Injuries happen. It’s part of the NBA. If the Blazers had their entire roster right now, including Lillard and Nurkic, I’d like their chances against the Warriors without Curry, who is out for several weeks and could possibly miss the playoffs. And who knows what injuries might derail some other playoff contender’s hopes? That’s why you don’t tank: you could be throwing away more than you realize.
Nobody hopes a player gets injured for playoff runs, but it is part of the game, and can be a major factor in playoffs.
The Warriors are currently in 3rd. There’s no way we could’ve moved up to 6th to face them. Even if we managed to get into the play-in, would most likely squeeze in as the 8th seed just to get swept by the Suns.
Wow. That’s a far cry from what I said. Nobody hopes for player injuries. On the other hand, tanking is guaranteed to get you 30- and 40-point losses, but not much else.
We won last night. But anyway, we didn’t play well this year when totally healthy. In fact, we were awful. And don’t underestimate the Warriors. They beat us twice in 2016 playoffs without Curry. Never mind the fact that we had no chance at 6 seed this year or even 7 seed anyway so we wouldn’t play the Warriors. We’d play the Suns who would likely destroy us.
lillard had surgery with a timeline being that it would be a minimum of 6-8 weeks before he'd be evaluated. That surgery was 8 weeks ago, so even if the intention was that he would play again, if he could, he'd still be in that re-evaluation window and likely still 2 more weeks before playing. And that might be rushing things Nurkic has plantar faciitis and is if the case is severe enough, players can miss weeks or even months with that condition. John Collins is out for the season with it If Dame is out; and Nurkic is iffy, the Blazers have no chance at a playoff win; maybe not even a play-in win. Why shouldn't Portland tank? It makes a hell of a lot more sense than another 1st round exit (if they get that far) and losing their one chance at a high lottery pick for a decade
And a lottery pick, where better players are typically picked, which is the entire point of tanking. Remember when the Suns and 76ers were tanking a while back? Those 40 point losses got them to this point.
Suns hadn't made the playoffs in ten years though, not sure Id want to take that journey. I still dont think the coach and players purposely tank but maybe management calls the shots on who plays and doesn't play? And the sixers were very bad for a number of years too and they still havent made the finals. I get wanting a better pick and good with this apparent tank job if that what the team wants for this summer and next fall. I guess we will see with rest of the schedule who's got the final say in tanking or not?
I'm not saying I want to take that journey either. However, saying losing games by 40 gets you loses and not much else isn't that accurate, is it?
What if we get the 14th pick? You think there’s someone waiting for us at that spot who will make a huge difference? I don’t.
