Which rebuild team is doing the best job IYO

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

The San Antonio Spurs.

[Who]

New Orleans

An MVP caliber player in the making in Anthony Davis. Surrounded with quality young veterans like Jrue Holiday, Ryan Anderson and Omer Asik. Guys who understand how to win games in this league. Not puppy dogs like Waiters or T.Thompson. Grown men who know how to do their jobs.

Some more talent in Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans. Enough trade assets and long term cap flexibility to continue to improve team going forward.

Have a great chance to become a title a contender in the next few years.

[Onslaught]

Hornets

[KG Living Legend]

 Great point in N.O. Who, that roster is looking good.

[wayupnorth]

I'm super jealous of Philly fans. I know they stink now but in a few years they have the potential to be dominant... That gives them hope ... Something we really don't have right now.  We might be a competitive team, but there's little hope of a contender in the near future.

You are an incredibly negative fan. What joy do you get out of cheering for the C's?

Mind you, I am not questioning your fan-hood, I am genuinely curious, why you follow the team actively, when you don't like when they are losing, then don't like when  they are winning, then don't like who they actually draft when they did the losing you wanted them to do. You dislike the best player on the team, who has shown he can be a key player on a contending team, and you dislike our young project big Sully, who at 22 put up 16 and 8, projecting him to be "a good role player". You then say that there is no hope for the C's future.

I truly do not get it.

[Mencius]

I'm super jealous of Philly fans. I know they stink now but in a few years they have the potential to be dominant... That gives them hope ... Something we really don't have right now.  We might be a competitive team, but there's little hope of a contender in the near future.

Could not agree more.  Hinkie chose a path and went full bore down it.  We are still fence straddling.

[BigAlTheFuture]

I like what Philly is doing too but you honestly can't tell. Embiid has an injury that a lot of people don't think he can recover from. Nerlens is a good prospect but he is not a franchise player by any means. I think his ceiling is a rich man's DeAndre Jordan. MCW put up some sick numbers but was not impressed with him the few times we played him. And Saric... well that could be a Franz Vasquez situation. Potential is there but I'm having a hard time picturing it working out down the road. I thought they definitely should have did everything they could to get Wiggins during the draft. Even if it means giving up picks 3 & 10.

[mgent]

My immediate thought was definitely the Pelicans, can't believe they weren't even mentioned on the first page.

Aside than from them, I think the Celtics are closer to a title than any of the other non-playoff teams.  We have some of the best assets, and more importantly, we have Rondo.

[D.o.s.]

My immediate thought was definitely the Pelicans, can't believe they weren't even mentioned on the first page.

Aside than from them, I think the Celtics are closer to a title than any of the other non-playoff teams.  We have some of the best assets, and more importantly, we have Rondo.

Probably because they've underperformed so far. They definitely thought they were going to be competing for the 8th seed last season, or they wouldn't have included their 1st in the Holiday trade.

[BigAlTheFuture]

Did anybody mention Utah? They did set themselves up pretty nicely after the D-Will/Sloan era. Favors, Kanter, Hayward, Exum, Burke, and Burks is a nice core moving forward. They have a lot of nice pieces there.

[thehumburger]

My immediate thought was definitely the Pelicans, can't believe they weren't even mentioned on the first page.

Aside than from them, I think the Celtics are closer to a title than any of the other non-playoff teams.  We have some of the best assets, and more importantly, we have Rondo.

Probably because they've underperformed so far. They definitely thought they were going to be competing for the 8th seed last season, or they wouldn't have included their 1st in the Holiday trade.

New Orleans was impatient and made a hasty trade and bad signings to try to win right away--though Davis had only 1 year in the league--and it could cost them long-term. Holiday is a nice player but he's a borderline all-star type, won't give you much more than 15/8/45%, and not worth 2 good lottery picks. And they spent 26M/yr on Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans. That makes Jeff Green seem like a bargain.

NO shouldn't be on that list as their rebuild is just about over. They have limited flexibility, continue to trade future lottery picks to win now despite their future MVP being only 21, and now they're left hoping Omer Asik and improvement from those young veterans will make up the difference of about 16 wins in the West to get the 8 seed. Not likely.

[manl_lui]

Pelicans is doing fine, Boston is doing fine too...I believe and TRUST Boston is just fine

Philly is meh...after Iverson was traded, they've became a meh team, going in and out of playoffs and being mediocre for so long. I assume it will be the same with this current team...mark my words, the 76ers will be a playoff team for a year or two, then go back to rebuild mode

so much for Evan Turner being the new face of the franchise with Iguodala.

Wolves is a plain mess.

I also want to mention the Clippers - drafted Griffin, then retooled with CP3 and others

OKC/Seattle did a very great job in 2007 when they got Durant and Green then the next year got Westbrook. Sorry to say, Miami also did a good job, when Wade went down in 07, they drafted Beasley, made playoffs in 2010 (knocked out by us), then the following year got their big 3

[Future Celtics Owner]

Ryen Russillo made a nice point about the Sixers on his radio show. People still are stuck on this outdated notion of drafted players making an early impact on their team, because in the past that was the case. However, as we all know these days the best players come when they're 19, 20 as unfinished products. Only a few are actually impact players their first year. Even those that are considered successful are usually just putting up statistics on a bad team, not really making a huge impact to the actual win-loss record.

If you look at MLB, nobody looks at their draft and thinks, "team A needs to take a pitcher because their rotation this year is shaky," because it takes 3-5 years for most prospects to develop. People need to start looking at the NBA draft in the same way now.

The problem is that the NBA still relies on the college game as an informal, free "minor league." Wise to this, players are coming out of that farcical situation as early as possible before they're really ready in order to maximize their earning potential. If the NBA and NCAA could work something out where a player is drafted but allowed to stay in school, or if the NBDL ever became a legitimate option, things would be different. However the odds of either happening are very slim.

The problem is also exacerbated by the lottery system which rewards teams for being bad. Throwing rookies who aren't ready into the fire isn't so bad if you're rewarded for losing. The Sixers didn't create the system, they're just trying to take advantage of it like any competitive organization should. We should be happy the Sixers are flaunting the system because by exploiting it, they are shining a spotlight on the flaws and maybe we'll see some change.

We should really stop looking at the 30 teams as being equals. The fallacy is the idea that all 30 teams "have a shot" and are trying to win as many games as possible. The reality is that different teams have different goals for the season, but they are all lumped together in this imperfect scenario called the 82-game season. That's how at the end of the year, the Sixers owner can say the season was a "success." There was a lot of outrage, but what else could you call it? If you met your desired goal from the beginning of the season, isn't that the definition of "success"? They just had different goals than say, a playoff team. Rebuilding NBA teams are like minor league teams that are somehow in the same field as major league teams. Just like nobody cares if the Pawtucket Red Sox win or lose, just that the players are developing, so is the case with the Philadelphia 76ers last season.

Change the draft so that losing is not rewarded. Allow drafted players to continue playing in college until they're actually ready to join a 15-man roster that is actually attempting to win, not tank. Eliminate the rookie scale and replace it with something that doesn't pressure players to enter the league as soon as possible.

TP