I Think I Am Aboard The Tank Train Now

[Celtics4ever]

Maxey turned out to be a good pick, but that is not what I was referring to.  I was more referring to their tanking era picks:

2014   #3   Embiid
2014  #11  Elfrid Payton
2015   #3   Okafor
2016   #1   Simmons
2017   #1   Fultz

That is a lot of draft capital and not a whole lot to show for it.  They tanked miserably to get all those picks.

It is early but Edgecombe looks legit as well.  Yeah there were some stinky one during that era With Elton Brand. 

But can you say that about  Daryl Morey era.

[Vermont Green]

Maxey turned out to be a good pick, but that is not what I was referring to.  I was more referring to their tanking era picks:

2014   #3   Embiid
2014  #11  Elfrid Payton
2015   #3   Okafor
2016   #1   Simmons
2017   #1   Fultz

That is a lot of draft capital and not a whole lot to show for it.  They tanked miserably to get all those picks.

It is early but Edgecombe looks legit as well.  Yeah there were some stinky one during that era With Elton Brand. 

But can you say that about  Daryl Morey era.

All teams/GMs have good and bad draft eras, most not as bad as that PHI run.  That isn't my point.  My point is that if you decide to tank by selling off good players for draft picks, that is no guarantee you will get better.  At best, you are like OKC, and you draft well, and get really lucky to trade for a future MVP, and even for them it took 6 years.  At worst, you are PHI and after 8 or so years of it, you still aren't that good.

Hopefully, BOS would never draft and trade as bad as PHI, but there is no guarantee that you will be the next OKC.  Unless you can tell me who the next MVP-to-be is so that BOS can trade for him.

[Goldstar88]

This is a play-in team.

[Moranis]

Maxey turned out to be a good pick, but that is not what I was referring to.  I was more referring to their tanking era picks:

2014   #3   Embiid
2014  #11  Elfrid Payton
2015   #3   Okafor
2016   #1   Simmons
2017   #1   Fultz

That is a lot of draft capital and not a whole lot to show for it.  They tanked miserably to get all those picks.

It is early but Edgecombe looks legit as well.  Yeah there were some stinky one during that era With Elton Brand. 

But can you say that about  Daryl Morey era.

All teams/GMs have good and bad draft eras, most not as bad as that PHI run.  That isn't my point.  My point is that if you decide to tank by selling off good players for draft picks, that is no guarantee you will get better.  At best, you are like OKC, and you draft well, and get really lucky to trade for a future MVP, and even for them it took 6 years.  At worst, you are PHI and after 8 or so years of it, you still aren't that good.

Hopefully, BOS would never draft and trade as bad as PHI, but there is no guarantee that you will be the next OKC.  Unless you can tell me who the next MVP-to-be is so that BOS can trade for him.

at best you are the Spurs who drafted Duncan and immediately became a championship contender and remained one for 20 years.

Boston had another team tank for them, but without Brown and Tatum, Boston doesn't win the title nor remain a Finals contender for 10 years.  And remember Ainge traded another top 10 pick for Kyrie. Had Boston kept that pick, I don't think they take Sexton, not sure they take SGA, but Bridges seemed like an Ainge type pick.  Boston needed high draft picks over multiple drafts to be a contender, they just used another team's picks to do it. 

Teams tank because tanking works. That is why the lottery was implemented, you know, to lesson the advantage of tanking.

[Larry for 3]

Maxey turned out to be a good pick, but that is not what I was referring to.  I was more referring to their tanking era picks:

2014   #3   Embiid
2014  #11  Elfrid Payton
2015   #3   Okafor
2016   #1   Simmons
2017   #1   Fultz

That is a lot of draft capital and not a whole lot to show for it.  They tanked miserably to get all those picks.

It is early but Edgecombe looks legit as well.  Yeah there were some stinky one during that era With Elton Brand. 

But can you say that about  Daryl Morey era.

All teams/GMs have good and bad draft eras, most not as bad as that PHI run.  That isn't my point.  My point is that if you decide to tank by selling off good players for draft picks, that is no guarantee you will get better.  At best, you are like OKC, and you draft well, and get really lucky to trade for a future MVP, and even for them it took 6 years.  At worst, you are PHI and after 8 or so years of it, you still aren't that good.

Hopefully, BOS would never draft and trade as bad as PHI, but there is no guarantee that you will be the next OKC.  Unless you can tell me who the next MVP-to-be is so that BOS can trade for him.

You are missing the most important point. The worst place to be arguably in all of professional sports is in the middle in the NBA. Too good to tank and not good enough to be anything other than first or second round fodder. That is where the Celtics are now. So out of all the options available tanking for more lottery balls is still the best idea. Even with the new odds. And don?t forget Boston has never been a free agent destination. How else would they get better. Trades are hard. Teams can spend a decade in the middle in the NBA. People just forgot around here because it has been so long. This year is the perfect opportunity to get those ping pong balls.

[Who]

Maxey turned out to be a good pick, but that is not what I was referring to.  I was more referring to their tanking era picks:

2014   #3   Embiid
2014  #11  Elfrid Payton
2015   #3   Okafor
2016   #1   Simmons
2017   #1   Fultz

That is a lot of draft capital and not a whole lot to show for it.  They tanked miserably to get all those picks.

It is early but Edgecombe looks legit as well.  Yeah there were some stinky one during that era With Elton Brand. 

But can you say that about  Daryl Morey era.

All teams/GMs have good and bad draft eras, most not as bad as that PHI run.  That isn't my point.  My point is that if you decide to tank by selling off good players for draft picks, that is no guarantee you will get better.  At best, you are like OKC, and you draft well, and get really lucky to trade for a future MVP, and even for them it took 6 years.  At worst, you are PHI and after 8 or so years of it, you still aren't that good.

Hopefully, BOS would never draft and trade as bad as PHI, but there is no guarantee that you will be the next OKC.  Unless you can tell me who the next MVP-to-be is so that BOS can trade for him.

You are missing the most important point. The worst place to be arguably in all of professional sports is in the middle in the NBA. Too good to tank and not good enough to be anything other than first or second round fodder. That is where the Celtics are now. So out of all the options available tanking for more lottery balls is still the best idea. Even with the new odds. And don?t forget Boston has never been a free agent destination. How else would they get better. Trades are hard. Teams can spend a decade in the middle in the NBA. People just forgot around here because it has been so long. This year is the perfect opportunity to get those ping pong balls.

It is the worst place if you are stuck there.

Boston are not stuck here. We are here artificially due to Tatum's injury and Stevens refusing to sign any quality big men. They will be a 50+ win team again next season. Regardless of whether they tank or not tank.

[celts55]

This is a play-in team.

That might be optimistic. It?s only two games, but I?m not impressed. Defense and lack of rebounding is killing them. Offensively, they don?t look much better. I love Brown, but he?s more of a robin than a Batman. White is another decent player, but not going to carry the team. Pritchard doesn?t look near as good starting. He?s more of an energy guy off the bench. Not sure if it?s the pressure of starting, but his shooting has been terrible. Add that to having arguably the worst big man rotation in the league, it looks to me like this is a lottery team. Maybe I?m wrong and they will turn it around. I hope I am, but I?m just not seeing it

[Redz]

Maxey turned out to be a good pick, but that is not what I was referring to.  I was more referring to their tanking era picks:

2014   #3   Embiid
2014  #11  Elfrid Payton
2015   #3   Okafor
2016   #1   Simmons
2017   #1   Fultz

That is a lot of draft capital and not a whole lot to show for it.  They tanked miserably to get all those picks.

It is early but Edgecombe looks legit as well.  Yeah there were some stinky one during that era With Elton Brand. 

But can you say that about  Daryl Morey era.

All teams/GMs have good and bad draft eras, most not as bad as that PHI run.  That isn't my point.  My point is that if you decide to tank by selling off good players for draft picks, that is no guarantee you will get better.  At best, you are like OKC, and you draft well, and get really lucky to trade for a future MVP, and even for them it took 6 years.  At worst, you are PHI and after 8 or so years of it, you still aren't that good.

Hopefully, BOS would never draft and trade as bad as PHI, but there is no guarantee that you will be the next OKC.  Unless you can tell me who the next MVP-to-be is so that BOS can trade for him.

You are missing the most important point. The worst place to be arguably in all of professional sports is in the middle in the NBA. Too good to tank and not good enough to be anything other than first or second round fodder. That is where the Celtics are now. So out of all the options available tanking for more lottery balls is still the best idea. Even with the new odds. And don?t forget Boston has never been a free agent destination. How else would they get better. Trades are hard. Teams can spend a decade in the middle in the NBA. People just forgot around here because it has been so long. This year is the perfect opportunity to get those ping pong balls.

It is the worst place if you are stuck there.

Boston are not stuck here. We are here artificially due to Tatum's injury and Stevens refusing to sign any quality big men. They will be a 50+ win team again next season. Regardless of whether they tank or not tank.

Yeh.  The injury tank is a whole different animal.  Look at San Antonio as the shining example of a franchise that has had rapid reloads via injury tanks. Though there?s rarely a Wemby or Duncan at the end of the rainbow (or any guarantee of landing the top pick after a year of horrible basketball - and the Celtics history in the lottery has been pretty unlucky).

[Phantom255x]

This is a play-in team.

I don't see it personally

I predicted 9-10 seed for them but so far I see a team that just looks disjointed and at times are getting outgunned badly in stretches, enough for them to basically be "out" of a game (the Philly 4th quarter + Knicks 2nd quarter yesterday) even if the rest of the game is mostly even

I don't even think the Knicks played well at all yesterday and they won comfortably by 10 points. Now yes, the C's probably blew the Sixers game on their own and should have won that, but this year there also aren't too many "dreg" teams. Maybe 5 of them (Washington, Utah, New Orleans, Charlotte, Brooklyn). Even some of the other "next tier" like Portland, Chicago, Sacramento, Toronto, etc. can give the C's a fight and the C's might honestly be at their level too this year.

[libermaniac]

This is a play-in team.

That might be optimistic. It?s only two games, but I?m not impressed. Defense and lack of rebounding is killing them. Offensively, they don?t look much better. I love Brown, but he?s more of a robin than a Batman. White is another decent player, but not going to carry the team. Pritchard doesn?t look near as good starting. He?s more of an energy guy off the bench. Not sure if it?s the pressure of starting, but his shooting has been terrible. Add that to having arguably the worst big man rotation in the league, it looks to me like this is a lottery team. Maybe I?m wrong and they will turn it around. I hope I am, but I?m just not seeing it

You don?t look wrong to me. They look like a high lotto team to me - and I?m ok with that, as long as Hugo gets lots of run. Have to have something to root for. The Celtics are about championships. This years team has no chance of winning it all, so no harm in rooting for the tank. There are some serious assets at the top of the draft that could help this team win number 19 and beyond.

[Who]

So I have 9 of the top 12 teams in the league in the Western Conference.

West = OKC, DEN, GSW, LAL, MIN, LAC, HOU, DAL
East = CLE, ORL, NYK

That leaves only 1 play-in spot in the West that will be open. I did Memphis were the team most likely to win it but now I am thinking Portland. Then there is New Orleans and Sacramento. Only 2 truly terrible teams in the West and that is Utah & Phoenix.

Likewise, in the East there are 2 truly terrible teams in Brooklyn and Washington. All the other teams have a shot at making the play-in. It is wide open from 4th place on down to 13th place in East.

I like Milwaukee the best. I expect them to be 4th. Then there are differing degrees of averageness / mediocrity. The slightly above average (ATL, maybe DET), the average (MIA), and the below average (CHA, CHI, TOR). And wherever PHI (wild card), BOS and IND fit into that 9 way fight for 6 playoff / play-in spots.

The odds are still pretty good they end up in the play-in. 6 spots, 9 challengers. 2 out of 3 / 67% chance of making it.

[Phantom255x]

I'll be honest, making the play-in or even the 6 seed does nothing for me. Get in and bow out quickly in the first round, meh.

[Goldstar88]

This is a play-in team.

That might be optimistic. It?s only two games, but I?m not impressed. Defense and lack of rebounding is killing them. Offensively, they don?t look much better. I love Brown, but he?s more of a robin than a Batman. White is another decent player, but not going to carry the team. Pritchard doesn?t look near as good starting. He?s more of an energy guy off the bench. Not sure if it?s the pressure of starting, but his shooting has been terrible. Add that to having arguably the worst big man rotation in the league, it looks to me like this is a lottery team. Maybe I?m wrong and they will turn it around. I hope I am, but I?m just not seeing it

I mean, the 10th best team in the conference makes the play-in. I think that?s reasonable. They aren?t a playoff team, though.

[Silas]

This is a play-in team.

That might be optimistic. It?s only two games, but I?m not impressed. Defense and lack of rebounding is killing them. Offensively, they don?t look much better. I love Brown, but he?s more of a robin than a Batman. White is another decent player, but not going to carry the team. Pritchard doesn?t look near as good starting. He?s more of an energy guy off the bench. Not sure if it?s the pressure of starting, but his shooting has been terrible. Add that to having arguably the worst big man rotation in the league, it looks to me like this is a lottery team. Maybe I?m wrong and they will turn it around. I hope I am, but I?m just not seeing it

I mean, the 10th best team in the conference makes the play-in. I think that?s reasonable. They aren?t a playoff team, though.

35% from 3 in both games instead of averaging 30% and they are 2-0.

[Moranis]

This is a play-in team.

That might be optimistic. It?s only two games, but I?m not impressed. Defense and lack of rebounding is killing them. Offensively, they don?t look much better. I love Brown, but he?s more of a robin than a Batman. White is another decent player, but not going to carry the team. Pritchard doesn?t look near as good starting. He?s more of an energy guy off the bench. Not sure if it?s the pressure of starting, but his shooting has been terrible. Add that to having arguably the worst big man rotation in the league, it looks to me like this is a lottery team. Maybe I?m wrong and they will turn it around. I hope I am, but I?m just not seeing it

I mean, the 10th best team in the conference makes the play-in. I think that?s reasonable. They aren?t a playoff team, though.

35% from 3 in both games instead of averaging 30% and they are 2-0.

the C's shot 34.1% from 3 against the Knicks. They were an awful 25.6% against the Sixers though