An honest look back at Tanking.

[Threezus]

15 hours ago, thecampster said:

That you don't understand it, bothers me. We are where we were 5 years ago and if we hadn't taken Trae (something most here didn't want to do), we would be in dire straits. We still need to do what we needed to do 5 years ago, rebuild through trades.

Not 100% true because if we didn't take Trae our actual pick was Luka.  With either of those players you have a HOF player with mvp potential.   Will also say with either of those players you have a legit chance of attracting another superstar to play with them.  Without them the Hawks will be exactly what they have been most of their existence irrelevant to most superstars who don't want to play here for some reason. 

[Wretch]

16 hours ago, Threezus said:

Not 100% true because if we didn't take Trae our actual pick was Luka.  With either of those players you have a HOF player with mvp potential.   Will also say with either of those players you have a legit chance of attracting another superstar to play with them.  Without them the Hawks will be exactly what they have been most of their existence irrelevant to most superstars who don't want to play here for some reason. 

That was my opening, but you beat me to it...  Players are looking at Trae and are considering what their career would look like playing with him.  That is no small thing.  We got the one thing that you hope to get out of maybe 3-4 drafts...which is a cornerstone.  Trae is out here playing like something more than that, which comes around only once in a blue moon for ALL teams.  That's honestly the end of the conversation there...

But we also have assets.  Sure we had them back then, but not like we have now.  Hunter and Okongwu still have that *potential* tag and both are lottery picks.  Historically, those are the kinds of players that you can actually flip for a star (in a package, obviously).  Had the Cam conundrum not blown up in our faces, we'd have three such assets.  None of which we could have gained fiddling around in the middle.

Which also brings up a false equivalence.  There is a big difference between a peaked veteran team treading water in the middle of the pack and vs. a young team still searching for it's identity and climbing through the middle.  Huge difference.

I don't 100% disagree with Camp's sentiment though.  It's just that trading and tanking are not mutually exclusive.  Trading to get better is almost a necessity...and this is a good time to reiterate my belief that the TIMING of trade assets is far more important than the assets themselves.  While the Squawk clutches their collective pearls at the mere mentioning of their favorite sacred cow...I'm first and foremost looking at the return.  The best deals happen at the right time - while guys still have potential and value.  We can't sit on that potential hoping for something, while that same potential fades exponentially.