"a losing culture can be hard to break is a good argument if it weren't for examples of losing teams that became winners. You recall what happened to the Wickes/Rowe Cs once 23 yo Larry Bird got here. Losing culture dies quickly when dominant players begin to dominate"
You just ruined your own argument. One big reason that the 1980 Celtics turned things around was that Wicks and Rowe and their attitudes were gone. Fitch and Larry took care of those problems in training camp.
its actually very true. Losing cultures disappear as soon as the stars hit their stride. Happened with the cavs. Happened with Oklahoma. Happened with the clippers. Etc.
Philly is set up majestically heading forward. Last I checked, since both Boston and philly started tanking, those two teams have the same amount of playoff series wins. That should change this season I assume, but I fully expect barring injury Philly to be in the playoffs and making noise within the next few years. Their culture has already changed since the arrival of Embiid. That team and its fanbase is lit. Only a matter of time before the minutes restrictions lift, their other franchise player returns and they figure out how to get some wins consistently.
To equate Philly tanking with our tanking is nonsense and done to inflame Celtic fans. Nice.
You are the worst prognosticator on this blog, so your predictions as to Philly's future carry as much weight as your predictions about the Nets: Zilch.
we both started tanking at the same time. It's a fact. Philly traded their lone borderline star for Noel and saric. We traded two hall of famers for draft picks, another allstar for draft picks, another top player for draft picks... and our reward was Marcus smart. Their reward was Embiid. Boston then quickly became decent while philly kept collecting potential stars (okafor and Simmons). It's been a few years and neither team has won a playoff series. We should win one this year. I suspect Philly will too in the next few years.
We had one really bad season, 13/14. Sixer played bad from 12/13 through 16/17. That's five years in a row. That's a fact, kid. Choose your words more carefully.
The Sixers were the ninth seed in 2013. They weren't trying to tank, they were just legitimately below-average. They didn't start tanking until the same time the Celtics did.
Tanking isn't the same thing as rebuilding, though the former can be part of the latter. Virtually every team that rebuilds takes a step back but it's not fair to call that tanking. To me, tanking is when a team makes multiple moves or non-moves where the main goal is to not win games. I don't think you can say Ainge has ever done that. Even the Nets deal wasn't really about making the Celtics bad. It was about getting those 2017 and 2018 picks when KG and Pierce would be retired or plain done.
Mike
Phoenix's willingness to give us an all-star for free and Brooklyns willingness to throw us multiple top 5 picks for the decaying corpses of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett are the only 2 reasons we did not have to suck for more than a season.
MCW for the Lakers pick was a brilliant trade more than a tanking move.
Holiday for Noel + Saric pick was a similarly brilliant(and totally scummy) move moreso than a tanking move
drafting Noel was tanky but he was BPA clearly. drafting Embiid was the easy choice. Boston wanted him if he fell to 6 and the next 4 guys picked were Exum Gordon Smart Randle. Embiid's talent towers over those guys.
Philly didnt make many moves with the intention of sucking. They just didnt make any moves with the intention of winning. Philly never signed Evan Turner, they never traded for Isaiah Thomas, they never found Jae Crowder, they never acquired Jonas Jerebko. They also would have likely moved Sullinger and Olynyk for picks.