bwgood77 wrote:No, I don't think at all that any players fake injuries. I think what probably happens is, the GM, worried about long term job security, thinks that getting a star in the draft will help him more than finishing with 37 wins instead of 29, and figures out a way to make it more probable to lose games.
The only way to do this without telling coaches and players this, which is counterintuitive because THEIR job security is based on playing well now and winning games. So, for the GM, the only way to do this is to tell the doctor who to approve to play/not play, and no one can argue.
If team doctor says "David Lee, on his examination had ________, and it is probably a good idea for him to sit out to avoid long term injury that could impact his career" What are coach and player going to do? No, I don't have evidence, but something like this is likely what would happen in a tanking situation. They have no choice. At that point Lee and Jackson would likely know what is happening, but they really can't do anything about it.
Lee was playing very hard up to the nine games he missed. The game reports said he was injured during the last game he played. So you have to be implying that he faked that injury, or that you know for a fact that it wasn't serious. But would you risk it, if you knew your team had no chance at making the playoffs? But that is just your opinion of what May have happened, and it leaves a dishonest approach to the team, doctors, and Lee himself.
I've done a ton of research on each game, and looked at all of the injury reports from the games (I had to do this the last time Praz went through this) and found nothing that would support a strategy of tanking, right after they traded Ellis, which would have been when the gm would have had to make that ridiculous thought just to barely make that seventh pick. And they would still have to depend on other teams winning and losing, which they would have zero control over, and then have the odds in their favor at lotto day. Way too many variables to gamble with when you are trying to build a winning culture.
Again, when you guys have some real evidence, and not try and discredit your lack of evidence with comments like "it's obvious" "even a blind man can see", we can discuss this again. But as of now, there is no evidence to support GS losing games on purpose to get that seventh pick.
