well...personally I don't get worked up about the purity of sports, mainly because there is none. Fans can vote on the value of tanking with their dollars, and they often do. The other side of that is few things sell tickets like a team of young players with upsides I do not believe tanking is hurting the NBA. What has hurt the NBA is a salary cap made of silly putty and the creation of superteams, almost always in large markets. It's an uneven playing floor and in a very real way, tanking can mitigate that
So yeah it does look like we got in on the Rockets right before full tank mode was achieved and the Kings won't. That's really nice for us. I'm wondering if the Kings will change course and go even harder at the tank. They're still playing Mitchell, Barnes, their Holiday, DiVincenzo and some other really solid NBA level players with experience. I really think we'll be able to tank under them safely. As far as tanking goes, I don't have a problem with it when the rules not only allow it but promote it. I do think that we could kill it almost completely by having the first five picks determined by a lottery with all of the teams that miss the playoffs having an equal chance at each of those first five picks. The rest of the draft 6-30 or hopefully soon 32, will be in the order of worst record to best remaining after the lottery. That insures that after those picks first five picks the worst teams remaining still get the best value left which should help them to rebuild/ but would incentivize always trying to win unless a draft was so strong that the sixth best player was seen universally as a generational talent along with the other top six prospects. I think it would definitely kill most tanking and for sure do away with multi season tanking for good.
there would still be plenty of tanking to get into the top-5. In fact, I think that plan would increase tanking I don't think tanking is a problem, at all, but if you want to reduce it by taking away incentive, just have a 1-14 lottery with even odds for every team for every draft slot. I guess that would be a subset of 13 lotteries
Meh, I think that there is an unevenness to the league but it gets overstated very often and is getting overstated right now by you. Management of teams and good ownership groups are the determining factors in what makes teams the most competitive. Look at the Knicks, look at the Spurs. The Lakers and Celtics advantages come far more from the institutions of success they have built than the markets they're playing in. Also I can't complain about super teams because I think players should be able to choose their best working environment possible that their performance has earned them. Almost no player can dictate where he goes in the middle of a contract but can dictate if he goes if he's good enough and any player should be able to sign anywhere they want no matter how many great players choose to sign there. The only thing I think the league can and should do is make it impossible for other teams to sign players that were drafted elsewhere to anything close to what a player's original team can give them and make it so a large percentage of the salary of a player that has re-signed with his original team won't count against the cap or luxury tax but that doesn't carry over through trades. I think that could give teams some great identity, give the league stability, give smaller markets a better chance but not limit the freedom of the players to be where they ultimately want to be, it will just be very punitive for teams to take on great players that they didn't draft or for players to leave the team that drafted them if that team wants to keep them.
As far as I know most of them have legitimate injuries. (SGA - Giddey - Dort). Additionally, they didn’t need to the “tank” option. They sucked without trying to suck.
Why would anyone tank for the top 5, those picks would be won in a lottery with even odds for all 14 lottery teams? You could do what you're proposing but teams that are struggling do need a way to get better so complete mayhem throughout the lottery would not ensure that teams that are truly struggling would get any more help than a team that barely missed the playoffs.
That was kind of my point. The bottom 4 teams didn’t actively tank this entire year. They just sucked. As far as I know, we are pretty much the only team that completely waved the white flag.
I don't know about the Magic but the Pistons have sat Grant and no matter what anyone says in here he is the player on that team that gives them the best chance to win games, especially against opposing tanking teams.
Jerami Grant hurt his thumb. He played in 7 of the last 10 games. And he’s out due to legitimate injury once again. (He left mid game.)
Assumed it was tanking, my bad. Even with Grant playing they were bad enough that they were going to end up in the bottom four and most likely the bottom three. Those teams really do suck. I do wonder if some of the Magic's injured players could have made it back this season to play in some games but the Magic just told them to be safe and get better for next season which some might consider a form of tanking but to me just makes sense once you no longer have meaningful games and you're trying to protect you roster for next season.
I mean it's a cap that generally acts as a deterrent for small market teams but not for big market teams. And because it's not a hard cap it allows super teams to be formed I know a hard cap would never happen, but the luxury tax rules should be a lot more severe, and the repeater tax should start in the 2nd year, not the 4th or 5th
So back before all the injuries, and sitting everyone, we had a rating of 0.1? That right there tells us it was not a good fit and we need more talent.
Some big names possibly available depending on playoff success 1. Butler- relationship with coach and team had gone south 2. Randle not happy in NY 3. Grant- obviously available 4. Siakam- Toronto stuck in middle of pack 5. Zion- not sure where he stands seems disengaged with team 6. Crucial year for Boston could see them blowing things up if bad playoffs. Sure theirs more out there but my point is options will open up, Grant may be 2nd or 3rd choice once season ends. I’m still really concerned we won’t have that second lottery pick which would be devastating
The randle stuff is really interesting. He apparently requested off the team yesterday if you believe the rumors.
