development with the winning in order to keep Dame engaged - but he should also be smart enough to know that accelerated development at the cost of a few wins is also in his best interest if he's truly ride or die.

 

No, I don't think any of that is tanking. At the end of the day as long as Dame and CJ are on the team together there is no way to be bad enough to lose enough games to get a high draft pick. Without tanking Olshey still found a way to get the 10th pick in the 2017 draft. Now if you say that we should start Simons and Trent over Dame and CJ then that would be tanking but that's pretty much impossible to do and we should just trade them before that happens. There are ways to stealth tank like trading Aminu for an under-performing guy on a rookie contract or something like that but once again is it really worth doing that if it gets us like the 12th pick instead of the 18th pick (whatever just examples). The only other real legit way to tank is if Dame gets hurt and misses most or all of the rest of the season.

I'm actually a big proponent of always trying to develop young players, even on good teams.

 

Isnt Aminu the underperforming guy...? Whoops. lol.

 

Yes.

 

Yes, yes he is. I don't think Philly would do this but in a vacuum if we traded Aminu for Fultz straight up we add another guard and kill what little big man depth we have. Nurk is currently hurt and Zach fouls out in under 20 minutes which would leave Swanigan and Leonard as our only bigs. As bad as Aminu has been at lately, that seems way worse.

 

Okay, just taking that sentence out seems silly considering I would do that. I meant more in terms of tanking is it really tanking if it is half-assed?

 

No.
Trading Aminu is necessary, not tanking. Not trading him will be another absolute failure on Neil's resume.

 

If they don't turn things around quickly--and I don't mean just add wins by hot shooting--then this isn't tanking, it is logical strategy. Anyone on the team that was to win this year takes a back seat to developing youngsters. My only caveat would be that Stauskas might see some minutes because of his ability to hit the three and find others for easy baskets. I think Stauskas helps Collins and others develop.

 

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the key explanation for losing that game to the Clippers was the choice of who shot those 38 swish3 attempts. 21%! They should be shot, at least 6-10 of them, by the NBA leading swish3 shooter (at 52.9%), Meyers. Nurk, Evan, and anyone missing 3 consecutive should not shoot any.

Let's try this principle in the Magic and Nuggets games and see the result. I predict that we will return to >35% swish3 scoring and see success.

 

With Vucevic being in the form he is in and Blazers lack of big man depth, if Nurk is out, we're in trouble.