What shape do you want the tank to take?
- How long/how deep? -- a full three-year serious tank would allow us to keep our 1st rounder pick owed to OKC (and have it turn into a 2nd), I believe. It would also increase the odds of finding a player or a few worth building around. But full tanks probably also hurt the economic bottom line of the franchise, including by turning off a lot of less-extreme fans.
- What draft picks to target? -- sooner draft picks likely to be worse; later picks offer more variability (if not protected too much) but will pan out later (if the picks we get pan out at all) and likely extend the tank
- Do we target a young player with potential coming back in any Donovan trade (Barrett, Herro, etc.)? Does having such a player make it hard to tank effectively? Does not getting such a player just make our draft-capital return worse (since the team we trade Donovan to will be better)? Is there a player that can be trusted to build around? (I'd argue that OKC's Shai is fairly unique in buying into the tank and not wanting out of years of losing; he's also unique in that he's generally acknowledged to be a true major asset around the league, I suspect, unlike Barrett or Herro perhaps). Does picking up a player who will soon require a large salary bump defeat the purpose of having lots of cap flexibility?
- Does it make sense to acquire a large negative asset? Westbrook's salary is great for tanking purposes, but is he enough of a floor raiser to ruin our own 2023 pick if he plays? Simmons is a rehabilitation play, but does his long-term contract handicap us too much if his value never rises? Are there any other contracts that would make sense for our situation?
