Finally At Peace With Not Tanking

[coco]

After a week of self searching about the tanking vs not tanking philosophy I am finally at peace with not tanking.

To be clear I understood the new direction we were headed.  I was ok with losing tight competitive games, I was ok with a lottery pick, etc...

Then we started winning, and I started to wonder if having a barely playoff team was a situation beneficial to the future of the franchise.

Finally, it came down to this;  I am ok to be an 8th seed as long as our young players are a big part of that.  As opposed to be an 8th seed with a veteran team, giving no playing time to the young.

Yes, watching youngsters like KO, Sully, AB, Fav, JC, Pressy being a big part of our success...

Yeah, I can say I am at peace with not tanking.

[Celtics18]

After a week of self searching about the tanking vs not tanking philosophy I am finally at peace with not tanking.

To be clear I understood the new direction we were headed.  I was ok with losing tight competitive games, I was ok with a lottery pick, etc...

Then we started winning, and I started to wonder if having a barely playoff team was a situation beneficial to the future of the franchise.

Finally, it came down to this;  I am ok to be an 8th seed as long as our young players are a big part of that.  As opposed to be an 8th seed with a veteran team, giving no playing time to the young.

Yes, watching youngsters like KO, Sully, AB, Fav, JC, Pressy being a big part of our success...

Yeah, I can say I am at peace with not tanking.

Welcome!

[Smokeeye123]

I'm still not, I dont want to be the Timberwolves or the Trailblazers, or Grizzlies for the next 10 years I want to tank and get it over with.

[LooseCannon]

I'm still not, I dont want to be the Timberwolves or the Trailblazers, or Grizzlies for the next 10 years I want to tank and get it over with.

You don't have to hit rock bottom as part of rebuilding.

[coco]

I'm still not, I dont want to be the Timberwolves or the Trailblazers, or Grizzlies for the next 10 years I want to tank and get it over with.

I understand.  But the thing is that we are not giving up on the future if we are playing the future and still have tons of first round picks for the next several years.  Granted we might lose our chance to get a top 5 pick, but who's to say we can't make the cake and eat it too...

[gpap]

I would advise that it's still very early in the season.

Sure, we are all getting caught up in a reactionary way to the excitement of an unlikely 4 game win streak after starting the season 0-4.

But, there's still plenty of basketball left to be played.

Also, it still wouldn't shock me if playing for the lottery was and still is Danny's goal.

In other words, if the team continues to tread water, don't be surprised if Ainge makes a trade in December/January to downgrade the team this season for the "future"....aka, a trade that will cause us to suck bad enough to maybe land in the top 8 of next year's draft.

I don't think we'll truly know til about halfway into the season the direction this team and the franchise is taking.

[Celtics18]

I would advise that it's still very early in the season.

Sure, we are all getting caught up in a reactionary way to the excitement of an unlikely 4 game win streak after starting the season 0-4.

But, there's still plenty of basketball left to be played.

Also, it still wouldn't shock me if playing for the lottery was and still is Danny's goal.

In other words, if the team continues to tread water, don't be surprised if Ainge makes a trade in December/January to downgrade the team this season for the "future"....aka, a trade that will cause us to suck bad enough to maybe land in the top 8 of next year's draft.

Personally, I'm not being reactionary.  I never bought into the tank talk. 

[Mazingerz]

The Good thing about this is that the youngsters are the one performing and not the vets; Seeing them develop and gaining valuable experience is an excellent idea to me;

Seeing KO, Sully, Bradley, Vitor, Crawford (!), Green and Rondo (when he gets back) become a formidable team grow and be beasts in the coming seasons will make Red and us Cs fans giddy with excitement;

I tip my hat to danny and Brad and Ron Adams for this!

[BudweiserCeltic]

Don't know what makes me sadder, fans rooting for a team to tank, or people suddenly finding the need to "be at peace with not tanking".

Just sad to see.

[coco]

I would advise that it's still very early in the season.

Sure, we are all getting caught up in a reactionary way to the excitement of an unlikely 4 game win streak after starting the season 0-4.

But, there's still plenty of basketball left to be played.

Also, it still wouldn't shock me if playing for the lottery was and still is Danny's goal.

In other words, if the team continues to tread water, don't be surprised if Ainge makes a trade in December/January to downgrade the team this season for the "future"....aka, a trade that will cause us to suck bad enough to maybe land in the top 8 of next year's draft.

I don't think we'll truly know til about halfway into the season the direction this team and the franchise is taking.

I think DA is more into player development more than any else.  I think he would make a trade but probably to clear more playing time for the young.  Obviously such a trade might downgrade the talent level.

[gpap]

I would advise that it's still very early in the season.

Sure, we are all getting caught up in a reactionary way to the excitement of an unlikely 4 game win streak after starting the season 0-4.

But, there's still plenty of basketball left to be played.

Also, it still wouldn't shock me if playing for the lottery was and still is Danny's goal.

In other words, if the team continues to tread water, don't be surprised if Ainge makes a trade in December/January to downgrade the team this season for the "future"....aka, a trade that will cause us to suck bad enough to maybe land in the top 8 of next year's draft.

Personally, I'm not being reactionary.  I never bought into the tank talk.

It's certainly not the direction I would take. But who knows whether we are headed for a possible playoff spot or for the ping pong balls.

For me, worse case scenario is ending up with 30 wins and just missing a playoff spot and also being not bad enough for a good draft pick.

We shall see...time will tell.

Regardless of what our record ends up becoming, this season is kinda fun.

I hate to say it but it's almost like if we win...great!!!
We are exceeding expectations.

If we lose, it sucks (at least to you and I) but at least you know the more losses we accumulate, it helps our standing in the draft.

Personally, I prefer the former.

[coco]

Don't know what makes me sadder, fans rooting for a team to tank, or people suddenly finding the need to "be at peace with not tanking".

Just sad to see.

Just saying that playing BB, Bogans, Wallace, Humphries. 30 mins plus to go after an 8th place would have made me mad.  I rather be at the bottom if stock in mediocrity was the plan.

This is different though, the youngsters are the reason we are competing.  I am on board with that, even if we get bounced in 1st round.

[Celtics18]

I would advise that it's still very early in the season.

Sure, we are all getting caught up in a reactionary way to the excitement of an unlikely 4 game win streak after starting the season 0-4.

But, there's still plenty of basketball left to be played.

Also, it still wouldn't shock me if playing for the lottery was and still is Danny's goal.

In other words, if the team continues to tread water, don't be surprised if Ainge makes a trade in December/January to downgrade the team this season for the "future"....aka, a trade that will cause us to suck bad enough to maybe land in the top 8 of next year's draft.

Personally, I'm not being reactionary.  I never bought into the tank talk.

It's certainly not the direction I would take. But who knows whether we are headed for a possible playoff spot or for the ping pong balls.

For me, worse case scenario is ending up with 30 wins and just missing a playoff spot and also being not bad enough for a good draft pick.

We shall see...time will tell.

Regardless of what our record ends up becoming, this season is kinda fun.

I hate to say it but it's almost like if we win...great!!!
We are exceeding expectations.

If we lose, it sucks (at least to you and I) but at least you know the more losses we accumulate, it helps our standing in the draft.

Personally, I prefer the former.

Call me crazy, but I'm rooting for at least 35 wins.  To be honest, I'd rather see thirty-six wins and just missing the playoffs than see a team that wins less than 25 games. 

I feel like we have some good young pieces in place and some other nice assets in the way of upcoming draft picks.  Our salary cap situation isn't dire.  We'll be able to spend money again in the next couple of years, particularly if Wyc and co. can be convinced that it's worth spending it.  They trust Danny, and have shown the willingness to open the pocket book when asked to do so. 

I'd rather see this young team start to build some cohesion together and then build on that, then to see the team cynically continue to dismantle it in an effort to get worse. 

So, I guess that's just a long-winded way of saying, I'm with you; I prefer the former, too.

[billysan]

I am not a tanking fan. That said, I do believe that Danny may have held Rondo out on the injured list longer if we were 0-8 or 2-10 to start the season.

With the current roster, if we continue to play around .500 ball when Rondo is fully recovered and ready, then I think we are in contention for a 7-8 seed playoff birth. He could push us up to 45 wins IMO if we are on pace to win 37-40.

All we need to dispell that notion is an injury or two. I doubt we go through the season unscathed anyway. If that happens and Rondo suddenly gets a little tendonitis then we can make a trade or two and set ourselves in position for a less competitive finish. This being at or below the 30 game level and that should put us in the lottery.

No matter what happens, I will enjoy seeing our young guys play this season.

[Yoki_IsTheName]

With rebuilding comes with loses. Any extra wins that we get is icing on the cake of a rebuild in which the goal is develop young players.

Never bought into tanking, and when I say tanking I mean on purposely trying to lose. I accept that this team is not a championship contender, and at best, we maybe an 8th seed, so whatever loses that come our way, is fine. That's the biggest side effect of rebuilding.

I'm just happy that

a.) they are winning
b.) the young guys are slowly but surely getting better
c.) even though we are losing (during the 1st four games) we're trying hard to win.

I've said it before and I say it again. If we lose, so be it. Let's just not lose because we wanted to.