Anon GM Admits tanking...is it Ainge (merged)

[Section301]

And even if you finish 0-82, there's still a 75 percent chance you don't get the No. 1 pick.

Yep.  Tanking is still a crapshoot.

[D.o.s.]

If anyone was really interested in figuring out who this GM was, you could probably get a good idea by running a JStylo search against all the suspects' interviews, statements, and such.
 

[Snakehead]

The Suns are a joke.  They have given away good/great players every year for like 6 consecutive years.  They were stacked with players in there primes and they have nothing to show for it.  If any team didn't need to go this route, it's the Suns.

No they weren't.  They had a nice little run, the run ended, they tried to do the fast rebuild and signed a lot of lesser players to contracts they shouldn't have and paid the price for it.  They should have just gone into tank mode when Amare, Nash, and Marion got old rather than doing the stuff they did.

Amare and Marion were never old when they were on the Suns.  Neither were Joe Johnson, Diaw, and Barbosa.

The Suns also have a notoriously cheap owner who ruined some of their chance to contend.  Not worth defending that guy.

[More Banners]

Kinda letting the fans know that some years, when contending isn't in the cards and the pieces aren't there, winning isn't the top objective.

Watching a young team/player and hoping he develops into a piece to pair with the guy drafted next Spring is pretty much what we're doing this year.  Winning is almost incidental to the development of individual players and combinations. 

Why "forget" that this leads to a high draft pick of (hopefully) an impact player?

[Moranis]

The Suns are a joke.  They have given away good/great players every year for like 6 consecutive years.  They were stacked with players in there primes and they have nothing to show for it.  If any team didn't need to go this route, it's the Suns.

No they weren't.  They had a nice little run, the run ended, they tried to do the fast rebuild and signed a lot of lesser players to contracts they shouldn't have and paid the price for it.  They should have just gone into tank mode when Amare, Nash, and Marion got old rather than doing the stuff they did.

Amare and Marion were never old when they were on the Suns.  Neither were Joe Johnson, Diaw, and Barbosa.

The Suns also have a notoriously cheap owner who ruined some of their chance to contend.  Not worth defending that guy.

Amare had 1 good year after he left and would have hamstrung any franchise with his awful contract.  Marion had tailed off dramatically so they moved him for Shaq in one last ditch effort to try and compete with the old guard.  As for Johnson, he wanted #1 money on a team he was the 4th option, hard to justify paying him and because he was restricted they were able to get a fairly nice haul for him (Diaw and 2 firsts which happened to be Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez).  That isn't to say Sarver wasn't a cheapskate.  He was, maybe the worst one in all of sports, but I have time faulting him for those particular moves.

[Fafnir]

Moving Marion for Shaq was a really bad move, moving on from Marion after that season would have been fine. But Kerr fell for wanting to make the team "his" too soon.

Joe Johnson move and other cheapskate related maneuvers made that window far tighter than it needed to be.

[More Banners]

The Suns are a joke.  They have given away good/great players every year for like 6 consecutive years.  They were stacked with players in there primes and they have nothing to show for it.  If any team didn't need to go this route, it's the Suns.

No they weren't.  They had a nice little run, the run ended, they tried to do the fast rebuild and signed a lot of lesser players to contracts they shouldn't have and paid the price for it.  They should have just gone into tank mode when Amare, Nash, and Marion got old rather than doing the stuff they did.

Amare and Marion were never old when they were on the Suns.  Neither were Joe Johnson, Diaw, and Barbosa.

The Suns also have a notoriously cheap owner who ruined some of their chance to contend.  Not worth defending that guy.

Amare had 1 good year after he left and would have hamstrung any franchise with his awful contract.  Marion had tailed off dramatically so they moved him for Shaq in one last ditch effort to try and compete with the old guard.  As for Johnson, he wanted #1 money on a team he was the 4th option, hard to justify paying him and because he was restricted they were able to get a fairly nice haul for him (Diaw and 2 firsts which happened to be Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez).  That isn't to say Sarver wasn't a cheapskate.  He was, maybe the worst one in all of sports, but I have time faulting him for those particular moves.

With Amare's injury and Marion moving on (agree on that), JJ would've moved up to 1st-2nd option pretty quickly, but with a good support squad around him of somewhat diminished players (Amare, Marion, and later Nash).  If they'd have paid him, and the tax, for the short term, they'd probably have been better off.  They could've been the Pistons of the West, solid, deep, and a conference contender every year.

[Endless Paradise]

Meh, not a surprise in the least.  Stern has certainly been aware of tank jobs in the past, so I don't see why he'd flip out over this.  He's only the commissioner for another few months, anyway.

[Snakehead]

The Suns are a joke.  They have given away good/great players every year for like 6 consecutive years.  They were stacked with players in there primes and they have nothing to show for it.  If any team didn't need to go this route, it's the Suns.

No they weren't.  They had a nice little run, the run ended, they tried to do the fast rebuild and signed a lot of lesser players to contracts they shouldn't have and paid the price for it.  They should have just gone into tank mode when Amare, Nash, and Marion got old rather than doing the stuff they did.

Amare and Marion were never old when they were on the Suns.  Neither were Joe Johnson, Diaw, and Barbosa.

The Suns also have a notoriously cheap owner who ruined some of their chance to contend.  Not worth defending that guy.

Amare had 1 good year after he left and would have hamstrung any franchise with his awful contract.  Marion had tailed off dramatically so they moved him for Shaq in one last ditch effort to try and compete with the old guard.  As for Johnson, he wanted #1 money on a team he was the 4th option, hard to justify paying him and because he was restricted they were able to get a fairly nice haul for him (Diaw and 2 firsts which happened to be Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez).  That isn't to say Sarver wasn't a cheapskate.  He was, maybe the worst one in all of sports, but I have time faulting him for those particular moves.

With Amare's injury and Marion moving on (agree on that), JJ would've moved up to 1st-2nd option pretty quickly, but with a good support squad around him of somewhat diminished players (Amare, Marion, and later Nash).  If they'd have paid him, and the tax, for the short term, they'd probably have been better off.  They could've been the Pistons of the West, solid, deep, and a conference contender every year.

Exactly.

Joe Johnson move was not defensible.  If you're contender, you want Joe Johnson as your 2nd option.  You have to pay him but he's worth it and that's a strong team.

[pearljammer10]

My only question is how long with this "Anonymous GM" remain "Anonymous" before the reporter gives up his name to the league for a nice payday, which the league will then make up by fining the jewels off the said GM.

[furball]

And even if you finish 0-82, there's still a 75 percent chance you don't get the No. 1 pick.

Yep.  Tanking is still a crapshoot.

Yeah but this year it's not all about the Number 1 pick.  Top five will make it worth it for tanking teams.  Hence all the tanking. 

[SHAQATTACK]

DA is not that dumb .

It sounds like a GM with more of an axe to grind .

Magic have tons of new good talent,   But no. Superstar to lead. Or compete with ,    Every time they load up and fail , lose their assets to a big market .

He is right though ,  many of the teams have no.  STAR Appeal to lure the Lebrons to their city....

What else are going to do but tank.  ,  or be bad with no chance forever.

Problem I see is if they can't keep the player locked in city long enough to build. Team,   Then tanking isn't going to help anyway.......the great ones migrate together on a few select teams.

Lakers don 't have to tank......they just pick and choose , Howard being the exception who thumbed his nose at them.

[Galeto]

My only question is how long with this "Anonymous GM" remain "Anonymous" before the reporter gives up his name to the league for a nice payday, which the league will then make up by fining the jewels off the said GM.

So Jeff Good man is going to give up his credibility with future sources for a "nice payday?"  And the NBA is going to pay for sources?  Yeah, not going to happen.

[Snakehead]

My only question is how long with this "Anonymous GM" remain "Anonymous" before the reporter gives up his name to the league for a nice payday, which the league will then make up by fining the jewels off the said GM.

A journalist won't be bribed to give up this info.

[More Banners]

The Suns are a joke.  They have given away good/great players every year for like 6 consecutive years.  They were stacked with players in there primes and they have nothing to show for it.  If any team didn't need to go this route, it's the Suns.

No they weren't.  They had a nice little run, the run ended, they tried to do the fast rebuild and signed a lot of lesser players to contracts they shouldn't have and paid the price for it.  They should have just gone into tank mode when Amare, Nash, and Marion got old rather than doing the stuff they did.

Amare and Marion were never old when they were on the Suns.  Neither were Joe Johnson, Diaw, and Barbosa.

The Suns also have a notoriously cheap owner who ruined some of their chance to contend.  Not worth defending that guy.

Amare had 1 good year after he left and would have hamstrung any franchise with his awful contract.  Marion had tailed off dramatically so they moved him for Shaq in one last ditch effort to try and compete with the old guard.  As for Johnson, he wanted #1 money on a team he was the 4th option, hard to justify paying him and because he was restricted they were able to get a fairly nice haul for him (Diaw and 2 firsts which happened to be Rajon Rondo and Robin Lopez).  That isn't to say Sarver wasn't a cheapskate.  He was, maybe the worst one in all of sports, but I have time faulting him for those particular moves.

With Amare's injury and Marion moving on (agree on that), JJ would've moved up to 1st-2nd option pretty quickly, but with a good support squad around him of somewhat diminished players (Amare, Marion, and later Nash).  If they'd have paid him, and the tax, for the short term, they'd probably have been better off.  They could've been the Pistons of the West, solid, deep, and a conference contender every year.

Exactly.

Joe Johnson move was not defensible.  If you're contender, you want Joe Johnson as your 2nd option.  You have to pay him but he's worth it and that's a strong team.

Yeah.  Their misjudgment was probably that the guys ahead of him would stay ahead of him.  They didn't for long in their careers.