Contender with no title or suck 90% of the time with title?

[RoyalMajesty]

That's just amazing to me that someone would rather spend 30 years watching a crap team finally win a championship. It would be extremely satisfying when you did, but the other years would be miserable as a fan.

I get a ton of entertainment seeing a team compete and be almost there every year, and sure, I'd love to see them win one, but at least I've had 30 years of entertainment.

No wonder you're a Phoenix Suns fan j/k

But the funny thing is that you guys have a decent chance of getting there IF Bogut and Curry stay healthy, and especially if you get Love, but over those years we had the best record in the league at least twice, maybe more, and in my opinion had the best team in 95 and 07 but blew it due to unfortunate circumstances. And in 93 if Paxson doesn't hit that shot for the Bulls to win in game 6, we had game 7 at home with momentum. But of course those are all reasons that you can't depend on your team winning it all no matter how good you are.

I hope you guys do well because I'd rather see you win it probably more than any team other than OKC but it's still a stretch as a don't see a team better than a 5 seed unless you get Love, and even then it might take a while to hit your stride. Good luck!

Thanks a lot! We still need another defensive center because Bogut can't be trusted for 82 games and behind him, well there's not much to talk about. People are underestimating the value of Klay Thompson. He's a big reason why Stephen Curry is Stephen Curry because Klay Thompson takes on the more difficult defensive assignment by defending the other teams PGs while Stephen Curry takes on the more easier defensive assignment by defending the other teams SGs, which gives Curry enough energy to be his lethal self on offense. It would be great getting Kevin Love for David Lee, Harrison Barnes, and the Warriors 2015 1st Round Pick, but that's not happening unless Kevin Love comes out and say he only wants to play with the Golden State Warriors.

The Suns were a fun and exciting team to watch and definitely could of won a championship during their great years no matter if it was the Johnson and Barkley years or the Nash, Amar'e, and Marion years. The Suns had some great teams. I remembered going there for the NBA All-Star Week and was talking to some great Phoenix Suns fans at Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs. I also had a chat with Otis Birdsong and Ron Harper and Harper was talking about how tough the Suns were back in the days when I was out there. I can tell Phoenix is a special place with their really beautiful arena for their fans or for just a fun time to watch some NBA and one of the most under the radar places for a vacation.

[WhatsMyName]

Not a fan of a particular team, but the option to be a continuous contender seems vastly superior than sucking 90% of the time.

I'm used to European sports where coming second if you were projected to come tenth is actually considered a good achievement. I just want my team to do as well as they possibly can, I'd be really annoyed if the Pacers decided to tank, in fact, I wouldn't even watch them if that was the agenda.

There is an important nuance to be made though:
-In European sports there is an incentive to finish as high as possible with regards to international leagues. In football, the top x of each competition play Champions League, the remaining top x play Europa League. Then there's the matter of qualifying directly and having to play qualifying matches.
-There is no draft lottery.

Most sports don't have the equivalent of the football champions league, so this can't be the reason.

[aIvin adams]

The NBA needs to change things so it's no longer a choice between these two extremes.

One title sandwiched between years of suckitude doesn't appeal to me.

Neither does seeing half or more of the league trying to tank to get high picks.

just become a Suns fan. it hasn't been between those two extremes in the last half century.

you can still hate the Lakers just as much.

come on. convert.

ETA - the season before last was our worst. unfortunately we weren't trying to tank. the Suns just stank balls for one season. it was like 2003-2004 but without allt he young talent :/ miserable. now we're back to our harmlessly entertaining brand of semi-winnign basketball woot woot

[House12]

I can't vote in this poll because I can't choose either of these crappy options. I wouldn't be happy watching my team suck 90% of the time (aka Marlins in baseball), but I also wouldn't be happy knowing we'd never actually win the championship (aka Bills in football awhile back).

I want the middle... a team that attempts to build for a championship and either succeeds or fails, but knows when to tear it down and suck for two to four years while accumulating young assets that are at least fun to watch and might be pieces of the next potential championship squad. In other words, a well-run team.

That's what's been so frustrating as a Pistons fan for the last eight years or so... Dumars climbed the mountain and then didn't know when to ski back down. He just stood up there, a couple steps from the summit, until the avalanche hit and killed him. Then I got to watch his corpse of a team for another four years. At least there's some hope on the horizon again after six years of fugly hoops.

I have been a raptors fan for 20 years and I will gladly trade you your championship for a dunk contest win from a guy quit on the team.

Wait … I'll sweeten the pot! I can offer 3 dunk contest champions!

I will also trade you the Leafs for the Red Wings over the same period of time .

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[realfung]

I like this question, I personally enjoyed any team having competition but sometimes the focus is too much on winning a ring. It makes the competition part less fun. Nowadays, it's only fun if u have a big 3 or super 4 players playing together. And the stat has to be almost closed to triple double.


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[mup]

Is there actually a team that's been in the lottery 90% of the time? The Clippers?

I don't think there is any team that sucks that bad that has actually won a championship, is there? The Mavericks are probably the worst (historically) team to win a title and even they've had a pretty good run since at least 2000 or 2001. The They've probably made the playoffs at least 50% of the time overall. The Bucks or Warriors might be worse historically, I guess.


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[bwgood77]

Is there actually a team that's been in the lottery 90% of the time? The Clippers?

I don't think there is any team that sucks that bad that has actually won a championship, is there? The Mavericks are probably the worst (historically) team to win a title and even they've had a pretty good run since at least 2000 or 2001. The They've probably made the playoffs at least 50% of the time overall. The Bucks or Warriors might be worse historically, I guess.


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I used some examples in some posts, like GS who won a championship in 73 (or something like that) but had a 20 year timeframe where they made the playoffs once. I think the Clips only made it once in about 20 years too. Minnesota hasn't made it in 10. Sacramento maybe once in the last 8 or 9 years. It seems like NY didn't make it for a long time as well as NJ. Can't remember when the Bobcats came in the league but they only made it once in their history before last year.

I think the question is a little more relevant now than in the past because it seems like there is more of a mentality of not wanting to be a competitive team if your ceiling may not be championship caliber, so more of the new age GMs may start to tank and rebuild. Now if you nail 3-4 draft picks who all turn out to be top 20 players like what OKC did, then it could be worth it. But how realistic is something like that to happen? I imagine there will be may teams that try it, breed a losing mentality and find it terribly difficult to get out of or keep their players long term.

You read articles about how the Hawks of 3 years ago were so disappointing because they were a second round playoff team for like 5 years in a row. Now I imagine it can be frustrating not to get further but I think many fans (maybe mostly older ones) of teams that had sucked forever would take that in a heartbeat.