Culture of losing

[birdwatcher]

I think when most people say they are rooting for a lousy season are fooling themselves.  I went to a few games during the 0-18 run back in 2007 and it's hard not to root for your team to win when you are watching them.  If they don't have the talent to compete next year than so be it, but i'll still be rooting for them, wearing my Ryan Gomes jersey.

Heard. Although mine was a Ricky Davis jersey.
Not happy to see our stars go, but eager to get this rebuild started so we don't drag out another three more years of mediocrity, only to suck harder for longer.

[Fred Roberts]

I root for player development. I love watching the young dudes go get better and prove themselves. With Rondo taking time to come back, losing is going to be likely. We'll still have a lot to keep our eyes on and quite frankly, I'm interested to see Sully, Olynyk, Avery, Melo, Iverson and T-Will get better. I'm excited to see Jeff Green continue his ascent. I'm excited to see Rondo come back healthy and run the floor with Jeff, Avery and Crash.

If that team loses a lot, fine. It will make us better player development wise and bc of the draft next year.

Did the Colts do well by sucking??? YES!! We don't have a guarantee of being the worst team next year or of getting the 1st pick, but the Colts might have sucked for another 30 years if they didn't suck for 1 year to get Luck.

We suck / retool for one year while Rondo gets healthy and if we get a major piece or two out of it, we're golden! Then we have many more draft picks and contracts to use to further set the table going forward. I'm excited to watch the C's next year and YES, I will be rooting for the Nets (after the C's and after the Pacers).

Another team to get in the way of the Heat is a great thing . . . . Go Paul and Kev and Jet!

[sofutomygaha]

I've gotta be honest, I'm having a hard time feeling sorry for these folks who have the money to pay for season tickets.

Oh, you feel like you're going to have to spend your thousands of extra dollars somewhere else?  Guess you can watch on League Pass or CSNNE like the rest of us.

League Pass??  You can afford LEAGUE PASS??!??! Why, in my house we listen to games on AM radio and act out what we hear by making shadow puppets on the wall when the passing trains light up the rear window.

Seriously, though, it's a great point. I'm from DC, and let me tell you that we argued for a solid year on Hogs Haven about tanking for Andrew Luck. I think that the danger of building a losing culture is something you deal with by choosing the right coach, having the right leaders, and tackling the rebuild quickly and decisively. The danger is losing momentum- not moving forward. We have to be the Rockets, here, and not the Raptors. Fortunately, we appear to be following the Rockets script to the letter.

I agree with the posters who have said that now is the time to get excited about up-and-comers like Sullinger, Green, and Bradley, and try to turn a blind eye to the scoreboard. The management is going to do what it's going to do, and you're going to be treasuring those season tickets again in a few years. Hunker down and look for the silver lining, my friend, it'll get better before you know it.

[chrisa33321]

And what if we keep sucking year after year? Are we going to every year hope to suck so we can get a good draft pick, how many years are we going to tolerate a sub par team before we expect major improvement? I'm afraid we will get in a loop here of never being that good and always hoping to get into the draft to try to get that next potential star. Any thoughts from anyone on this?

[sofutomygaha]

And what if we keep sucking year after year? Are we going to every year hope to suck so we can get a good draft pick, how many years are we going to tolerate a sub par team before we expect major improvement? I'm afraid we will get in a loop here of never being that good and always hoping to get into the draft to try to get that next potential star. Any thoughts from anyone on this?

I think the short answer to your question is that we fire Danny Ainge

[action781]

I'll let my girl Gloria explain the bigger idea behind the pro-tanking sentiment:

Sometimes when you win, you really lose, and sometimes when you lose, you really win, and sometimes when you win or lose, you actually tie, and sometimes when you tie, you actually win or lose. Winning or losing is all one organic mechanism, from which one extracts what one needs.

You're gonna take advice from someone who thought Babe Ruth was the NBA's all time leading rebounder?   

Listen fairweatherfan, if I'm thirsty, I don't want a glass of water, I want you to sympathize. I want you to say, "bdm, I too know what it feels like to be thirsty. I too have had a dry mouth." I want you to connect with me through sharing and understanding the concept of dry mouthedness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4EDhdAHrOg

[LarBrd33]

Give it a year.  Tanking is the right move here.

Pierce is a free agent next year... we could bring him back to be a mentor.   KG will probably be retired next year... bring him back as a coach.   

If both happened, would ANYONE still be mad at Ainge for getting 3 first rounders for a 1 year rental of two elderlies? 

[chrisa33321]

See I think one year would be bearable (I wouldn't say acceptable but I could bear it) its if we are going year 2-3 etc.. that I think we would be running into issues.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I wish I still lived in Boston so I could pick up some sweet season tickets from the fairweather fans.  I thought LA had a stranglehold on front runners, but I guess I was wrong

[Smokeeye123]

If you ever want to win another championship you have to suck and be in the lottery. IMO people who want to suck next year and get Wiggins or Jabari parker have more of a winning mentality then people then don't. Does anyone want to bring in Josh Smith next year and some roleplayers to be an 8th seed and get bounced in the first round? Does that sound exciting to you? No.

What sounds exciting to me is tanking, getting a franchise player/star and rebuilding asap.