That had a lot more to do with lazy, overpaid, whiny, and disgruntled players sandbagging than it did with a concerted effort to reach for more ping pong balls.
Well, Leonard himself is not an argument in favor of it, but if we had sucked a little bit more, we could have had Drummond at #9 instead of Leonard at 11.
Who was lazy and disgruntled? Hickson? IIRC Aldridge and Batum both sat games at the end of the season. Lillard and Matthews played.
And if we'd been worse than that maybe we rise up high enough to draft Thomas Robinson. There's more TRobs drafted year in and year out with lottery picks than Drummonds. I'm not against tanking this year just being realistic with my expectations of what we'll end up with. Most high lottery picks don't become decade long NBA starters.
What is the criteria for "starter" in you graph? Martell Webster started 266 games but I certainly wouldn't consider him the type of player you throw away a season for. A number of lottery picks start on terrible lottery teams the following few seasons even if they ultimately fall well short of expectations. Just as Meyers and CJ are starting for us now they haven't proven themselves as a quality starting SG or starting PF. Fans are probably hoping for a guy with possible allstar upside. Outside the top3 picks in your graph 60-80% of the time you're not getting that type of player in the lottery. And that includes all the one time allstar selection borderline players such as Chris Gatling. Obviously we'd like a top3 pick but that'll be tough to get with Lillard on the roster; and even with the worst record in the league you need luck with ping pong balls. The gist of my statement was most the time those lottery picks don't give us what we are hoping for so while I'm fine with tanking I'm not going to expect a long term playoff quality starter.
I defined a starter as someone who started over half of the games they played. I agree that landing a starter isn't what people are hoping for when they draft in the lottery. They're looking for that all-star. Even drafting #2 only nets an all-star 42.9% of the time. If you're drafting in the top 10, most likely you'll get a 'boring' starter. Getting a quality player thru the draft is part science, and a lot of luck.
I want a top 6 draft pick but I do not want the team to "play to lose", IMO both those things are achieveable. It is my opinion the talent level on this team has a good chance to deliver that top 6 pick. And that means doing what we should do, give the young guys a lot of playing time as this is a should be a development year. Also, I do not want to see Stotts playing Lillard 42 minutes in the second game of a back to back - this is just stupid. If by some miracle doing that has us win 40 games or more then great, however my opinion is that is highly unlikely.
Portland is literally the "bad luck kid" of the NBA right now. We have the karma of a rain forest chain saw operator right now....
Unbelievable loss tonight. Some of the anti tank crowd I suggest you join us here on the dark side because otherwise this season is too damn depressing to actually root exclusively and only for Blazers wins every game. Damn I really wanted the win vs Houston though... So hate that team. It's going to be a long long season. Maybe I should do the trick where cover the score with tape and put some music on just watch the players perform as if it's summer league.
