TWO: Tank World Order

[jonny three time]

We need to assign roles.....Which posters are going to be Hulk, Nash, Hall, Sting, The Giant, Ted Dibiase, Bagwell, Luger, Bischoff, Konnan, Sixx (123 kid), Big Boss man, Curt Hennig (Mr. Perfect), Vincent (Virgil), Scott Steiner etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Wo ... _wrestling)

If we're going to do this thing, let's do it right. Everyone can pick a member to be with avatars and the whole thing. We can do mass e-mail floods to writers against the tank (like the good ole days of this board). We can just randomly take over threads and polls on other boards (oh no, T.W.O. showed up!) I mean, if we're going to pay homage to the NWO, lets do it the right way and go all-in. This season is going to be pretty boring just analyzing the same prospects over and over again, so lets get a solid running gimmick going.

Who's in?

[Waylon Mercy]

[Scraptor]

Just going to repost this here, from the summer of 2012, after we signed Fields.

Ian O'Connor ‏@Ian_OConnor

#Knicks guy on Toronto's attempt to block them on Nash via Fields deal: What the hell r they playing up there, tic-tac-toe?

This may lead to the most embarrassing and purely unintentional tank yet.

Tank Nation 13 - Tank Hard With A Vengeance
TN 14 - Live Free or Tank Hard

TN 13 - The Tankening

TN 13 - Jurassic Tank

TN 13 - Fear and Loathing in White Vegas

But now I think we may have to start from the beginning.

Tank Nation 2014: Tank World Order
Tank Nation 2015: Live and Let Tank
Tank Nation 2016: Tank of the Mohicans

[MistyMountain20]

[Michael Bradley]

In wrestling, Sting was the one man who could single-handedly stop the NWO.

Unfortunately for us, the man playing the role of Sting in this TWO movement is Masai Ujiri. The longer he keeps this group together, the more likely picking 8-12 becomes, effectively killing the TWO before it even has a chance to impose its power.

[beanbag]

In wrestling, Sting was the one man who could single-handedly stop the NWO.

Unfortunately for us, the man playing the role of Sting in this TWO movement is Masai Ujiri. The longer he keeps this group together, the more likely picking 8-12 becomes, effectively killing the TWO before it even has a chance to impose its power.

Who says he doesn't want to blow it up? Don't you think that in order to give your best players away for nothing, you would need to have the approval of ownership?

[Michael Bradley]

In wrestling, Sting was the one man who could single-handedly stop the NWO.

Unfortunately for us, the man playing the role of Sting in this TWO movement is Masai Ujiri. The longer he keeps this group together, the more likely picking 8-12 becomes, effectively killing the TWO before it even has a chance to impose its power.

Who says he doesn't want to blow it up? Don't you think that in order to give your best players away for nothing, you would need to have the approval of ownership?

If the organization wanted to keep the same players from last season, minus Bargs, then there was no reason to fire Bryan Colangelo. Usually a GM firing coincides with a direction change. This one didn't. I find it hard to believe they would spend so much money to bring Ujiri on board only to handcuff him upon arrival. I mean, anything is possible with this ownership group, but I'm not sold on that.

[Randle McMurphy]

Getting rid of guys like Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan is probably easier said then done.

Masai must find a way, though.

[Turbo_Zone]

Setbacks happen.

Stay strong my brothers.

[beanbag]

In wrestling, Sting was the one man who could single-handedly stop the NWO.

Unfortunately for us, the man playing the role of Sting in this TWO movement is Masai Ujiri. The longer he keeps this group together, the more likely picking 8-12 becomes, effectively killing the TWO before it even has a chance to impose its power.

Who says he doesn't want to blow it up? Don't you think that in order to give your best players away for nothing, you would need to have the approval of ownership?

If the organization wanted to keep the same players from last season, minus Bargs, then there was no reason to fire Bryan Colangelo. Usually a GM firing coincides with a direction change. This one didn't. I find it hard to believe they would spend so much money to bring Ujiri on board only to handcuff him upon arrival. I mean, anything is possible with this ownership group, but I'm not sold on that.

A direction change is one thing, going to ownership and telling them you want to get rid of some of your better players for the purpose of piling up losses however, is another. They may not want that type of change, particularly if they think the current team can get them a couple of playoff games. They may prefer the revenue

[will]

Can't lose em all. We will soldier on

[Anth0ny]

so sad we won

but hey

UTAH WON A GAME GUYS that's gotta count for something!!!

[suntzuballin]

Can't lose em all. We will soldier on

lol i dont see the harm rudy has good game stats go up trade value goes up,ill only be ticked if theres a winning streak,there still a treadmill team you can tell.

[suntzuballin]

These are TOO SWEET!!!!

[lacokanostra]

Tao of Tanking: We aren't trying not to win, what we are trying to do is win long term.

[TheRealBlizzy]

Stay Strong TWO.

I am moving on. Fk this team Masai can hold dese.

[bonjovi0308]

so sad we won

but hey

UTAH WON A GAME GUYS that's gotta count for something!!!

Utah won is another nail on Raps coffin. Pelicans might be more dysfunction than the Raps is. Utah is already in another league and the Pelicans is a more direct competitor with us in terms of tanking.

[Michael Bradley]

Who says he doesn't want to blow it up? Don't you think that in order to give your best players away for nothing, you would need to have the approval of ownership?

If the organization wanted to keep the same players from last season, minus Bargs, then there was no reason to fire Bryan Colangelo. Usually a GM firing coincides with a direction change. This one didn't. I find it hard to believe they would spend so much money to bring Ujiri on board only to handcuff him upon arrival. I mean, anything is possible with this ownership group, but I'm not sold on that.

A direction change is one thing, going to ownership and telling them you want to get rid of some of your better players for the purpose of piling up losses however, is another. They may not want that type of change, particularly if they think the current team can get them a couple of playoff games. They may prefer the revenue

And again, if they felt that way about the current team, then BC should still be here. You don't spend $3M to steal a GM from another team only to tell him to stick with the same exact roster that the previous GM had. If Masai's mandate was to make the playoffs this season, then he has already failed because he didn't do much of anything to the roster, outside of trading Bargnani and adding some role players for the back of the bench. If his mandate was to tank, then clearly he has failed in that regard as well because he has kept a roster that is probably good enough to win 30-35 games together. That's not a tanking squad.

For the first time (probably ever) we are seeing Toronto media embrace tanking. TL has mentioned tanking to the media multiple times. I don't buy for one second that Ujiri can't trade Gay for crappy expirings right now or 3 months ago if he wanted to. He is likely holding out for what he considers a good enough trade return. Unfortunately, in the meantime, the team might end up winning 3-5 more games by the end of the season than they should and be on the outside looking in as far as a top 5 pick is concerned.

[beanbag]

If the organization wanted to keep the same players from last season, minus Bargs, then there was no reason to fire Bryan Colangelo. Usually a GM firing coincides with a direction change. This one didn't. I find it hard to believe they would spend so much money to bring Ujiri on board only to handcuff him upon arrival. I mean, anything is possible with this ownership group, but I'm not sold on that.

A direction change is one thing, going to ownership and telling them you want to get rid of some of your better players for the purpose of piling up losses however, is another. They may not want that type of change, particularly if they think the current team can get them a couple of playoff games. They may prefer the revenue

And again, if they felt that way about the current team, then BC should still be here. You don't spend $3M to steal a GM from another team only to tell him to stick with the same exact roster that the previous GM had. If Masai's mandate was to make the playoffs this season, then he has already failed because he didn't do much of anything to the roster, outside of trading Bargnani and adding some role players for the back of the bench. If his mandate was to tank, then clearly he has failed in that regard as well because he has kept a roster that is probably good enough to win 30-35 games together. That's not a tanking squad. .

My guess is that his mandate was to build a winning team in the manner in which he sees fit. They removed BC because they didn't like the job he was doing and replaced him with someone who they think is a good executive who will build a winning team over time. I don't think it was a matter of 'either you tank or we go all in for the playoffs this year', I think it is a matter of build a team slowly and right now he is evaluating how to go about that. At the same time, if MU went to them and said 'I want to make this team as bad as possible for the purpose of a high draft pick', I can see them not liking that idea.

For the first time (probably ever) we are seeing Toronto media embrace tanking. TL has mentioned tanking to the media multiple times. I don't buy for one second that Ujiri can't trade Gay for crappy expirings right now or 3 months ago if he wanted to. He is likely holding out for what he considers a good enough trade return. Unfortunately, in the meantime, the team might end up winning 3-5 more games by the end of the season than they should and be on the outside looking in as far as a top 5 pick is concerned.

I'm not convinced that we could move Gay for crappy expiring's right now, nor am I convinced that that is the right thing to do. Seems like terrible asset management, and it's not even close to a guarantee to getting us a top five pick. What if we trade him for scraps and end up with the 7th pick? Is that going to fix our problems or compound them?

The reality of the situation is that this team, while not very good, is not nearly bad enough to be bottom five unless we purge our assets for scraps. That's a move I can understand management not wanting to do because unless you end up with a Wiggins/Parker/Randle type, you are doing even more damage to your club.

[Pchu]

This TWO vs Anti-TWO thing reminds me of WCW in the late 90s. NWO vs WCW

Of course, neither are around now.

I just hope I don't see the Wolfpac version of TWO...