Tanking is a tough job, someone has to do it.

[mmmmm]

I thought this team was a playoff team before the season but it depended on when and how well rondo played coming off the injury. there was too many vets on this team that have been part of winning and had too much pride for this team to tank, just a lot of good character types.

Same. I was looking at pre-season power rankings and predictions from around the league and most people had us in the bottom 5 worst teams, but I thought we'd end up with about 35-40 wins thinking Rondo would be back earlier too. I think it's just a bit of homerism though, but having guys like Rondo, Green, Sullinger, Bradley etc. looked more like a mediocre 7th or 8th seed team at the time.

Thank God we're as other teams predicted. I would've hated if we were getting in the Playoffs while being too bad to compete and too good to get a good pick. Maybe I would've handled it better if it wasn't a year with a Draft as stacked as this years.

Yeah, I had a similar prediction.  I looked over the schedule in detail and estimated about 34-36 wins, with a reasonable chance at the 7th seed or so.   But it was predicated on Rondo being back in December and not overtly deciding to tank, possibly even picking up a big man ala 'the-Asik-deal-that-fell-through'.

Rondo didn't come back until weeks later than that, the Asik deal fell through and we look like, well, if not overtly tanking, certainly not always putting our best lineup forward towards winning.

So it is what it is at this point.

[mmmmm]

IMO they are trying to hard to win games. I see Bass, Hump, Green and Rondo out there to much. I personally would like to see Sully and KO get more PT to develop and see what we have  and how they play with others.

The worse thing that can happen right now is winning games on the back of Green, Hump and Bass.

Well, I don't see how Brad's decision to put Bass out there to defend Anthony Davis with 4.9 seconds left in a tie game, when AD was dropping shots over his head all game was somehow going to help us win the game.

If anything, putting Olynyk out there would have presented enough length to at least bother AD's shot or at worse, foul him hard and make him hit free throws.

Bass is a far better p&r defender, but they weren't going to run a full p&r in that short of time.  Far more important to have someone who could at least bother Davis' shot there.   Rondo was shouting at our bench, pointing out the obvious problem before the play.   Stevens either didn't hear Rondo or chose to ignore him and go with Bass for whatever reason.

Predictably, AD promptly dropped that jumper over Bass that nearly won it for NOP in regulation.

Those are the kinds of plays that have had me really scratching my head this year.

[D.o.s.]

I said 26 wins over the summer and a Rondo return in February, around the All-Star Break.

He came back earlier than I would've thought, but 26 wins seems right on track.

[PhoSita]

Yep, I don't buy any of this "tanking" talk.  Brad is experimenting with lineups at times, sure.  But I also think Brad is smarter than any of us and spends more time looking at basketball info, including lots of stuff none of us has access to.  That means he's probably trying things and reacting to factors that we're not aware of.

Like D.o.s., I feel that the team is right on track with my projections.  Before the season started, I thought this was a team that would finish with 25-30 wins.  Soon after the season began, the team looked REALLY bad and I thought they might finish with closer to 20.  Now it looks like the initial impression was closer.

No tanking was ever necessary with this team.  Simply putting a losing roster out on the floor was enough.

[vl819]

Thank you Jared Bayless!!

[jambr380]

Thank you Jared Bayless!!

He almost single-handedly won the game for us tonight...almost.

[SHAQATTACK]

Tanking is not easy...I slap worn out tonight ...I thought this was a sure deal

Hump is playing his tail off ...to sign a big contract somewhere...so he can afford another Hollywood star girlfriend

Bayless ......is proving he was miss used at Memphis .....he was a lottery pick himself .....

Heck he is playing better than Lee  was it seems or at least as good

KO and Sully popping threes and Hump leading the league in offensive tebounding about every night

This makes tanking precarious  .        To pull off ...





Thankfully we have Bass and AB thinking he is the second coming of Kobe II  ....


Tanking is ...WORK ....?What with the Lakers fans cheering for us and all...that's a lot of mojo to defeat.