My Two Year Plan for the Lakers

[Kilroy]

Anyone who proposes to tank is a pussy bitch and insults sports, the lakers, and game of basketball. No player worth 2 cents and with an ounce of pride tries to purposely Lose. And if you want guys to do so then you're a disgrace too, period, point blank

Drunk post? Regardless, dial it back... This kind of over the top reaction just makes you look silly anyway.

Even Magic was talking about tanking. It's not out of the realm of possibility that a team wouldn't do all it could to win for a better draft position...

That said, I think if you put all your hopes and your future on the idea that you need a top 5 pick or even a lottery pick to contend, you're overestimating the draft process.
Drafting for success is a 5 year plan at minimum... More like 8-10.

So it's not an attractive plan to top Free Agents... But if there aren't any real attractive Free Agents out there, why not go for some solid draft picks? But it's less of a gamble to trade for those picks than it is to intentionally suck for a shot at them... Look at Cleveland over the last 5 or so seasons.

The only real reason this is so much of a topic of conversation this season aside from the fact that we suck balls, is that we're potentially giving our pick to Pho if we don't suck bad enough. So it isn't a simple Tanking for picks discussion and people don't deserved to be ridiculed as such.

[kblo247]

Not at all it's an played organized sports post. I stick to being honest there, asking any player to purposely lose is bitch **** and spits in the face of the game. If they willingly try to lose **** them, you can't build with them. You can tell a lot of people who haven't played beyond a park or 2k by the way they say tank which means go out your way and throw games, -and that is some punk ass bitch ****

[Kilroy]

I think it's time to recognize that there is a HUGE difference between professional sports and amature sports, and stop acting like you have any idea what it's like to play in the NBA unless you've at least played sports on a professional level somewhere.... Like it or not, the NBA isn't pure sport. It's just as much theater and is getting more so every year. Lots of decisions are made that effect the outcomes of the games that have nothing to do with the sport of basketball...
Of course a basketball player would never consider loosing a game he could win... But an agent and a marketing team and a Front Office and a League Office might. And at any given moment in the NBA, it's near impossible to tell who has the ultimate say...
Decisions are made all the time that are about the War of long term success over the battle of a single game or group of games...

Look at Pop... He rests his starters all the time to win the War... He and the Great Tim Duncan, essentially tank for the playoffs.

These guys have their blinders off about the game long before they get to the pros. It's probably time for the fans to as well.

That's what makes guys like Kobe, MJ, Bird, etc so great to watch, because they only care about one thing, and that's winning games and championships... But they're a relatively small minority at this point unfortunately...

When the best player in the league says his primary goal is to be the first Billionaire in Basketball... You might get the idea that winning every game isn't that high a priority for these guys.

[kblo247]

Pops team always compete when he rests someone. He doesn't tell anyone purposely lose. Hell the lakers aren't purposely trying to lose now. Hell phil would rest starters late but still try to win toward the end of seasons.

The definition of tank is go out your way to lose. Anyone who says lets tank is disrespecting the sport in general. I hate he losses but I'm okay with trying to win like last year. People bitched when young refused to lose and won the Utah game, and that was bs in itself if they expected him to try and lose. That's where the line is drawn, competing but still losing vs going out your way to lose like Phili or the Bobcats for years.

No one who has ever played sports at any organized competion level is okay with the word tank; you obviously haven't so can't grasp the difference.

Rebuilding and retooling is always a debate. At some point you are going to be bad, but not purposely if you have any self dignity, and likewise even when you're bad, you won't just fold in and say lets throw some games for ping pong balls. Why would you want any player who is good with trying to lose?

[Kilroy]

I've played plenty of sports at an organized competitive level, including basketball... But since you're the expert, how many times are you in a position to improve your team or record in some way, by loosing a game or two? What about playoff seeding etc?
The answer is, not very often until you get to the pinnacle of your sport... There's no draft in College sports... You aren't going to improve your team next year by loosing this year... The concept of tanking doesn't even exist except for certain playoff scenarios, and doesn't exist at all in many sports. You need a draft tied to a loosing record, which is actually not that common in sport.

Beyond that, it's semantics, and degrees... Point is, people might look at the Lakers now and say they're tanking, and there's lots of people who say we're tanking after every loss... Or every decision the coach or FO makes, they don't agree with...

I don't know if there are any teams in the league that purposely try to loose games. There are a few that don't do everything they can to win. Depending on how you look at it, the Lakers could be one of those teams.

I don't think we are... But there's no reason to go off on someone for suggesting we might... Who knows what happens after the all star break.

[TonyMontana]

O.Ps first post on realgm/lakers board and its a page long essay about tanking and being irrelevant for the next 4+ years.

What happened to the old days of "Hi Im a Laker fan and Im new to this board"?

[andyhop]

Pops team always compete when he rests someone. He doesn't tell anyone purposely lose. Hell the lakers aren't purposely trying to lose now. Hell phil would rest starters late but still try to win toward the end of seasons.

?

The Spurs tanked the end of the season to get Duncan, they are literally the poster boy of why you should tank