Ford: 7 teams prepared to tank for wiggins

[slamtheking]

And right now if all the rosters stay the same this is my predictions of top 5 worst teams:

1. Orlando
2. Milwaukee
3. Charlotte
4. Philadelphia
5. Toronto

Now things can change if Gay is traded and Josh Smith is gone..

How the heck is Milwaukee all the way at #2 when they're committed to staying a middling team? They're bringing back Jennings, looking to add a wing shooter, and still have Ilyasova, Sanders, and a quickly emerging Henson. That is a playoff team in the East.

For me, as the rosters currently stand:

1. Philadelphia
2. Charlotte
3. Phoenix
4. Cleveland
5. Orlando
6. Boston

Thanks to all the other borderline bad teams looking to overspend (Minnesota, Sacramento, New Orleans, Detroit), I'm liking our chances even with Rondo on the roster. Also, I think it's awesome how only one Western conference team is slated to be one of the worst teams in the league next year.

I disagree with Cleveland.  if Kyrie is healthy (as well as AV) and the rest of the youth develops, that's a playoff team.

Also, i some of Orlando's youth make improvements this year, they should be better than us as well.

Charlotte and Phoenix are truly terrible teams.  Philly could go either way depending on their youth and what they do with Bynum.

[PhoSita]

The competition is fierce.  It'll be a tough battle with a bunch of proud teams scratching, clawing, and fighting to see who can be worst.

I love it.  This is what the spirit of sport is all about.

I can't wait until some match in January between the Magic and the Raptors when some poor young guy hits a game winning shot and his own crowd groans in disappointment and openly boos him.

[Celtics18]

The competition is fierce.  It'll be a tough battle with a bunch of proud teams scratching, clawing, and fighting to see who can be worst.

I love it.  This is what the spirit of sport is all about.

I can't wait until some match in January between the Magic and the Raptors when some poor young guy hits a game winning shot and his own crowd groans in disappointment and openly boos him.

Or, better yet, gives him a raucous, standing ovation for missing it.

[rondoallaturca]

I disagree with Cleveland.  if Kyrie is healthy (as well as AV) and the rest of the youth develops, that's a playoff team.

Also, i some of Orlando's youth make improvements this year, they should be better than us as well.

Charlotte and Phoenix are truly terrible teams.  Philly could go either way depending on their youth and what they do with Bynum.

Even with Kyrie and AV in the first half of last season, they did not look like a playoff team. Also, asking for both of them to stay healthy is a big task to ask for. Barring a big move, even if the team makes significant strides this year, I still see them on the outside looking in as a 9/10 seed. More realistically though, they're still a bottom 5 talent. I'm not complaining if you're right though; that moves Boston up into the bottom 5!

Orlando definitely has a lot of promising young talent, but last March and April, they went 4-20, or .167. Unless Tobias Harris suddenly becomes Carmelo or Vucevic suddenly turns into Dwight, they're not making an improvement drastic enough to the point where they're anything but a .200s team.

Philly has already signed off on Bynum. They just traded Holiday away for two rookies and a 2014 draft pick. There's no argument they're already tanking before the season has even begun.

[Celtics18]

The competition is fierce.  It'll be a tough battle with a bunch of proud teams scratching, clawing, and fighting to see who can be worst.

I love it.  This is what the spirit of sport is all about.

I can't wait until some match in January between the Magic and the Raptors when some poor young guy hits a game winning shot and his own crowd groans in disappointment and openly boos him.

Or, better yet, gives him a raucous, standing ovation for missing it.

In all seriousness, though, if it reaches that level of farce--which it might--that could be a good thing in that it could force the league to do something in earnest to attempt to eliminate tanking from the game. 

[Celtics18]

Never mind.

[KGs Knee]

Teams that intentionally tank should be stripped of draft picks.  Its disgraceful.

[vjcsmoke]

Lke I said before, if we did have the worst record, we would get the 4th pick b/c Stern would make sure of it.

Umm haven't you heard?  Stern has been replaced.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/50626/adam-silver-the-nbas-next-commissioner

Well, I know the odds are long to land Wiggins.  But there are some really good consolation prizes in the 2014 draft as well.  So maybe we'll be ok as long as we are in the lottery.  There has GOT to be some karma for missing out on Duncan AND Durant!!

[Nerf DPOY]

The Bucks will still have Larry Sanders, Brandon Jennings, Ilysova and they haven't given up on Ellis yet.  They could totally get the 7th or 8th seed.  There are 5 guaranteed playoff teams next year in the East: 

Miami
New York
Brooklyn
Chicago
Indiana

So we're only worried about getting one of 3 spots.  On top of that, Cleveland and Washington both are going to intentionally win games next year as well.  Detroit is a hair off of making a move for a marquee free agent, which will put them into that third place. Toronto now has Kyle Lowry and Rudy Gay, so they should be better than us too.

In the West, think of this: the 4th worst team last year was the TWolves, who had 31 wins and will be greatly improved next year.  The West just can't compete with the outright horrificness of the East's worst teams.  They just can't.  We can outlose them any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

TP. Agree with everything and I'm nominating the bolded paragraph for best "Cynical **** Take" take of the year.

Edit: I honestly forgot that word was taboo. Whoops! Sorry.

[LarBrd33]

Teams that intentionally tank should be stripped of draft picks.  Its disgraceful.

People misunderstand what "tanking" means.  They don't throw games like the 1919 Black Sox.  It's just that they don't field a competitive team.  Not every team gets to have a LeBron James, a Kevin Durant, a Shaq, KG, Duncan, Hakeem, Jordan, Bird, etc...

The vast majority of the league has little chance of winning a title.  Every single year there are 14 teams who fail to make the playoffs mainly because they don't have the talent to compete.   

It'd be nice if every team could go out and sign a LeBron James clone, but it doesn't work that way.  And teams go through rebuilding processes all the time.  When Pau was traded to LA, Memphis was obviously going to bottom out as a result.  When Chris Paul was traded to LA, the Hornets were obviously going to bottom out.  When Dwight was traded to LA, the Magic were obviously going to bottom out.  When LeBron took his talents to South beach, the Cavs were obviously going to bottom out.   When Boston traded KG and Pierce to the Nets, the Celtics were obviously going to bottom out.

They don't need to throw games... the empty void of quality talent on this team will take care of it for them. 

What ya gonna do... punish teams for not having superstars by taking away their superstar lotto tickets?   How's that gon work?  lol

[PhoSita]

The competition is fierce.  It'll be a tough battle with a bunch of proud teams scratching, clawing, and fighting to see who can be worst.

I love it.  This is what the spirit of sport is all about.

I can't wait until some match in January between the Magic and the Raptors when some poor young guy hits a game winning shot and his own crowd groans in disappointment and openly boos him.

Or, better yet, gives him a raucous, standing ovation for missing it.

In all seriousness, though, if it reaches that level of farce--which it might--that could be a good thing in that it could force the league to do something in earnest to attempt to eliminate tanking from the game.

That's true.

Adam Silver could look to make his mark on the league as the new commissioner by trying to implement some major reforms.

We can hope.

[Celtics18]

Teams that intentionally tank should be stripped of draft picks.  Its disgraceful.

People misunderstand what "tanking" means.  They don't throw games like the 1919 Black Sox.  It's just that they don't field a competitive team.  Not every team gets to have a LeBron James, a Kevin Durant, a Shaq, KG, Duncan, Hakeem, Jordan, Bird, etc...

The vast majority of the league has little chance of winning a title.  Every single year there are 14 teams who fail to make the playoffs mainly because they don't have the talent to compete.   

It'd be nice if every team could go out and sign a LeBron James clone, but it doesn't work that way.  And teams go through rebuilding processes all the time.  When Pau was traded to LA, Memphis was obviously going to bottom out as a result.  When Chris Paul was traded to LA, the Hornets were obviously going to bottom out.  When Dwight was traded to LA, the Magic were obviously going to bottom out.  When LeBron took his talents to South beach, the Cavs were obviously going to bottom out.   When Boston traded KG and Pierce to the Nets, the Celtics were obviously going to bottom out.

They don't need to throw games... the empty void of quality talent on this team will take care of it for them. 

What ya gonna do... punish teams for not having superstars by taking away their superstar lotto tickets?   How's that gon work?  lol

That's all fine and good, but when a majority of fans of a given franchise are actively rooting for their team to lose more games than everybody else, there's something significantly wrong with the system.

[Who]

I think Washington look strong for a playoff spot. Going to be deeper next year with Otto Porter and Eric Maynor on board and hopefully healthier. They should be in good shape.

I have the Cavs down around where Boston currently are. A low to mid 30s win team. I am not a big believer in their youth. A doubter I guess.

I think Toronto have a good shot for a late playoff spot. I am not sure if I am remembering this right but I think they were hovering around .500 after acquiring Rudy Gay. And now Valanciunas is a year older. I think they have a good shot for a low playoff seed next year.

So Miami, Chicago, Brooklyn, Indiana, New York + Washington and Toronto.

Wow, that eight seed is wide open. I suppose that it is between Boston, Milwaukee and Cleveland then. Maybe the Cavs do have a shot at the playoffs.

Then there is Detroit, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Orlando.

[danglertx]

People forget, we couldn't beat a lot of horrible teams last year when everyone was still here and healthy.  Detroit pounded us.  The freaking Bobcats beat us.

I could see this year's team losing all but 3 or 4 road games unless major changes are still coming, which is doubtful.

[PhoSita]

Then there is Detroit, Atlanta, Charlotte, Philadelphia and Orlando.

I wouldn't bet on the Celtics being better than Detroit, Atlanta, or Milwaukee.  Even Orlando could surprise if Oladipo comes in and has a major impact and they see some nice improvement from Harris and Harkless.

Why?

The Celtics don't have a rotation worthy center on their roster.

Meanwhile, those other teams have Al Horford, Andre Drummond / Greg Monroe, Larry Sanders / John Henson, and Nikola Vucevic.

I'm a big believer that the best indicator of regular season success, in the absence of an MVP-caliber player, is how good the team's best big man is, followed by the point guard situation.