A lot of people projecting us to finish in last place but I really think 35 wins or more is possible

[Buzzard]

18 minutes ago, hazer said:

Linsanity/Très/Fro

Gaze/Dorsal/The Huert

Printz/Mr. Anderson/Fro

J-Bap/Cal-Omare/TBD

Dedmon Walking/J-Bap/Bumlee

 

...is a better team than the ‘17-18 squad. And I doubt the directive will be to lose, sit, etc to dive to the bottom like last year. Inexperience by rookies and coach will keep us in the lottery without having to force it. Again: 28 wins, 8th pick.

I think worse case is 20 wins, best case is 30 wins now with Dennis gone. I don't think we are going to play to lose. I look for us to play hard and make plenty of mistakes; but unlike Philly we have some good vets on this team and room to add two more once the Melo trade is completed.

Philly holding that up by trying to get Korver or another shooter before taking Moose on.

[EazyRoc]

You have to account for the impact of a veteran coach vs a rookie coach as well. As much as Bud sucked as President, he was still a very good coach. This team will be lucky to sniff 20 games. Lin can never stay healthy and Trae still needs to adjust to NBA length/speed/physicality. Not to mention the biggest question mark with CLP. He’s got the development chops hands down, but game management and other important aspects of his job are huge question marks. We are going to lose a lot without having to tank. 

[AHF]

8 minutes ago, EazyRoc said:

You have to account for the impact of a veteran coach vs a rookie coach as well. As much as Bud sucked as President, he was still a very good coach. This team will be lucky to sniff 20 games. Lin can never stay healthy and Trae still needs to adjust to NBA length/speed/physicality. Not to mention the biggest question mark with CLP. He’s got the development chops hands down, but game management and other important aspects of his job are huge question marks. We are going to lose a lot without having to tank. 

I think the team is designed to lose and we are absolutely tanking this year.  I agree with you and don't expect we will need to do anything "unnatural" to boost our losses, though.  We simply made choices in constructing this team and letting Dennis go that ensure we will lose a ton and have nice draft position and can focus primarily on player development.

[KB21]

11 minutes ago, AHF said:

I think the team is designed to lose and we are absolutely tanking this year.  I agree with you and don't expect we will need to do anything "unnatural" to boost our losses, though.  We simply made choices in constructing this team and letting Dennis go that ensure we will lose a ton and have nice draft position and can focus primarily on player development.

The focus should be on developing winning habits in these players, not tanking.  

[AHF]

8 minutes ago, KB21 said:

The focus should be on developing winning habits in these players, not tanking.  

When you design a roster to lose you really don't have to choose.  These moves bring in a mentor for Trae and clear playing time for him.  All geared towards developing good habits while losing a ton of games.

[JayBirdHawk]

#DevelopmentOverWins - that's this season motto.

Young players + first time head coach.

[AHF]

4 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

#DevelopmentOverWins - that's this season motto.

You won't have to choose this year.  #Development+HighLotteryPick

[Watchman]

12 minutes ago, AHF said:

When you design a roster to lose you really don't have to choose.  These moves bring in a mentor for Trae and clear playing time for him.  All geared towards developing good habits while losing a ton of games.

You don't see those things as self-contradictory?  How do you develop good habits by losing all the time?

[KB21]

6 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

#DevelopmentOverWins - that's this season motto.

Young players + first time head coach.

You can't separate the two.  If you are properly developing players, you will win more than a tanking team wants to win.

[AHF]

Just now, Watchman said:

You don't see those things as self-contradictory?  How do you develop good habits by losing all the time?

Did you watch Peyton Manning's career?  Check out his progress.  He learned good habits during a 3-13 rookie season and then killed it his sophmore year.

[AHF]

3 minutes ago, KB21 said:

You can't separate the two.  If you are properly developing players, you will win more than a tanking team wants to win.

What do you think we "want" to win this year with the new lottery odds?  If we wanted to win this year, we would have a different roster.  We want to lose and develop our players and end up with a nice #7 or so pick to hopefully combine with the pick from Dallas, IMO.

We are absolutely designed not to make the playoffs and to accrue more draft assets this year as we lose and develop our young talent.

[KB21]

1 minute ago, AHF said:

What do you think we "want" to win this year with the new lottery odds?  If we wanted to win this year, we would have a different roster.  We want to lose and develop our players and end up with a nice #7 or so pick to hopefully combine with the pick from Dallas, IMO.

We are absolutely designed not to make the playoffs and to accrue more draft assets this year as we lose and develop our young talent.

If your focus is on losing games, then your focus is not on player development.  It's better for this team to properly develop winning habits in these players and win 28 games than it is to allow these players to do stupid stuff and win 18 games.

[KB21]

There isn't a switch that you can just flip on when you feel your team has accumulated enough talent to start winning games, so the sooner we start focusing on winning games and developing winning habits in these young players, the quicker we can get off this lottery treadmill.

[AHF]

4 minutes ago, KB21 said:

If your focus is on losing games, then your focus is not on player development.  It's better for this team to properly develop winning habits in these players and win 28 games than it is to allow these players to do stupid stuff and win 18 games.

The GM has focused on developing this team to lose while garnering young talent and some level headed veteran mentors.

The Coach and players will do their best to develop good winning habits and win games.

Winning 28 games is right in tankville territory.  We don't need to do anything unnatural to win 18 games.  Winning 40 this year would not be ok and Schlenk would adjust the roster to ensure that doesn't happen.

[JayBirdHawk]

I don't think they'll be trying to lose, like last year but the make up of the current roster - young players, plus a first time coach just makes it so.

The hope is CLP has them playing the right way more often than not.

[KB21]

6 minutes ago, AHF said:

The GM has focused on developing this team to lose while garnering young talent and some level headed veteran mentors.

The Coach and players will do their best to develop good winning habits and win games.

Winning 28 games is right in tankville territory.  We don't need to do anything unnatural to win 18 games.  Winning 40 this year would not be ok and Schlenk would adjust the roster to ensure that doesn't happen.

....and by doing that, you will never build a championship quality team.

[AHF]

2 minutes ago, KB21 said:

....and by doing that, you will never build a championship quality team.

Facts beg to differ but that is for another thread.

[Vol4ever]

On 7/19/2018 at 7:14 AM, kg01 said:

I have some questions about CLP but for someone calling him a 'cheap stop gap' or whatever is just an under-informed opinion IMHO.  I mean, let the dude coach a season before we decide he's awful.  The agenda-ing on this site gets out of control.

No agenda.  He has no head coaching experience, the team has been torn down to the bones.  Some act like he is going to walk in and make the team win.  I think he is a yes man for the GM.  Dont try to read something into this that is not there.  

[kg01]

9 minutes ago, Vol4ever said:

No agenda.  He has no head coaching experience, the team has been torn down to the bones.  Some act like he is going to walk in and make the team win.  I think he is a yes man for the GM.  Dont try to read something into this that is not there.  

Speaking of reading something that's not there.

A 'yes man' for the GM?  What does that even mean?  And remember when you answer, tell us how your answer is different from any other GM/coach relationship.

[Vol4ever]

11 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Speaking of reading something that's not there.

A 'yes man' for the GM?  What does that even mean?  And remember when you answer, tell us how your answer is different from any other GM/coach relationship.

So you dont believe the complete tank GM wont tell this rookie coach to tank if he so desires?