What do Pro Tankers want?

[acieEarl]

I'll admit I'm caught in the middle of "To tank or not to Tank". I'm usually on the pro tank boat. Cs have got nothing but bad luck with the lottery so I don't mind seeing them win. What I do like is seeing Smart and Young finally get some good minutes, win or lose.

I wouldn't mind seeing them drop to the 5th spot. I don't see us dropping past 5 as the bottom four, NY,Philly, Minn, and LA are just fighting to be terrible. Drafting at 5 would put us in a good spot with some options.

[nickagneta]

Sometimes management can make moves to tank and no matter what they do the team still wins. Does anyone really believe that management in Philadelphia thought they would have 11 wins right now and not be the worst team in the league? Do you really think that after Ainge traded Rondo and Green and others and replaced them with little to nothing that he thought the team would win 5 of ten?

You can't have coaches and players try to lose on purpose. You can manipulate the roster so that the coach has as little to work with as possible. That's what Ainge has done. Bass and Prince and Thornton aren't winning us any games. Its the collective effort of the entire team that is and that is on Stevens.

This team is tanking about as well as possible right now and happen to be winning with great efforts from their youth across the board. When that happens all you can do is live with wherever the Celtics end up and hope they win the lottery.

[Mr October]

I'm in favor of tanking for a pick (on the roster / management level). But I am happy with where things are. The Celtics should continue to play hard. Griping about Thornton, Bass and Prince isn't going to get anywhere. They are bench role players, 8th men.

If our young guys and these 8th men vets are beating up other bad teams, that just goes to show how terrible those other teams are in the end. The Nuggets, Knicks, Magic, Lakers, etc are an absolute mess.

However I must agree with Chambers, it is hard to get too excited about beating bad teams, or beating good teams who are injury riddled at the moment. When our Celts beat some good healthy teams, wake me up.

And I agree with Nick. Where ever we land in the lottery, it is a crap shoot, and all we can do is hope for the best. Griping about each loss is kind of a waste of time.

[Quetzalcoatl]

I'm protank I guess, here are my thoughts:

1.) I don't really mind where we draft as long as we get a top 12 pick.   If we just miss the playoffs, that's probably fine

2.) After the top 12, we're looking at players like Frank Kaminisky (ew), Montrezl Harrell (6'8" Center), Sam Dekker (no thanks) or Devin Booker (meh). 

3.) I think Marcus looks good, but I really am hoping his offense comes into form.  If his offense starts to look good and he can average 12ppg in the games after the all-star break, I guess I'd be ok with making the playoffs as long as we plays well.

4.) Worst case scenario is that Marcus & Young don't develop or get injured, then we make the playoffs anyway with Tayshaun/Bass/Nelson/Thorton/Turner/Zeller/Wallace/Crowder/Pressey/Dawkins/Bradley and most of those players leave the team next year.  Our pick is like 15th and we get one of the guys I listed in point 2, who fails out of the NBA after a season. 

[Mr October]

Yeah, if the Celtics land a pick outside of that top 12, I will be bummed out. There is a cliff drop in talent there, from possible starter to complementary role player.

I don't want to watch this particular Celtics team get slammed by the Hawks in round 1.

[tazzmaniac]

Yeah, if the Celtics land a pick outside of that top 12, I will be bummed out. There is a cliff drop in talent there, from possible starter to complementary role player.

I don't want to watch this particualar Celtics team get slammed by the Hawks in round 1.

Top 12?  Our tanking standards sure have fallen.  I'll be depressed if we don't get a top 8. 

Our getting slammed in the 1st round would be a double gut shot.  It would most likely mean the Nets are out of the playoffs and the Hawks would get a lottery pick while we wouldn't.  Its possible their 1st from the Nets could end up being better than any of the 1sts we get from the Nets.   

[Mr October]

Yeah, if the Celtics land a pick outside of that top 12, I will be bummed out. There is a cliff drop in talent there, from possible starter to complementary role player.

I don't want to watch this particualar Celtics team get slammed by the Hawks in round 1.

Top 12?  Our tanking standards sure have fallen.  I'll be depressed if we don't get a top 8. 

Our getting slammed in the 1st round would be a double gut shot.  It would most likely mean the Nets are out of the playoffs and the Hawks would get a lottery pick while we wouldn't.  Its possible their 1st from the Nets could end up being better than any of the 1sts we get from the Nets.

My preference is to absolutely land in the top 8 picks. But I can live with top 12.

I'm just not setting my hopes for the top 3. The odds are against us there no matter what.

[Eja117]

Pro tankers want the top pick in the draft. They might be too young to remember the Duncan draft and the Joe Johnson one and the Oden one and the Toine one and the most recent one doesn't discourage them.

[jonaslopes]

Pro tankers want the top pick in the draft. They might be too young to remember the Duncan draft and the Joe Johnson one and the Oden one and the Toine one and the most recent one doesn't discourage them.

Exactly, TP!

[Quetzalcoatl]

Pro tankers want the top pick in the draft. They might be too young to remember the Duncan draft and the Joe Johnson one and the Oden one and the Toine one and the most recent one doesn't discourage them.

Both sides are too caught up in Gambler's Fallacy.  Just because we haven't won the lottery in the past doesn't mean we're "cursed" and can't win in the future, just as us not winning in the past doesn't make us "due" for a good pick. 

[tazzmaniac]

Pro tankers want the top pick in the draft. They might be too young to remember the Duncan draft and the Joe Johnson one and the Oden one and the Toine one and the most recent one doesn't discourage them.

Who doesn't want the top pick?  It is the only way to guarantee we have a chance to draft the best player in the draft.  It is also an extremely good trading chip.  Its going to be really depressing if the Lakers get the top pick and they flip it for Cousins. 

[chambers]

Pro tankers want the top pick in the draft. They might be too young to remember the Duncan draft and the Joe Johnson one and the Oden one and the Toine one and the most recent one doesn't discourage them.

No, we actually remember the 2007 draft when we traded our guaranteed top 5 pick for Ray Allen which convinced Kevin Garnett to come here.
Do the Sonics take that pick if it's #7 or #8 ? I doubt it.

I remember the Duncan draft, I also look at the list of NBA champions for the last 15 years and see Duncan on there 5 times with 6 finals appearances next to Dwayne Wade with 3 championships and 4 finals appearances.

If Oden's knees were okay it's arguable that he would've been better than Shaq because he could shoot free throws.

Injuries can happen to anyone regardless of pick.

[chambers]

Yeah, if the Celtics land a pick outside of that top 12, I will be bummed out. There is a cliff drop in talent there, from possible starter to complementary role player.

I don't want to watch this particular Celtics team get slammed by the Hawks in round 1.

Chris Mannix was calling the game with Mike Gorman vs the Knicks the other night and he said that the GM's he'd spoken to thought there was a talent drop off in this draft after the top 5.

[Alleyoopster]

Yeah, if the Celtics land a pick outside of that top 12, I will be bummed out. There is a cliff drop in talent there, from possible starter to complementary role player.

I don't want to watch this particualar Celtics team get slammed by the Hawks in round 1.

Top 12?  Our tanking standards sure have fallen.  I'll be depressed if we don't get a top 8. 

Our getting slammed in the 1st round would be a double gut shot.  It would most likely mean the Nets are out of the playoffs and the Hawks would get a lottery pick while we wouldn't.  Its possible their 1st from the Nets could end up being better than any of the 1sts we get from the Nets.

My preference is to absolutely land in the top 8 picks. But I can live with top 12.

I'm just not setting my hopes for the top 3. The odds are against us there no matter what.

What the Celtics need is a top 3 pick (possibly up to 5) in the  draft. Six through 12 isn't going to help much.  And, top 3 isn't going to happen the way this team is playing.

I think the biggest drop off starts at 3 or 4.  My guess is that if the Celtics get to pick from 7-12 Danny might trade that pick along with a promised number 1 to move up 2 or more spots.  Presuming of course there is a player in the draft that Danny covets at that spot. 
 

[tazzmaniac]

Pro tankers want the top pick in the draft. They might be too young to remember the Duncan draft and the Joe Johnson one and the Oden one and the Toine one and the most recent one doesn't discourage them.

No, we actually remember the 2007 draft when we traded our guaranteed top 5 pick for Ray Allen which convinced Kevin Garnett to come here.

I remember the Duncan draft, I also look at the list of NBA champions for the last 15 years and see Duncan on there 5 times with 6 finals appearances.

If Oden's knees were okay it's arguable that he would've been better than Shaq because he could shoot free throws.

Injuries can happen to anyone regardless of pick.

If we had gotten the top pick in 2007, Ainge might have taken Oden or he might have gone with Durant or he might have used it as a much better trade chip than the #5 pick.