Do people really expect us to tank again for a top 5 pick this season???

[Evantime34]

If we keep Rondo I think we compete for a playoff spot. If we deal him I think we force feed young players minutes which leaves us in the lottery, it won't be purposeful tanking but it won't competing either.

[BudweiserCeltic]

If we keep Rondo I think we compete for a playoff spot. If we deal him I think we force feed young players minutes which leaves us in the lottery, it won't be purposeful tanking but it won't competing either.

"Force feed young players minutes"? <--- that makes no sense since pretty much our whole team is filled with young players.

So Rondo being here or not makes no difference on that regard.

[Jailan34]

If we keep Rondo I think we compete for a playoff spot. If we deal him I think we force feed young players minutes which leaves us in the lottery, it won't be purposeful tanking but it won't competing either.

"Force feed young players minutes"? <--- that makes no sense since pretty much our whole team is filled with young players.

So Rondo being here or not makes no difference on that regard.

Yes it does. If Rondo were to be traded its not far-fetched to assume Smart would see significantly more floor time.

[Evantime34]

If we keep Rondo I think we compete for a playoff spot. If we deal him I think we force feed young players minutes which leaves us in the lottery, it won't be purposeful tanking but it won't competing either.

"Force feed young players minutes"? <--- that makes no sense since pretty much our whole team is filled with young players.

So Rondo being here or not makes no difference on that regard.

If Rondo is dealt I expect them to also deal green and bass. That means Young gets minutes regardless of his readiness and Ko/Sully play together even though it's defensively untenable.

[GreenWarrior]

Playoff Teams (no particular order)-

Chicago
Cleveland
Miami
Atlanta
Indiana
Toronto
Charlotte
Washington

Barely miss the playoffs-

New York
Brooklyn
Detroit (think they'll be improved under Van Gundy)

Not even close-

Boston
Orlando
Milwaukee
Philadelphia

We won't be tanking, but we simply don't have the talent to make the playoffs. Instead we'll play hard, play our young players, and try to be a scrappy young team with future potential. So in this case, I would prefer to be as bad as possible next season, in hopes of landing a Okafor, Mudiay, Towns, etc.

realistically you are probably right in your prediction but in the east there's always at least 2 or 3 team that don't meet expectations or live up to the hype. hell this past yr. there were many that felt Mil. and Detroit would make the playoffs, no one had Washington being as good as they were and Toronto to me is one of those teams that was just fortunate the east was/is as bad as it is.

the way I see it, every team in the east has a chance at the playoffs. doesn't mean they're all good, just plenty of worse teams around 'em.

i'll go out on a limb and say there will be at least 2 -3 teams again this yr. that don't live up to the hype or 2 - 3 teams that are just better than some of the hyped teams. my bet Indy, Tor., and possibly Chi. if D Rose gets injured again...and i'm thinking he will or won't be the same player.

[D.o.s.]

45 wins this season?

Bold.

[mr. dee]

No need to blatantly tank this year. I say test the waters on how this core of young talents can go. If they made it to the playoffs, even as 8th or 7th seed carried by the young players, I can see Danny making a move closer in contending. If we just barely missed the playoffs, there is also no reason to panic. That is already an improvement from last year

Next year's crop of talent is loaded at center, the position we desperately need.

Missed on Okafor? No worries, there is Karl Towns
Missed on Towns? No worries, there is Myles Turner
Missed on Turner? No worries, there are still centers left:

Willie Caulie Stein
Kristaps Porzingis
Dakari Johnson
Kaleb Tarczewski
Frank Kaminsky
Illmani Diop
AJ Hammons


Imagine if Stein developed in to a Tyson Chandler. Our lineup would be:

Rondo/Smart
Bradley/Smart
Green/Young
Sully/KO
Caulie Stein

That's one hell of a defensive team. You got elite perimeter defenders in Bradley, Smart and Rondo. Green is also a good defender then Caulie Stein manning the paint. Opponents will have hard time scoring the baskets in any side of the court.

[Cman]

We're obviously not a playoff contender, so there's not much incentive to be good right now.  Developing the kids should be the top priority this season, even if that leads to a lot of losses.  If that's Danny's perspective, I'm fine with it.  If he's thinking about the long-term success of the franchise instead of pretending that we're going to win a title this season, that just makes him a reasonable person. 

Do you call that "tanking" or common sense?

Reality.

[Rondo9]

Sorry guys, but I'm not rooting for this team to tank next season.

[Beat LA]

As constituted, do I think we sniff the play-offs? No.
If we have little chance at the play-offs, would you rather see us finish with the worst odds of winning the lottery, or the best odds of winning the lottery?  The best, obviously.

That does not make me a troll. That makes me patient. 

I do understand the need to want to compete every year and try to improve as much as possible.  But the way the rules are set up, where it is exceedingly difficult to improve your lot through free agency or trades, the draft is the only viable option.  We can criticize teams like Philly and Milwaukee all day until the cows come home, but the reality is that they have set themselves up very nicely with young talent.  I like their futures a lot more than ours right now.  And since our present state is poor, the future is all we have to look forward to.

I agree with you on everything until you said PHI and Bucks have better future right now. MIL is set up nicely but PHI could have spent 2 lottery picks on guys that will never play. The Celtics truly have long term health because of our picks. The Brooklyn picks are most likely in the lottery. I think after 2016 we will be in a world of a better position. I actually can't wait to be apart for the ride. Most people hate not making the playoffs but I love the process of making a championship team and I LOVE player development.

Same here.  The only thing that irks me is when a coach stops playing a young guy because he made a mistake.  Without consistent minutes, it's very difficult to develop guys, imo, because that type of stuff has the ability to weigh on a players' mind.  Next thing you know, they're playing scared and thinking too much, by which point everyone deduces that he sucks, and then  he blossoms elsewhere because we were too impatient with him.  I think it really takes 2-3 years before you can truly form an objective picture of how good or bad a player is, anyway.  This takes time.  Some guys will shine right away, others might not, but there are also plenty of guys who show flashes of their potential over the course of their rookie campaign (Joe Johnson comes to mind).  Do not trade them!  Look at Lance Stephenson - he didn't get consistent minutes until his 3rd year, but he had shown flashes of his potential during his first 2 seasons, in addition to his play in the summer league as a rookie.  We must have patience - otherwise, this could take even longer.

[Beat LA]

No need to blatantly tank this year. I say test the waters on how this core of young talents can go. If they made it to the playoffs, even as 8th or 7th seed carried by the young players, I can see Danny making a move closer in contending. If we just barely missed the playoffs, there is also no reason to panic. That is already an improvement from last year

Next year's crop of talent is loaded at center, the position we desperately need.

Missed on Okafor? No worries, there is Karl Towns
Missed on Towns? No worries, there is Myles Turner
Missed on Turner? No worries, there are still centers left:

Willie Caulie Stein
Kristaps Porzingis
Dakari Johnson
Kaleb Tarczewski
Frank Kaminsky
Illmani Diop
AJ Hammons


Imagine if Stein developed in to a Tyson Chandler. Our lineup would be:

Rondo/Smart
Bradley/Smart
Green/Young
Sully/KO
Caulie Stein

That's one hell of a defensive team. You got elite perimeter defenders in Bradley, Smart and Rondo. Green is also a good defender then Caulie Stein manning the paint. Opponents will have hard time scoring the baskets in any side of the court.

When I brought up AJ Hammons this year, I was told that he just wasn't an NBA player.  Has something changed?

[mr. dee]

No need to blatantly tank this year. I say test the waters on how this core of young talents can go. If they made it to the playoffs, even as 8th or 7th seed carried by the young players, I can see Danny making a move closer in contending. If we just barely missed the playoffs, there is also no reason to panic. That is already an improvement from last year

Next year's crop of talent is loaded at center, the position we desperately need.

Missed on Okafor? No worries, there is Karl Towns
Missed on Towns? No worries, there is Myles Turner
Missed on Turner? No worries, there are still centers left:

Willie Caulie Stein
Kristaps Porzingis
Dakari Johnson
Kaleb Tarczewski
Frank Kaminsky
Illmani Diop
AJ Hammons


Imagine if Stein developed in to a Tyson Chandler. Our lineup would be:

Rondo/Smart
Bradley/Smart
Green/Young
Sully/KO
Caulie Stein

That's one hell of a defensive team. You got elite perimeter defenders in Bradley, Smart and Rondo. Green is also a good defender then Caulie Stein manning the paint. Opponents will have hard time scoring the baskets in any side of the court.

When I brought up AJ Hammons this year, I was told that he just wasn't an NBA player.  Has something changed?

I read somewhere that he is quickly developing his game. I'm not sure if that is true though. But we will see his and other center's development next year. He could be a Mark Blount or he could be something good.

[Mencius]

And another thing about those centers coming out next year...

It's kind of unreal that Cauley-Stein, Karl Towns, and Dakari Johnson are all on one team.  Three centers that could all be top 15 from one school.  Amazing.  Kentucky should be monstrous what with all their other returnees and their usual bevy of freshman All-Americans.

[slamtheking]

don't think of it as tanking.  think of it as being naturally lacking in talent. 

The current roster is bad enough to have one of the 5 worst records in the league.  quite possibly worst 3. 

next year they'll have another top pick and a lot more room under the cap with expiring deals. 

this year will be a development year.  next year will be the one where Danny makes the big moves

[TheWatersEdge]

I don't see us as having anything but an even more unproven and worse roster this year, and much of the eastern bottom dwellers have improved from the draft.  With Smart- we have arguably added our 3 or 4th best overall player, yet we have lost Humphries, Bayless and Bass will be next.  No way do we finish much different in the standings then last year.