No thanks.
This team already bottomed out. Absolutely no interest going there again.
A one year tank when your two best players are injured is no where near the same thing as bottoming out.
Isn't a team with horford, smart, Morris, brown, Tatum still better than the Nets without Lin? The Suns that lost their home opener by 40? Whatever the knicks and bulls are putting out there? It seems like there sure is a chance they could miss the playoffs without Hayward and Irving, but highest pick they could maybe get would be 8, 10? What would the point of that be?
I know Don's was being funny, but 8 is better than 13, both in trade value or as a potential player. If the team loses Irving after already having lost Hayward, what is the point in winning a few extra basically meaningless games? Wouldn't the team also be better served giving guys like Theis, Nader, Semi, and Yabu a lot more experience and playing time making them better players down the line (or figuring out who is worth saving and who is not).
The premise of the thread is if Irving goes down what do you do? As I said, it would depend on when Irving went down, how long he was down for, and what the team's record was before and while out, on what I'd do, but I can certainly see the potential merit in tanking depending on the answers to those questions.