Treadmilling Is Better Than Tanking

Feel_the_Heat15 · Post #1 » by **Feel_the_Heat15** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:27 pm

Not a single Eastern Conference that's going to make the playoffs this season has tanked except for the 76ers who had tremendous luck. Western Conference? OKC and they had to make a trade to get their best offensive player. It should be obvious by now that tanking gives you a very minimal chance at success. The data is all there. You have a much higher chance of being an elite team if you got a great front office that makes great choices during the Summer than a team that simply hopes to get a #1 pick by tanking. The Hornets and Pistons could've drafted Justise Winslow(who was suppose to go 7th-8th) and drafted worse players in Frank Kaminsky and Stanley Johnson. If tanking worked, teams like the Orlando Magicless and the Kings would've made the conference finals already. This narrative that you should tank over being consistently good never carried weight.

Post #2 » by **GeorgeMarcus** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:31 pm

You're referencing teams that were never tanking in the first place. Maybe if the Magic committed to the tank instead of randomly going after a win-now piece in Ibaka, they would be in a better position right now.

KP6 · Post #3 » by **KP6** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:34 pm

Is this a troll thread, designed to bathe peole? Or is it just bad?

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KP6 · Post #4 » by **KP6** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:35 pm

KP6 wrote:Is this a troll thread, designed to bathe peole? Or is it just bad?

Sent from my SM-S727VL using RealGM mobile app

Bait

Sent from my SM-S727VL using RealGM mobile app

Mik317 · Post #5 » by **Mik317** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:36 pm

yes having a good FO is a good thing.

not exactly groundbreaking news here.

Boston have not tanked but their are stacked w/ top 3 picks .

But regardless, no one said tanking was the only way but it is the best way to have a shot at the best talent...especially for smaller markets. Them being terrible at the actual drafting and developmental stage is their own problems.

If you are a capped out team w/ minimal future, it is in your best interests to probably tear down

Feel_the_Heat15 · Post #6 » by **Feel_the_Heat15** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:36 pm

GeorgeMarcus wrote:You're referencing teams that were never tanking in the first place. Maybe if the Magic committed to the tank instead of randomly going after a win-now piece in Ibaka, they would be in a better position right now.

They drafted a player who was 2nd overall. Kings had a top 5 big man and tanked for years with him and didn't make the playoffs. Pelicans drafted a player who's arguably a top 5 player in Anthony Davis and will likely have to trade him next season. Tanking fails more than 50% of the time.

Feel_the_Heat15 · Post #7 » by **Feel_the_Heat15** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:39 pm

Mik317 wrote:yes having a good FO is a good thing.

not exactly groundbreaking news here.

Boston have not tanked but their are stacked w/ top 3 picks .

But regardless, no one said tanking was the only way but it is the best way to have a shot at the best talent...especially for smaller markets. Them being terrible at the actual drafting and developmental stage is their own problems.

If you are a capped out team w/ minimal future, it is in your best interests to probably tear down

Who cares about talent when you can't build around that talent? Tanking isn't the best way to build a winning team.

Dupp · Post #8 » by **Dupp** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:42 pm

We talkin justise Winslow

Post #9 » by **Sixerscan** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:43 pm

I feel like you post this like once every 3-4 months lol. I'm taking this one off see you in May.

SlowPaced · Post #10 » by **SlowPaced** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:43 pm

Dupp wrote:We talkin justise Winslow

Keep sleeping on him. You were sleeping on Josh Richardson before the season, now sleep on Justise instead.

WuTang_OG · Post #11 » by **WuTang_OG** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:43 pm

Nuggets, Raptors, Celtics are perfect examples of this but I wouldn't use the word 'tread milling' as it seems it has a negative conotation within our board.

Those teams for example built on the fly and improved every year with thought out intelligent roster moves.

Post #12 » by **GeorgeMarcus** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:45 pm

Feel_the_Heat15 wrote:
GeorgeMarcus wrote:You're referencing teams that were never tanking in the first place. Maybe if the Magic committed to the tank instead of randomly going after a win-now piece in Ibaka, they would be in a better position right now.

They drafted a player who was 2nd overall. Kings had a top 5 big man and tanked for years with him and didn't make the playoffs. Pelicans drafted a player who's arguably a top 5 player in Anthony Davis and will likely have to trade him next season. Tanking fails more than 50% of the time.

Having the #2 pick (5+ years ago) is not synonymous with tanking. If anything the Magic should be on a 'Treadmill Warning' poster... Short-sighted moves like the Dipo and Harris trades really backfired on them.

Wallace_Wallace · Post #13 » by **Wallace_Wallace** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:46 pm

Keeping your team financially flexible would be my thinking. For example, signing a 4 or 5 year deal to players like Josh Smith or Ben Gordon (top 100 players at best) to a contract that's 20% of the team's space would cripple the franchise for years. If your team has more flexibility, it could absorb contract with assets (prospects and picks).

With assets, it also take elite scouting and development those players to materialize.

Dupp · Post #14 » by **Dupp** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:46 pm

Sixerscan wrote:I feel like you post this like once every 3-4 months lol. I'm taking this one off see you in May.

Yeah I definitely knew who the OP was before entering the thread.

Feel_the_Heat15 · Post #15 » by **Feel_the_Heat15** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:48 pm

Dupp wrote:We talkin justise Winslow

19th in RPM among SFs and started off the year playing out of position.

ChaosHamster · Post #16 » by **ChaosHamster** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:48 pm

I wonder how many teams were called "treadmill bound" or whatever, after they made play-offs for 2-3 season and got bounced in the 1st or 2nd round before actually becoming contenders.

One season you are tanking, and next season you are suddenly contenders. It doesn't happen.

Wizenheimer · Post #17 » by **Wizenheimer** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:49 pm

I saw the thread title and the first thing I thought was "oh look, Neil Olshey has a RealGM account"

RCM88x · Post #18 » by **RCM88x** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:51 pm

Depends on the treadmill and the market. Ultimately having a competent FO who choses the best path is better than both but such things are hard to come by.

VDT · Post #19 » by **VDT** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:56 pm

I think there is a misunderstanding with regards to "tanking". You can be bad for a lot of reasons and not all of them are "tanking" imo. For example a team can have a terrible front office that hires a terrible coach etc. This team will be perpetually bad unless they land a generational talent, but this is not tanking. This is just being bad because they have no idea what they are doing.

On the other hand you can have a good front office, a good organization that either gets lucky one year like the Spurs with Duncan or decides to game the system and become bad on purpose. Not a bad organization just a bad team. That's what I would call tanking.

In the end all depends on the front office and the personnel the front office and the owner will hire. If the FO is good the team will become good in the end if not the team will consistently be either bad or mediocre. Tanking is just a way, among others, to become better. Teams with good front offices succeed teams with bad (aka involuntary tanking) stay bad for years, like the Magic now.

madmaxmedia · Post #20 » by **madmaxmedia** » Thu Jan 17, 2019 6:57 pm

Getting lucky is better than everything else, though a bad organization can still screw that up too.