SOUL wrote:OrlandO wrote:Well it was 6 wins near the end... if we wanted to tank we probably could and would have lost more than 3 of those. I think the extra wins are more for the players than the fans. Fans can look to the lottery when a season goes sour... players don't do that. It was a tough season for them, but they can say ok, we won 10 more games than last season... we improved at a larger rate than the previous seasons and we're almost where we need to be. It sounds cliche, but I think it's something for them to build on. The 8th seed needed 44 wins this season... that sounds a lot more doable for a team coming off a 35 win season than a 30 win season.
I don't think I'd be happier with giving up the run to close the season for better draft positioning. Not this time. January was devastating and the trend wasn't improving in late March... felt pretty hopeless for next season and I think that would have only been magnified if we continued to go on a losing spree.
No, I totally understand from the players perspective and like I said I was happy to see them be rewarded for putting in the work. I'm just challenging the thought of it "washing away the stink" or it makes us "turn the corner" -- when in reality, the end of the season is when a lot of teams are looking forward to the summer. I don't think it has any sort of bearing on free agency or how the team will do next year.
I read a lot of forums on here and 99% of the time a team starts winning at the end, the fanbase is pretty annoyed after the draft because they look at the draft and who they could've got if they didn't win (x) amount of games at the end.
I don't think it's that huge of a deal this draft because I think we will either trade the pick or pick from about 5 candidates around that range, but if we had more on the line I don't understand the argument. From the players perspective, absolutely. But from the fans perspective it's hard for me to understand people trying to correlate "end of the season winning culture" to anything in the future.
I mean, hell on these forums alone when we made the playoffs I've heard people skeptical of us winning too much at the end of the season before the playoffs or even losing too much before the playoffs, and both times people justify it and give the reason why it's good or not. It's really just a game by game basis.
I disagree that it can't have an impact on free agency or team performance at all next year.
I think most free agents would value the extra wins more than moving up in the draft in the range we're talking about. Might not add much more value, but it's still something to strengthen the sales pitch... every bit counts in our case. Who knows, maybe Millsap would have signed with us last summer if we were a 35-win team?
Falling too far below expectations can also lead to changes in staff or the roster that otherwise wouldn't happen - stuff that can alter a team's future. Change is fine and it can even be great, but I don't think too many here want us making decisions out of desperation. A 30 win season could have got henny fired... or Elfrid or another young prospect prematurely traded.
And I do think continuing to promote a losing culture through tanking year after year can have a negative impact on player/team chemistry, and thus performance, for the following year. Even if we manage to land one good free agent we're still going to need everyone buying into team goals if we are to maximize our wins. Might be a hard sell to some players if we're still tanking in year 4 of the rebuild. Keep tanking and it's only a matter of time until some players will want out of the situation, and not all players can perform their best when they're unhappy.
I stopped prioritizing the draft over wins when it became clear we're no longer in that phase of the rebuild. We're in a critical phase right now trying to bridge the gap between being a loser and a winner. Give me the wins. Can't expect to change the culture or even sign good players if the front office/players aren't on the same page and fully committed to winning.
Not saying any of the things I said would have happened if we only won 30 games instead of 35 games, just pointing out that it might not be as simple as giving up some wins for slightly better draft positioning... there can be negative consequences.
