When is it better to play a bad team.

[Milkdud]

Some teams going into a season you just know that it won't be winning season, it happens. Now as the opposing team when would you rather play them?

For the sake of the arguement lets just have this be a hypothetical team that has the following things going against them.

Below avarage talent: 1 good player, a couple solid players.
Young team: The overall age of the team is very young, including the most talent members.
Bad coach: for whatever reason that guy won't cut it in the NBA, most likely gone in 1-2 years.
Below avarage fan support: Fans know its not going to be a winning season either.

Now would you rather play them?

Early in the season? Exploit their inexperience and chemisty. But they still have alot of energy and team spirit.

or

Late in the season? When later in the season, when they are beaten down and mailing it in for next season. But there young players including their star are playing much better with most of a season under their belt.

[Iran Haddadi]

Later. In the beginning they think they actually have hope so they're trying hard and playing their best.

[2011Champs]

Later, when they are beaten down and just want to get the season over.

[RTM]

Whenever a good team needs a win.

[cjs55]

Never if you're the utah jazz on the road.

[Malinhion]

It depends if they're young or just bad.

Young, go early. Exploit their inexperience while they're not used to playing at a pro level with that group. They're going to keep fighting to improve late in the season.

Bad, go late. The team hasn't developed chemistry anyhow and now they're probably just tanking to get more talent.

[EtchenBa]

If you're a good team, you probably want to play those kind of teams at the end of the year to help make a playoff push or get a better seed.

[Rooster]

Since the poll allows me to pick multiple options, I picked both. When wouldn't you want to play against a bad team?

The end of the year is better though, as mentioned because of playoff momentum.