New competition on the tank express

[saltlover]

I thought they were going to waive Boozer under the amnesty clause or something. That is, if they can't deal him.

I expect them to deal Dunleavy and Hinrich eventually. Noah will get some injury as he always does and they'll shut him down.

The combination of teams being "smarter" about rebuilding (i.e. willingness to embrace tanking) and the number of injuries to key players is contributing to the horrible product this year. New Orleans is the next team to likely blow it up now that Anderson is gone for at least two months.

That will occur, but not until the offseason, since you can only waive players under that provision in early July.  No one's going to take on Boozer's contract (although someone will bid for a portion of it next July).

I don't see New Orleans under the blow-it-up model.  Firstly, their pick this year is going to Philly unless they can pick in the top 5, which is not a guaranteed given who's below them.  You don't want to tank, only to pick 6th and not get your draft pick.  Secondly, they've made a lot of trades and free agent signings to put together this core which is all under contract for this and the next two seasons.  (Their core being Holiday, Evans, Gordon, Anderson, and Davis.)  If they can get something worthwhile for Eric Gordon, they'll do it, but not just to move his salary.  This core hasn't been together half a season -- in fact, they've only played 13 games together.  I have a feeling management would like to see if the roster they put together actually works before blowing everything up.  The rest of their assets aren't all that exciting and won't bring much back on the trade market.