RealGM

... In the duh olympics.

Cavs tanked to get Lebron in draft in 2002

My, what passes for a news story. The first half of the week was dominated by coverage of a man admitting he did something a decade ago that 99% of people had already concluded. Now we get discussion about whether an organization didn't try to win in the short term in a gamble for the long term. Yes, they did. The Celtics tanked to get Tim Duncan (it didn't work) and the Knicks essentially tanked two seasons for the hope of signing Lebron. It's the nature of the NBA that a single superstar can change your team both on court and financially for a decade. It is also the nature of the NBA that with the salary cap and guaranteed contracts that some times you can't go all out for short term success without screwing up long term options. This should not be a revelation to anyone who watches the NBA.

I know this is an OT rant, but I needed to vent about sports news coverage these days.

Sensationalism gets the majority of the headlines. Kiffin is the current big story out there for the next few weeks. Tiger will get coverage once the Masters timeline starts rolling around.

Re: the NBA....it is New Jersey's time to tank. I don't think they want to go down as the all-time worst team in history, but they should have 8 more wins in their season.

That said, John Wall is being considered in the Top 3 of the last 10 drafts along with LeBron and Dwight Howard. I might not agree, but it is hard to pass that opportunity up if you are so close.
You have shown no energy to win any games to get in the playoffs (what a story that would be),
so you gotta think getting the #1 along with clearing out your salaries are the top agendas.

There are other teams as well starting to show these traits, so NJ won't be alone.

At this point I don't think New Jersey will have to "tank" much to get the most ping-pong balls in the draft lottery. They've got a 5 game cushion to Minnesota and I don't see them winning 10 games even if they try.