The Tank Watch has expired. Time to cheer to win again!

[Rafael122]

Betting-pool for who gets the #1 pick this year? The Cats or the Nets is my guess today.

Portland, Utah and New Orleans each have two lottery picks. One of them will win it. I doubt Cleveland would have won the lottery last year if they had gotten the Clippers pick. Seems as though the lottery system weighs both lotto picks, thus increasing their odds.

If you believe in the conspiracy theories, I would say New Orleans gets the top pick.

BTW, Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio suggests that the Wizards are the best team to acquire another lottery pick. I think the best trading partner would be Utah.

Didn't know about the extra chances for Por.tland, Utah, and NOH. NOH winning looks-like a good bet.

My math may be off a bit but say the season ended today, NOH has roughly a 16% chance of winning the top pick, Utah has a 2% chance and Portland has about a 4% chance. Cleveland had a 19% chance and then they weighed the Clippers pick and that gave them a 22% chance of winning the lottery, when the team with the worse record has a 25% chance.

It's been awhile since the team with the worse record got the first pick, but then Dat brings up the point of the league having ownership over the Hornets...you never know. I wish it was May 30 already so we can get it over with.

[sashae]

New Orleans will win the lottery because of the busted Paul trade earlier this year. Bank it.

[The Consiglieri]

I'm more interested in the evening of the 26th, we'll get Andrew Luck or RG3, and also learn exactly where our worst case scenario slot is (if we don't know already). I can't wait to find out if we get Davis as well, but almost as important is how badly we get screwed (or not) by any lottery situation. I really badly want to know if our worst case is going to 4, 5, 6 or 7. That's huge to me, because this draft is 4/5 difference makers+elite players deep. After that, your speculating on risky propositions (and you are as well if Drummond is all that's left and it's 5, but at least Drummond would have huge trade down value, and be an interesting high risk investment).

We've got 14 games left (7 road, 5 home, 6 against awful teams with a 7th against the Knicks (who are awful now) 4 of the suck games (5 if you count the knicks) are road games), and Cleveland's 6 games behind us with 16 to play. Pretty sweet. We couldn't ask for a bigger spread going down the stretch, but it's annoying to see Cleveland tanking harder than even we are. The Warriors have received tank commands from above and are going full Zhukov, but are 8th right now, and need to have a top 7 pick, post lottery, to keep it. The good news is that there is a dogpile of 3 different teams w/the 5th, 6th, 7th pick pre-lottery, at 19 wins, and are 2-11 in their last 13, although they are inexplicably dilligently tonight to end a six game losing streak.

We still look good, my preseaon prediction, 15 wins, w/2 surprises pushing it to 17-49 seems a little high looking at the schedule. I would project 3-4 wins in our last 12, finishing our season at 15-51 or 16-50.

[fishercob]

Welcome back Eric Gordon!!

[closg00]

New Orleans will win the lottery because of the busted Paul trade earlier this year. Bank it.

Yeah, Eric Gordon to the rescue

[Higga]

New Orleans or New Jersey will win the lottery. Just hoping for the 2nd worst record so we're guaranteed a top 5 pick.

[DallasShalDune]

New Orleans or New Jersey will win the lottery. Just hoping for the 2nd worst record so we're guaranteed a top 5 pick.

Getting a top 5 pick guaranteed is nearly as important as getting the 1st in the Lottery. There are 4 "sure things" (Davis, MKG, Beal, Robinson) and a few rolls of the dice (Barnes, Drummond, Sullinger). I'd rather take one of the sure things than a roll of the dice.

[closg00]

If we were really tanking, we wouldn't have signed Singleton. The basketball Gods will look kindly upon us.......I hope

[hands11]

I am so sick of this tanking crap. Im looking at the schedule and trying to figure out when we might see Booker and Nene again and I have no idea ... why, because I have to worry that the team actually wants to lose.

Its so F ed up.

But we know it would likely be this way before the season started. At least it is almost finally over. Just suck to finally get ride of the knuckhead and start playing some good ball, and then they are out and we have to think about losing instead of getting them back on the court and watching some more good ball. We get to see so little of it.

I just hope I like the final product they put on the floor.

I like Nene, KS, Ves, Mason and Booker
I dont dislike Mack. Just think we need better then him.
Singleton. Nothing about he ready make you like or dislike him.

Wall .. I just dont get the same feeling about him that I do from that first group I listed that I do like. At least he is an asset though. Just not sure in regards to him. Something just doesn't feel right.

I think this team needs to add another Nene level talent and that person and Nene should lead the team. That would set things up to give Wall room to grow over the next couple of years. Kind of like Rondo showing up with vets in Boston or Parker in SA.

I will be so glad when this tanking crap it over.

[tontoz]

Eric Gordon is back and dropped 31 points last night. They lost but they have some winnable games coming up.

[The Consiglieri]

A 2.5 game lead on them w/10 (for us) to play (and 11 for them). We'd have to go at least 3-7 and probably 4-6 or 5-5 to risk losing the pre-lotto 2 slot. Possible w/the terrible schedule we have left, but it is comforting to see that lead. We probably just need Charlotte to go 3-8 or 4-7 to lock in the pre-lotto 2 slot (with us doing no better than 4-6). 5 games against terrible teams, 2 against middlers, and 3 against quality squads left on the schedule.

[7-Day Dray]

How come whenever someone on the Hornets comes back from injury, someone else goes down? As soon as Gordon comes back, Jarrett Jack gets hurt. I hope he gets back soon. Vazquez's lack of penetration is killing them.

[closg00]

We've got the Cats on Monday, then-again a few weeks later - could affect the tank.

NOH has the more-difficult remaining schedule and they are hard to predicts.

For the Cats, it doesn't matter who they are playing, they are riding that tank all the way to finish the season.

[hands11]

We've got the Cats on Monday, then-again a few weeks later - could affect the tank.

NOH has the more-difficult remaining schedule and they are hard to predicts.

For the Cats, it doesn't matter who they are playing, they are riding that tank all the way to finish the season.

Thats part of the reason I got so frustrated. I hate to look at the schedule and wonder, will they even get Nene and Booker back out there because if they do, they could actually win and that would be bad.

I hate having to think that way. Specially after see how well they played with Booker and Nene out there. The D was great. The games were fun to watch again. But no, we can't see that because we have to lose.

I hate it. At least this should be the last year we have to deal with this. I sure hope at least.

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/22 ... _Of_Season

[The Consiglieri]

Take solace in the 2.5 game lead. That's big. If we were dead even with New Orleans I'd be nervous. The 2.5 game differential is huge considering only 10/11 are left. A top 5 pick is imperative if we don't land #1. The one thing bumming me out that nobody has mentioned is that this team will be terrible next year as well, though not as bad, and next years draft is supposed to be awful. 2 Elite prospects compared to a ton this past class, and not much beyond that. So barring landing a really really high pick next year, we may be facing an '09/'11 redux scenario come draft day. On the positive side, the early big 4 next year are 2 big men, a 2, and a 3. So at least they'd serve needs for us, pending our offseason moves.

[The Consiglieri]

And poof, yahoo comes out with an article underlining what I sad:

Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=A ... cla_040712

One longtime scout said it’s the least talented group since the Hoop Summit, which pits the top U.S. seniors against elite international teens, began in 1995. The U.S. team will have another chance to change minds Saturday night while playing against the world team. So far the only American prospect who has elicited excitement has been Shabazz Muhammad, who is currently ranked No. 1 on the Rivals 2012 prospect ranking.


Depressing indeed considering we will be a 20-35 win team next year and need a quality draft pick again. At least on the positive side, there is Nerlens (spelling?), and the UNC stud McAdoo is going back to school (and probably Cody Zeller too).

[closg00]

NOH is a winner tonight.

[Jay81]

Wow...too bad bobcats are worst team in history

[The Consiglieri]

The essence of yin and yang: Jordan as player, and Jordan as GM.

[hands11]

10 games to go.

We are in the home stretch and the tank has been strong. Sitting Nene and Booker after they were beasting with them post trade. No Dray. Not a peep about Lewis.

If they truely secure the 2nd slot, I expect we will see some of them play again.

Mostly I wonder if they roll Dray out there to audition him in better shape.