Too good to tank?

[Handlogten's Heros]

Cody is the worst player in the NBA and the current Taylor isn't much better, unfortunately. You can ostensibly "develop" kids in the league by playing them instead of established vets, but once the kids get this bad, it's just too obvious of a tanking move. They might just as well pick a random guy out of the stands and insert him at small forward.

People like to talk about the PT the vets get, but I mean... we just let WCJ run an NBA team for like 40 minutes and he'd been absolutely terrible this season. I wouldn't call that playing it safe.

Huh… Walt played 21 minutes.

Teams play highly drafted guys in the name of development all the time. OKC ran out guys like Poku, Maledon, Bazley… we can do that… it’s not hard.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

Our main issue is that Hardy has the team playing too hard. We haven't had our will broken yet, we are still playing with confidence and hope. We need a nice long losing streak to sap the good vibes away from the team.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

We are soooo stupid. Like so dumb. Just roll out Cody and Taylor for 30 minutes instead of Svi/Love for 40+. Can still be competitive and lose under the guise of development.

We are going to FAFO and it’s gonna hurt for years. But the vibes lol.

Also, if you think Nurk isn’t a rotation level center you don’t know ball. @Saint Cy of JFC

Nurk is a bad center who is capable of good games.

 

[NAOS_pt2]

We're ****ed, brosephs. I cannot believe we're doing this while DNP'ing Taylor and CW.

 

[AK47]

I dunno, this team is kind of fun to watch but as a fan it's getting a little frustrating watching this team tank for years now and when they need to tank the most, they aren't tanking. I'm guessing Ainge has a plan but it this team loses the pick this year, they will be stuck in mediocrity for at least another year and even then the team is good enough to not be a lottery team but not good enough to so anything in the playoffs.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

Losing out on our 2026 draft pick would be awful. Not just from a standpoint of we need good players, but also from the fact that we would be losing out on a premium asset.

On the other hand, there aren't more than 8 guys in the 2026 draft that I would be really sad about losing out on right now. That could change as the season goes on, but right now I'm only really excited by a handful of guys in the draft.

 

[KqWIN]

We may lose the pick, but imagine how happy Ryan feels right now.

 

[KqWIN]

We are soooo stupid. Like so dumb. Just roll out Cody and Taylor for 30 minutes instead of Svi/Love for 40+. Can still be competitive and lose under the guise of development.

We are going to FAFO and it’s gonna hurt for years. But the vibes lol.

Also, if you think Nurk isn’t a rotation level center you don’t know ball. @Saint Cy of JFC

Nurk was never a tank commander on defense, and once he stopped shooting like 35% from the field he wasn’t a tank commander on offense either. I said this would be the case before the season. Numbers don’t lie!

 

[rippimpc]

We won wtf

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

We may lose the pick, but imagine how happy Ryan feels right now.

Cut to a twitter post in 6 months when we give the Thunder the 9th pick where Ryan says some cheesy bull **** about letting out a gutteral scream and then realizing we got this cuz #Utahstrong.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Losing out on our 2026 draft pick would be awful. Not just from a standpoint of we need good players, but also from the fact that we would be losing out on a premium asset.

On the other hand, there aren't more than 8 guys in the 2026 draft that I would be really sad about losing out on right now. That could change as the season goes on, but right now I'm only really excited by a handful of guys in the draft.

This isn't the right way to look at it imo. We have the chance to win 5-6 less games and get one of those top 8 guys. Or we can hand a pick in the 9-12 range that at very least is a good trade asset to a team that will be at the top of the food chain for a while. Its all or nothing... the top 8 guy may matter a lot in 3-4 years... the vibes from winning an extra 5-6 games will not.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

This isn't the right way to look at it imo. We have the chance to win 5-6 less games and get one of those top 8 guys. Or we can hand a pick in the 9-12 range that at very least is a good trade asset to a team that will be at the top of the food chain for a while. Its all or nothing... the top 8 guy may matter a lot in 3-4 years... the vibes from winning an extra 5-6 games will not.

I agree, it will just soften the blow a little for me if there isn't a guy I was excited about that we missed out on. We should absolutely be making sure that we keep our pick, I'm not arguing against it.

 

[KqWIN]

There is a 100% chance they'll be a prospect I wish we had if we have no pick. And if we have a pick, there's a great chance I will wish we had someone drafted higher.

 

[SoberasHotRod]

There is a 100% chance they'll be a prospect I wish we had if we have no pick. And if we have a pick, there's a great chance I will wish we had someone drafted higher.

OK???

I obviously would rather have a pick than no pick and I would obviously rather have a higher pick than a lower pick.

In the end there is nothing I can do about it though. I have no control over that outcome. The degree to which I'm disappointed though can be more or less severe based on what I feel we are missing out on.

 

[KqWIN]

This isn't the right way to look at it imo. We have the chance to win 5-6 less games and get one of those top 8 guys. Or we can hand a pick in the 9-12 range that at very least is a good trade asset to a team that will be at the top of the food chain for a while. Its all or nothing... the top 8 guy may matter a lot in 3-4 years... the vibes from winning an extra 5-6 games will not.

The pathetic thing about the extra 5-6 wins is that it's really just taking us from like 22 wins to 28 wins. And it's a 28 win team where there are 7-8 terrible teams in the league. We're still an awful team. All we'll get is the temporary satisfaction that we didn't tank (as well) as the teams ahead of us.

I'm not even a tank guy. I've argued with you many times about the efficacy of tanking and how I think it's highly overrated. But if we don't embrace the tank this year so we can have a little bit of pride we are sorry franchise. If patience has run out in the FO, I get it. But a high 20's team is nothing to be proud of. We shouldn't even be thinking about keeping the pick or not. That should be a given. We should be thinking about maximizing our odds at top 4 because this is our best/last chance at a premium draft asset.

If we miss the pick/lose our draft odds because Cody and TH took us there, so be it. But we cannot be there because we won't play them. Miss me with this winning culture crap.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

The pathetic thing about the extra 5-6 wins is that it's really just taking us from like 22 wins to 28 wins. And it's a 28 win team where there are 7-8 terrible teams in the league. We're still an awful team. All we'll get is the temporary satisfaction that we didn't tank (as well) as the teams ahead of us.

I'm not even a tank guy. I've argued with you many times about the efficacy of tanking and how I think it's highly overrated. But if we don't embrace the tank this year so we can have a little bit of pride we are sorry franchise. If patience has run out in the FO, I get it. But a high 20's team is nothing to be proud of. We shouldn't even be thinking about keeping the pick or not. That should be a given. We should be thinking about maximizing our odds at top 4 because this is our best/last chance at a premium draft asset.

If we miss the pick/lose our draft odds because Cody and TH took us there, so be it. But we cannot be there because we won't play them. Miss me with this winning culture crap.

Counterpoint... OKC sent Horford home and benched SGA for a bunch of games while playing Poku, Maledon, Bazley minutes (who didn't deserve it) and they will never win anything. Culture matters a lot.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Nurk is a bad center who is capable of good games.

He's 100% rotation level.

 

[KqWIN]

Counterpoint... OKC sent Horford home and benched SGA for a bunch of games while playing Poku, Maledon, Bazley minutes (who didn't deserve it) and they will never win anything. Culture matters a lot.

It completely torched their development too. None of those prospects went on to be good players because it's impossible to develop with so much opportunity!

 

[jom2003]

Our main issue is that Hardy has the team playing too hard.

Maybe we should fire Hardy and replace him with his brother Softy.

 

[jom2003]

It completely torched their development too. None of those prospects went on to be good players because it's impossible to develop with so much opportunity!

Or maybe they are just scrubs. Good player find a way to shine regardless of the environment. I'd argue Ace is a good example of that. He spent the majority of his minutes standing in the corner with zero play set up for him. But he still managed to make the most of it.

You can't turn some non-NBA material into legit NBA player no matter how hard you try unless your name is Quin Snyder.