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2025-2026 Tank Race Prediction Contest and Current Results Thread

SoberasHotRod said:
To ease my tanxiety I hit the SIM lottery a whole bunch of times until the Jazz lost their pick. It took about 15 times of hitting the button before we dropped below 8, but in the process we jumped up in to the top 4 about 6 or 7 times.

I'm perfectly capable of understanding probabilities just by looking at the odds, but this was still kind of fun.
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The way I think it trends I would guess we end up 6th or 7th in lotto odds. Unless they get shameless... which the new front office has not shown they can do. They will have to endure too much uproar.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Ainge just needs to under the table pay the refs to screw us each game. A few really bad calls would go a long way to lose these close games.
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Also hide George's freaking ipad. What is the benefit of using a challenge in a tank year?
 
KqWIN said:
What's funny to me is that the Jazz are at the center of the tanking discourse despite really only tanking one year. Yes we are tanking this year, but when people talk about the horrors of tanking they're usually not talking about teams around the 6-8 range. The Jazz have only had one year of truly tanking but it's like we're getting the penalty of tanking for for years. Meanwhile, teams like DET are being applauded for doing things the right way when they actually tanked for that long. I really think this is something that we will not care about in a couple of years because nobody has ever cared about a team after they stop.
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The Sixers deserve mention in this conversation too. They were big loud about what they were doing, and their franchise star even gave himself his nickname around it. They thumbed their nose with their middle finger at the league and the league did NOTHING.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
The good news on the tanking front is that LAC looks like they are probably in our review window. I don't think we need to worry about them anymore. I also don't think Charlotte will be as aggressive at tanking as us, so I think we are kind of safe there. Dallas is by far the most likely team to pass us in the tank standings, so we really need to figure out how to lose these next two games against them.

The bad news, I'm not sure we can catch any of the teams ahead of us. Besides NOP who might just be way too far ahead of us, I think all of those teams will make sure they stay ahead of us in the tank race.
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I know what you’re saying, but NOP can’t be “ahead of us” because they’re not actually tanking.

I think they can make up the gap on the lack of incentive to lose once we hit tank battle season.
 
I’ve been having some thoughts about the benefits of just playing it straight and trying to win every game (namely, that it would make shopping free agency much more effective and fruitful [Peyton Watson]). However, we do not have Walker so the best we can do is still pretty ****ing bad.
 
NUMBERICA said:
I’ve been having some thoughts about the benefits of just playing it straight and trying to win every game (namely, that it would make shopping free agency much more effective and fruitful [Peyton Watson]). However, we do not have Walker so the best we can do is still pretty ****ing bad.
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I'm not sure it does. I think players and agents are smart enough to recognize that a better outlook is more appealing than a better record. It did get me thinking about some of the recent pivots away from tanking. HOU signed FVV and Brooks. DET signed Harris and Beasley. CLE was able to convince Lauri to come. These teams didn't shoot up into contention right away, but I expect the Jazz will seek out these kinds of acquisitions this summer and as long as the future is looking bright they'll be able to hit some targets.
 
NUMBERICA said:
I know what you’re saying, but NOP can’t be “ahead of us” because they’re not actually tanking.

I think they can make up the gap on the lack of incentive to lose once we hit tank battle season.
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I looked at their schedule a few days ago and I think they win about 9 games post all star break. We probably need to be within 3-4 games before the all star break to be within striking distance.

I would say it's unlikely, but still possible for us to jump NOP. I would give it like a 30% chance.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
I looked at their schedule a few days ago and I think they win about 9 games post all star break. We probably need to be within 3-4 games before the all star break to be within striking distance.

I would say it's unlikely, but still possible for us to jump NOP. I would give it like a 30% chance.
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This is basically where I am at. I think it really depends on us more than them. Are we going to wilt under the pressure of mean podcasters? Will the league actually send Ryan a nasty memo? Or will Austin's ego prevail?

We just can't walk the line much if at all anymore.
 
KqWIN said:
I'm not sure it does. I think players and agents are smart enough to recognize that a better outlook is more appealing than a better record. It did get me thinking about some of the recent pivots away from tanking. HOU signed FVV and Brooks. DET signed Harris and Beasley. CLE was able to convince Lauri to come. These teams didn't shoot up into contention right away, but I expect the Jazz will seek out these kinds of acquisitions this summer and as long as the future is looking bright they'll be able to hit some targets.
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Well, the other part I didn’t mention is that if we get, say, a top-4 pick, then we might be in a situation where the ease with which we can ensure a starting spot/more-prominent role gets more difficult.
 
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