CBAreject

Nobody thinks that. It isn't necessary to get a "mythical unicorn" in the draft. All that is necessary is to build an interesting core of talented players who fit our system to be competitive gain, but with the flexibility to make trades and sign free agents. If we do that, we will be in a much better position than we were. Now, if we can actually land a franchise talent in the lottery, then all the better.

It will be terrible if Bud leaves, but what makes you think he wouldn’t have been even more discouraged by a capped-out, 35-win Howard/Millsap squad with a worse draft pick? Most people aren’t as giddy with that type of team as you are. Most of us find it more depressing than what we’ve got.

Wow, seriously? Both of those worked out in our favor? Hot damn!

@NineOhTheRino You drop some damn truth in your sig

Just about everything that could go wrong in the last 2 days has.

I’m open. Just spit-balling here. I kind of like those odds you ran. I really do think it cuts down on tanking without sending the #1 pick to the warriors.

The NBA isn’t a free market. It’s an organization in whose interests it is that all members remain “competitive” despite differences in resources and luck. There is an extraordinarily high barrier to entry into this organization such that no team can be allowed to simply fail and be replaced without major problems. An example: teams 1-3 get 5 balls teams 4-6 get 4 balls teams 7-9 get 3 balls teams 10-14 get 2 balls 5th-8th seeds get 1 ball draw the top 5-10 spots So with this system there is very little incentive to drop down but the truly elite teams aren’t in the lottery

I say extend the lottery down to the 5th seeds in the playoffs. Keep it weighted but gradual enough that there’s no great incentive to drop a spot. 5th seeds get a minuscule chance, so no 4th seed team would intentionally lose games to drop to 5th and give up home court. And at least draw spots 1-5 in the lottery if not more.

If you actually want to start penalizing teams for tanking (which I don't approve of without a formal rule), I think you have to start with Dallas. The owner publicly said they needed to lose and then the team fielded the worst lineup in NBA history in a must-lose game. If you're going to do it, don't make it too severe, since it's setting a precedent. Maybe just hold them out of the actual lottery but keep their position otherwise.

The Suns have nothing to gain by losing

If you want to see a pro tank job, just look at what the Mavs trotted out tonight. They realized tonight's game was too important to win and they started a D-league squad against the worst team in the NBA to make their best effort to lose.

If you want to see a pro tank job, just look at what the Mavs trotted out tonight. They realized tonight's game was too important to win and they started a D-league squad against the worst team in the NBA to make their best effort to lose.

Winning the last 3 games to tumble from a tie for #2 to #5 is such a Hawks thing to do that I'm not sure it can be avoided.

Yeah this is just sour grapes, honestly

Or, it was totally predictable. Look at this team’s history and look at Bud’s pride and competitiveness. We all knew after spending a season in last place we would have a few meaningless wins drop us into mediocre range in the lottery right at the end. We’re just too principled to ever truly tank.

And here is the flurry of meaningless wins that we all knew would come to drop us from 2nd to 6th in the last week of the season. Hey at least we can look back on this season when Ayton is a HOFer and say "well at least we beat the Celtics"

Then why even ask your question? You acknowledge the question is meaningless, as is its answer.

It doesn’t matter whether we pick 1st or 7th?

Fair point but unrelated. My point is that we should root for Memphis to win. Surely you don’t intend to argue that we need Memphis to lose so that we will pick one spot lower so Bud will say “huh if we’d had the second pick I’d have left, but we got the third pick because Memphis lost, so I guess I’ll have to stay”? Surely not, KB.

Don’t know, but that has nothing to do with needing this pick to be as high as possible.

Tonight’s Grizzlies-Kings game is big for us. We need the Grizz to win so that we will at least get a tie for 2nd if we lose out.

I didn’t single you out. I just didn’t like where the conversation was trending. I’ve seen too many conversations turn nasty over race and politics on sports forums. Just a reminder to give people the benefit of the doubt and not make assumptions about their motives.

You can’t know what a person’s motivations are in rating Doncic too high or too low, so let’s not speculate about that. It’s just a blind guess about things that are unknowable and it’s divisive. Someone could do a study to see if white players tend to be over-drafted or under-drafted based on career production, and that might tell you something about general biases, but even then, to apply it to an individual as an accusation isn’t wise.

Sure. Hope we get him. We need to nail this pick hard.

Don’t disagree and he might go #2, but I bet he is #3-6. Bamba and JJJ could easily go ahead of Doncic bc “you can’t coach height”