troza wrote:the ultimates wrote:
You can get all of those things from the first paragraph without tanking.
Seattle/OKC didn't tank. The pick that became Durant happened after their second straight 30 win season with Ray Allen who was 31 and didn't want to be part of a rebuild. So he was traded to Boston for the 5th pick that became Jeff Green. For the next two seasons and let their young top draft picks develop. That's not tanking that's what you do when you have high draft picks. The next losing season got them Westbrook they still lost games and the draft after that got Harden. None of that is tanking. That's we have a number of high draft picks that we need to see play.
About my first paragraph... I'm pretty sure the Bulls had a run like that at the start of the past decade. Sure, Rose wasn't healthy for a long period of time but we didn't tank for him.
Even Jordan got here not because of a tank... If that goes a long shot, let's see... Lakers with Shaq was not a tank. Spurs with Duncan was not a tank (injury plagued season right on their best player for one year should not count as a tank). Rockets with Harden was not a tank. I don't remember some other cases that well... So, even if there aren't that many... there are probably more examples.
And even more of teams that tanked and got nothing...
About the Sonics/Thunder: having a young team and not pushing hard enough to win is not tanking... why not hire some veterans, why not hire a better coach? Why not trade Allen for someone with already some value instead of picks? Try to win and go to the playoffs even with a young Kevin Durant was possible... just saying. So they were bad kind on purpose. But ok, I can see this as a rebuild instead of a tank even though to me it is both simultaneously.
Seatlle brought in people to play the grizzled veteran/mentor role. If Ray Allen didn't want to stay there during a rebuild why would a decent vet go to Seattle unless they got vastly overpaid. Why do that and take away shots, touches, minutes, and development from Durant and Green. For coaching, they canned Carlesimo after one and half seasons and Scott Brooks took over and they were still bad.