Game 79: Portland vs Memphis 5:00pm Root+

[BNM]

Just lose out. Lets see which team (SA/Port) wants the loss more

Spurs have zero incentive to lose. They are locked into the 1st or 2nd worst record in the league, and the 1st - 3rd worst all have the exact same lottery odds.

They might actually prefer to win so they can say, "at least we weren't the worst team in the league". Especially, since the team they are challenging for the worst record is an in state rival. Pretty weak bragging rights, but nobody likes to finish dead last. It's nice to know that, no matter how bad you suck, at least there is someone who sucks worse.

[The Sebastian Express]

Just lose out. Lets see which team (SA/Port) wants the loss more

Spurs have zero incentive to lose. They are locked into the 1st or 2nd worst record in the league, and the 1st - 3rd worst all have the exact same lottery odds.

They might actually prefer to win so they can say, "at least we weren't the worst team in the league". Especially, since the team they are challenging for the worst record is an in state rival. Pretty weak bragging rights, but nobody likes to finish dead last. It's nice to know that, no matter how bad you suck, at least there is someone who sucks worse.

I believe Detroit has worst record locked up. 16 wins. San Antonio has twenty. I think at most they've got three games left (regular season ends on Sunday).

[Norm2953]

Detroit has clinched the #1 spot but Portland has more incentive to lose out. The key is to
lose to the Spurs, which is no easy task.

One thing to consider is what coach Pop thinks about this season for if the Spurs don’t get
Victor, he should retire for he’d face another 20+ win season in 2023-24.

[BNM]

Just lose out. Lets see which team (SA/Port) wants the loss more

Spurs have zero incentive to lose. They are locked into the 1st or 2nd worst record in the league, and the 1st - 3rd worst all have the exact same lottery odds.

They might actually prefer to win so they can say, "at least we weren't the worst team in the league". Especially, since the team they are challenging for the worst record is an in state rival. Pretty weak bragging rights, but nobody likes to finish dead last. It's nice to know that, no matter how bad you suck, at least there is someone who sucks worse.

I believe Detroit has worst record locked up. 16 wins. San Antonio has twenty. I think at most they've got three games left (regular season ends on Sunday).

Yes, you're correct. DET has 16 wins and SAS and HOU both have 20. So, the "best" SAS can do is 3rd worst record, which has the exact same lottery odds as 1st or 2nd worst. So, no incentive for SAS to try to deliberately lose.

[zzaj]

Didn't they hire some draft guru guy? Is he a full time Blazer employee?

Yeah, they hired Mike Schmitz from Draftexpress as an Assistant GM.

If there's any spot where I think the Blazers are super solid and I have no concern about, it's them in the draft. Schmitz is awesome.

Agreed…always liked what he did on DraftX. Blazers have had a pretty good track record with drafting Guards for a long time. Bigs have been fairly meh.Although, I was high on Collins…thought he was going to be a 12/10 guy…

[DusterBuster]

Yeah, they hired Mike Schmitz from Draftexpress as an Assistant GM.

If there's any spot where I think the Blazers are super solid and I have no concern about, it's them in the draft. Schmitz is awesome.

Agreed…always liked what he did on DraftX. Blazers have had a pretty good track record with drafting Guards for a long time. Bigs have been fairly meh.Although, I was high on Collins…thought he was going to be a 12/10 guy…

Blazers big man drafting was trash under Olshey… tho Collins does seem to finally come through, if he stays healthy

[The Sebastian Express]

Still a terrible decision to not only trade multiple picks for him, but to trade up with those picks and pick him over Bam.

[DusterBuster]

Still a terrible decision to not only trade multiple picks for him, but to trade up with those picks and pick him over Bam.

Oh of course. Olshey really only knew two things and kept smashing those buttons over and over and over and over again. He knew undersized scoring guards and white big men. Clippers he had Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman. Got to Blazers, picked Lillard (up for debate… w/e, idk) and CJ, then kept trying to find his next Kaman with Leonard and Collins.

[The Sebastian Express]

Still a terrible decision to not only trade multiple picks for him, but to trade up with those picks and pick him over Bam.

Oh of course. Olshey really only knew two things and kept smashing those buttons over and over and over and over again. He knew undersized scoring guards and white big men. Clippers he had Eric Gordon and Chris Kaman. Got to Blazers, picked Lillard (up for debate… w/e, idk) and CJ, then kept trying to find his next Kaman with Leonard and Collins.

Don't forget he also had Kaman here too!

Then we also had Plumlee.. then Nurk..

[monopoman]

Yeah San Antonio has no incentive to lose at all, especially now that the odds are flattened and the worst 3 teams have the same exact odds. So even if they jump Houston with a worse record it doesn't help them at all, there is no way they can jump Detroit but again it doesn't matter.

I think the worst 3 teams were pretty much a lock about 5-6 games before this point, it would have required a huge winning streak from one of them and something like Charlotte losing every game remaining. Even in that case the lowest they could drop in the tank race is 4 getting to the 5th spot would have required some insane win streak like 15+ games ago.

The Blazers want to lose this Spurs game a lot more, and we might see some blatant tank **** from Chauncy if the game is close near the end, or if the Blazers have a nice lead. I also do like the fact that if we stay at the 5th worst record we only have 3.5% less of a chance at the #1 pick.

It's not like the old days where I think the worst record had a 20 or 25% chance at that pick. 14% is better than 10.5% but it's not insanely better.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I was going to say it's too bad the Blazers had to pull Sharpe with 6-minutes left to ensure the Grizzlies won the game. I get that there is no real scouting report for this team now, but come on. The T-Wolves should be embarrassed and honestly, so should the Grizzlies.