Tank World Order (XIV) Here we go, The Final Stretch of the 2025 Tank Season!!!

[Scase]

My rebuttal to tWo: you can't lament our pre-deadline win streak when we played vets but not acknowledge that the Nets went 9-11 to start the season through December by playing their vets. We got screwed by NOP and the Sixers completely crumbling. You expect one of these a year, but 2 such examples sucks and feels rare. Team was set up for a bottom 5 finish. Though maybe the team should have prepared for the possibility of a Sixers tank...

Anyways, it is what it is. We should all be hope the ping pong balls bounce our way.

Another teams performance has nothing to do with us getting meaningless wins though. If anything it proves the point, we're 2 games ahead of them. Had we not done the same stupid thing, we'd be in a better spot, simple as that.

If anything it's even dumber seeing as by january, we only had 8 wins. No matter which way you look at it, it was a bad idea. The only reason we got "screwed" by the pels and sixers, is because we didn't commit to the tank. You don't ever want your fate in someone elses hands, had we tanked appropriately, we'd have worse records than both of them.

We did this, not the nets, the pels, the sixers, or anyone else. Our FO wanted to showcase vets for no reason, and this is what happened.

[720]

Boucher had some good games where he was shooting well that didn't help with the Ls. We were probably trying to showcase him for the trade deadline but that backfired.

I know we're not playing him, but I still don't understand why he wasn't traded.

Especially after we sacrificed a couple losses to “showcase” him.

[Godaddycurse]

Boucher had some good games where he was shooting well that didn't help with the Ls. We were probably trying to showcase him for the trade deadline but that backfired.

I know we're not playing him, but I still don't understand why he wasn't traded.

Especially after we sacrificed a couple losses to “showcase” him.

Probably had trades lined up to eat future salary for asset (see nurkic to charlotte) but that came off the table with the ingram trade.

[PushDaRock]

My rebuttal to tWo: you can't lament our pre-deadline win streak when we played vets but not acknowledge that the Nets went 9-11 to start the season through December by playing their vets. We got screwed by NOP and the Sixers completely crumbling. You expect one of these a year, but 2 such examples sucks and feels rare. Team was set up for a bottom 5 finish. Though maybe the team should have prepared for the possibility of a Sixers tank...

Anyways, it is what it is. We should all be hope the ping pong balls bounce our way.

Another teams performance has nothing to do with us getting meaningless wins though. If anything it proves the point, we're 2 games ahead of them. Had we not done the same stupid thing, we'd be in a better spot, simple as that.

If anything it's even dumber seeing as by january, we only had 8 wins. No matter which way you look at it, it was a bad idea. The only reason we got "screwed" by the pels and sixers, is because we didn't commit to the tank. You don't ever want your fate in someone elses hands, had we tanked appropriately, we'd have worse records than both of them.

We did this, not the nets, the pels, the sixers, or anyone else. Our FO wanted to showcase vets for no reason, and this is what happened.

Speaking Fax, they can't handle the heat. Olynyk killed our tank. With him in the lineup, we went 0-10 and then 1-5 in the next 6 games for a 1-15 record. If we had stopped playing him right then and there because it was obvious he was helping us win a ton of games, we would be sitting pretty, but nope Darko the idiot kept playing him and we ended up with a 6-18 record with him in the lineup when we could have been 1-23 instead.

[ForeverTFC]

My rebuttal to tWo: you can't lament our pre-deadline win streak when we played vets but not acknowledge that the Nets went 9-11 to start the season through December by playing their vets. We got screwed by NOP and the Sixers completely crumbling. You expect one of these a year, but 2 such examples sucks and feels rare. Team was set up for a bottom 5 finish. Though maybe the team should have prepared for the possibility of a Sixers tank...

Anyways, it is what it is. We should all be hope the ping pong balls bounce our way.

Another teams performance has nothing to do with us getting meaningless wins though. If anything it proves the point, we're 2 games ahead of them. Had we not done the same stupid thing, we'd be in a better spot, simple as that.

If anything it's even dumber seeing as by january, we only had 8 wins. No matter which way you look at it, it was a bad idea. The only reason we got "screwed" by the pels and sixers, is because we didn't commit to the tank. You don't ever want your fate in someone elses hands, had we tanked appropriately, we'd have worse records than both of them.

We did this, not the nets, the pels, the sixers, or anyone else. Our FO wanted to showcase vets for no reason, and this is what happened.

Just because the trades didn't happen doesn't mean there wasn't a reason for what they did. The reason why I brought up the Nets is because they did the same thing we did: play vets for a 10-15 game stretch to showcase and move them. They just did it to begin the season and we did it mid-season due to injuries to begin the year. This wasn't anything unique that us and the Nets did either; Presti and Ainge did the same thing when they had vets they wanted to move on the team while they were tanking.

You are right, it's ultimately on us. But we should also recognize that we got very unlucky with the Pelicans and Sixers imploding like they did. I don't know why this has to be one or the other and mutually exclusive. These types of arguments lead to situations like when Del said he hoped that we make the play-in so that "team mediocre" ultimately ends up suffering at the expense of the franchise. We should all be hoping for a good bounce now - nothing else that can be done.

[PushDaRock]

My rebuttal to tWo: you can't lament our pre-deadline win streak when we played vets but not acknowledge that the Nets went 9-11 to start the season through December by playing their vets. We got screwed by NOP and the Sixers completely crumbling. You expect one of these a year, but 2 such examples sucks and feels rare. Team was set up for a bottom 5 finish. Though maybe the team should have prepared for the possibility of a Sixers tank...

Anyways, it is what it is. We should all be hope the ping pong balls bounce our way.

Another teams performance has nothing to do with us getting meaningless wins though. If anything it proves the point, we're 2 games ahead of them. Had we not done the same stupid thing, we'd be in a better spot, simple as that.

If anything it's even dumber seeing as by january, we only had 8 wins. No matter which way you look at it, it was a bad idea. The only reason we got "screwed" by the pels and sixers, is because we didn't commit to the tank. You don't ever want your fate in someone elses hands, had we tanked appropriately, we'd have worse records than both of them.

We did this, not the nets, the pels, the sixers, or anyone else. Our FO wanted to showcase vets for no reason, and this is what happened.

Just because the trades didn't happen doesn't mean there wasn't a reason for what they did. The reason why I brought up the Nets is because they did the same thing we did: play vets for a 10-15 game stretch to showcase and move them. They just did it to begin the season and we did it mid-season due to injuries to begin the year. This wasn't anything unique that us and the Nets did either; Presti and Ainge did the same thing when they had vets they wanted to move on the team while they were tanking.

You are right, it's ultimately on us. But we should also recognize that we got very unlucky with the Pelicans and Sixers imploding like they did. I don't know why this has to be one or the other and mutually exclusive. These types of arguments lead to situations like when Del said he hopped that we make the play-in so that "team mediocre" ultimately ends up suffering at the expense of the franchise. We should all be hoping for a good bounce now - nothing else that can be done.

Yeah but we we should have been able to out-tank the Nets because they are clearly worse than us. That makes it way easier to out tank them because we can control how bad we are by faking injuries, sitting out everyone, having Jak shoot 3's and Scottie play PG while they are not bad by choice. If we stopped playing Olynyk after we were 1-15 with him, we would have been in prime position. The management didn't commit though and Olynyk won us way too many games!!!

[720]

I’m a teacher and the boys in my class have all been rooting for the Tank the whole year , I’m gonna livestream the lottery if it’s on a school day.

[S.W.A.N]

Big tank game tonight!!

Miami is the biggest threat to our stranglehold on 7-8th.
A Miami win tonight is looking good (4th quarter and up 20 so I don't think the jinx can happen)


Miami will now be 31 wins and 7 games up (I'm including tie breaker) with 10 games left and 6 of them against tank teams and 2 of them are against philly who are desperate level tankers now.

Philly and Nets look close but have far more games against non-tank teams so moving up to 6th is going to be nearly impossible.

Spurs are now our biggest competition for 7th. They have a stupidly hard schedule compared to us. Might come down to the last game of the year which is Raps vs Spurs!

[WuTang_CMB]

heat win

[DelAbbot]

I’m a teacher and the boys in my class have all be rooting for the Tank the whole year , I’m gonna livestream the lottery if it’s on a school day.

This is the way
We gotta teach these kids to dream big!

[MainEvent]

The Jazz are pulling some unprecedented crap with their season long tank. Why are we being compared to that when nobody else has done this ever? if you aint the jazz u aint tanking we are arguably trying to tank harder than everyone but the Jazz. Philly too I guess although they were trying to win all season but Embiid wasn't right and Harris > Podcast P?


Also, we have been pulling some diabolical shii of our own by resting players and pulling our starters to try to throw games, never seen anyone do that. Playing these 3 stringers for major minutes and crunch time... Sitting BI all season with an ankle sprain. Most of these team that are "out tanking" us are playing their normal players but they just suck

Not to rehash this old debate but if you want to say that if we were committed to the tank we should have never traded for Poeltl and we would have had higher picks in this years and the prior 2 years drafts I can understand that (Imagine being buyers and not sellers with a bad record at the deadline in the Wemby draft lol) but given the current roster some ppl have unrealistic expectations. It's easy from the couch, just bench everyone all season

[PushDaRock]

Utah showing us how it's done. After leading 65-64, they stopped playing around and let themselves get doubled 76-38 in the second half to secure the dub. We are not serious like them at all.

[Scase]

My rebuttal to tWo: you can't lament our pre-deadline win streak when we played vets but not acknowledge that the Nets went 9-11 to start the season through December by playing their vets. We got screwed by NOP and the Sixers completely crumbling. You expect one of these a year, but 2 such examples sucks and feels rare. Team was set up for a bottom 5 finish. Though maybe the team should have prepared for the possibility of a Sixers tank...

Anyways, it is what it is. We should all be hope the ping pong balls bounce our way.

Another teams performance has nothing to do with us getting meaningless wins though. If anything it proves the point, we're 2 games ahead of them. Had we not done the same stupid thing, we'd be in a better spot, simple as that.

If anything it's even dumber seeing as by january, we only had 8 wins. No matter which way you look at it, it was a bad idea. The only reason we got "screwed" by the pels and sixers, is because we didn't commit to the tank. You don't ever want your fate in someone elses hands, had we tanked appropriately, we'd have worse records than both of them.

We did this, not the nets, the pels, the sixers, or anyone else. Our FO wanted to showcase vets for no reason, and this is what happened.

Just because the trades didn't happen doesn't mean there wasn't a reason for what they did. The reason why I brought up the Nets is because they did the same thing we did: play vets for a 10-15 game stretch to showcase and move them. They just did it to begin the season and we did it mid-season due to injuries to begin the year. This wasn't anything unique that us and the Nets did either; Presti and Ainge did the same thing when they had vets they wanted to move on the team while they were tanking.

You are right, it's ultimately on us. But we should also recognize that we got very unlucky with the Pelicans and Sixers imploding like they did. I don't know why this has to be one or the other and mutually exclusive. These types of arguments lead to situations like when Del said he hoped that we make the play-in so that "team mediocre" ultimately ends up suffering at the expense of the franchise. We should all be hoping for a good bounce now - nothing else that can be done.

The point ultimately remains that spending that time "showcasing" known quantities, is not worth the drop in lotto chances. I know why we did it, but when the absolute best case scenario for either of those players was going to be 2nd round picks, those 8 wins are monumentally more impactful than maybe getting some mediocre to useless picks.

It's all about risk aversion, or risk value. What we did was all risk, no reward, cause even in the best case scenario, it's still bad. As for what Del said, I can't lie, there is a vindictive part of me that would be fine with that outcome. Part of it however, comes from the fact that I think the next 3-5 years will be treadmilling and wasted time anyways, so what difference does it make. As much as I'd love to randomly luck into a higher pick, mismanagement doesn't deserve to be rewarded or bailed out on sheer luck. And I think a bad pick would be the final nail in the coffin for an FO that I think needs a change. But it is also the reality, we have an extremely high chance of getting the 8th pick, and if we suffered through 2 ~20 win seasons, just to end up with a single 8th pick change will likely come.

Not to mention hearing all the idiots claiming how Masai is a genius and tanking doesn't matter if we randomly luck into a high pick will be peak stupidity around here

[UnderdogRaptors]

Another teams performance has nothing to do with us getting meaningless wins though. If anything it proves the point, we're 2 games ahead of them. Had we not done the same stupid thing, we'd be in a better spot, simple as that.

If anything it's even dumber seeing as by january, we only had 8 wins. No matter which way you look at it, it was a bad idea. The only reason we got "screwed" by the pels and sixers, is because we didn't commit to the tank. You don't ever want your fate in someone elses hands, had we tanked appropriately, we'd have worse records than both of them.

We did this, not the nets, the pels, the sixers, or anyone else. Our FO wanted to showcase vets for no reason, and this is what happened.

Just because the trades didn't happen doesn't mean there wasn't a reason for what they did. The reason why I brought up the Nets is because they did the same thing we did: play vets for a 10-15 game stretch to showcase and move them. They just did it to begin the season and we did it mid-season due to injuries to begin the year. This wasn't anything unique that us and the Nets did either; Presti and Ainge did the same thing when they had vets they wanted to move on the team while they were tanking.

You are right, it's ultimately on us. But we should also recognize that we got very unlucky with the Pelicans and Sixers imploding like they did. I don't know why this has to be one or the other and mutually exclusive. These types of arguments lead to situations like when Del said he hoped that we make the play-in so that "team mediocre" ultimately ends up suffering at the expense of the franchise. We should all be hoping for a good bounce now - nothing else that can be done.

The point ultimately remains that spending that time "showcasing" known quantities, is not worth the drop in lotto chances. I know why we did it, but when the absolute best case scenario for either of those players was going to be 2nd round picks, those 8 wins are monumentally more impactful than maybe getting some mediocre to useless picks.

It's all about risk aversion, or risk value. What we did was all risk, no reward, cause even in the best case scenario, it's still bad. As for what Del said, I can't lie, there is a vindictive part of me that would be fine with that outcome. Part of it however, comes from the fact that I think the next 3-5 years will be treadmilling and wasted time anyways, so what difference does it make. As much as I'd love to randomly luck into a higher pick, mismanagement doesn't deserve to be rewarded or bailed out on sheer luck. And I think a bad pick would be the final nail in the coffin for an FO that I think needs a change. But it is also the reality, we have an extremely high chance of getting the 8th pick, and if we suffered through 2 ~20 win seasons, just to end up with a single 8th pick change will likely come.

Not to mention hearing all the idiots claiming how Masai is a genius and tanking doesn't matter if we randomly luck into a high pick will be peak stupidity around here

If we aren't top 3 next or have the #1 pick he needs to go, one hit wonder

[Tha Cynic]

This thread is kind of funny after you read the draft thread. So much doom and gloom in here by some posters when there are a bunch of players who seem to be around the same level within the top 10 lol. What a contrast.

If you’re so invested in this draft then get excited about the potential players available instead of bitching and moaning about something that’s pretty much set now

[Pointgod]

Another teams performance has nothing to do with us getting meaningless wins though. If anything it proves the point, we're 2 games ahead of them. Had we not done the same stupid thing, we'd be in a better spot, simple as that.

If anything it's even dumber seeing as by january, we only had 8 wins. No matter which way you look at it, it was a bad idea. The only reason we got "screwed" by the pels and sixers, is because we didn't commit to the tank. You don't ever want your fate in someone elses hands, had we tanked appropriately, we'd have worse records than both of them.

We did this, not the nets, the pels, the sixers, or anyone else. Our FO wanted to showcase vets for no reason, and this is what happened.

Just because the trades didn't happen doesn't mean there wasn't a reason for what they did. The reason why I brought up the Nets is because they did the same thing we did: play vets for a 10-15 game stretch to showcase and move them. They just did it to begin the season and we did it mid-season due to injuries to begin the year. This wasn't anything unique that us and the Nets did either; Presti and Ainge did the same thing when they had vets they wanted to move on the team while they were tanking.

You are right, it's ultimately on us. But we should also recognize that we got very unlucky with the Pelicans and Sixers imploding like they did. I don't know why this has to be one or the other and mutually exclusive. These types of arguments lead to situations like when Del said he hoped that we make the play-in so that "team mediocre" ultimately ends up suffering at the expense of the franchise. We should all be hoping for a good bounce now - nothing else that can be done.

The point ultimately remains that spending that time "showcasing" known quantities, is not worth the drop in lotto chances. I know why we did it, but when the absolute best case scenario for either of those players was going to be 2nd round picks, those 8 wins are monumentally more impactful than maybe getting some mediocre to useless picks.

It's all about risk aversion, or risk value. What we did was all risk, no reward, cause even in the best case scenario, it's still bad. As for what Del said, I can't lie, there is a vindictive part of me that would be fine with that outcome. Part of it however, comes from the fact that I think the next 3-5 years will be treadmilling and wasted time anyways, so what difference does it make. As much as I'd love to randomly luck into a higher pick, mismanagement doesn't deserve to be rewarded or bailed out on sheer luck. And I think a bad pick would be the final nail in the coffin for an FO that I think needs a change. But it is also the reality, we have an extremely high chance of getting the 8th pick, and if we suffered through 2 ~20 win seasons, just to end up with a single 8th pick change will likely come.

Not to mention hearing all the idiots claiming how Masai is a genius and tanking doesn't matter if we randomly luck into a high pick will be peak stupidity around here

The spin is on overdrive. Apparently the games we won in Jan weren’t supposed to matter (they did) and we were showcasing the vets for trades…. the only problem is that we didn’t Boucher and the guys we did trade were just salary filler. Trust me the most valuable thing in the New Orleans trade was the Pacers pick. So what exactly was the point of playing those vets if you’re not going to trade Boucher?

This is emblematic of the problem with the front office they half ass everything and can’t commit to a direction. This was the time to lean into the tank, especially if you’re not willing to trade Poeltl but somehow we manage to whiff.

[Duffman100]

This thread is kind of funny after you read the draft thread. So much doom and gloom in here by some posters when there are a bunch of players who seem to be around the same level within the top 10 lol. What a contrast.

If you’re so invested in this draft then get excited about the potential players available instead of bitching and moaning about something that’s pretty much set now

That was involve certain posters to do something other than complain.

I see a lot of fun guys even if we slip a bit. Fears, Queen, CMB.

[Tripod]

Do people forget what actually happened back then?

We were getting blown out by 20+ points on the regular and playing no semblance of defense. BAD HABITS were creeping in and we had to out a stop to it. Hell we lost by 54 to the Celtics.

Warriors...yup Boucher had 18 pts to help win. Brown and KO had 2 pts combined. GSW played without Dray...and that mattered more than anything. We had no IQ

Celtics...flat out Tatum, Brown and White **** the bed, combing for 32 pts. White and Brown were -29 and -23. Our "vets playing" had little impact on the game. We had no IQ

Orlando...no Wagner or Suggs...we had no IQ. Game was a flat out anomaly. Yak was -26 while Olynyk +39. But them missing Wagner and Suggs impacted things the most.

Atl...we went in with 1 road win on the season. Probably didn't expect to win b2b in Atl. Game 1, sure "the vets" got points. They also were +2, -11, -8 so they didn't impact winning a 3 pt game. JJ got hurt after only 11 mins. Again no IQ.
Game 2 we won by 23 and yes vets helped with that. Them having no JJ was a killer. KO didn't play and neither did IQ.

Pels and Wash we are just flat out better than them. IQ and KO didn't play either game.

Clips-Norm didn't play and Kawhi only had 14pts. That was essentially the game. IQ played 17mins and KO, Brown, and Boucher lost their combined. minutes.

So we didn't win these games just on the back of "playing the vets". A much bigger impact was Darko flicked the switch to actually playing defense again and stopping the bad habits that set in. Oh, and every good team we beat were without top guys in Dray, Wagmer, Suggs, JJ, and Powell....except the Celtics game...where again, their stars just **** the bed.

Yes we could have just tried to lose with lineups like we have been playing. But it was also at a time in the season where things really were getting ugly and again, the bad habits started setting in. Habits that lead to selfish play vs team play. And Darko put a stop to it and rightfully so. He showed that if they played the right way, they could win games. That lessen should carry over to next year since it continued the rest of the season. It gave the Raps an identity that they could he a great defensive team if everyone buys in. And the vibes of the team have continued to be good despite losses and Darko showed he isn't an idiot coach.

Yes it may have cost us 1-2 draft spots but Darko had to fix what was happening at that time.

[Pointgod]

This thread is kind of funny after you read the draft thread. So much doom and gloom in here by some posters when there are a bunch of players who seem to be around the same level within the top 10 lol. What a contrast.

If you’re so invested in this draft then get excited about the potential players available instead of bitching and moaning about something that’s pretty much set now

Bro every team’s fan thinks their draft pick is going to be an allstar at this point. The reality is that the hit rate of getting an allstar drops outside of the top 5 as you go lower down in the lottery. There’s a huge difference between nabbing an allstar in the top 5 picks vs getting a good starter/bench contributor in the later picks.

[TorontoBarneys]

This thread is kind of funny after you read the draft thread. So much doom and gloom in here by some posters when there are a bunch of players who seem to be around the same level within the top 10 lol. What a contrast.

If you’re so invested in this draft then get excited about the potential players available instead of bitching and moaning about something that’s pretty much set now

That was involve certain posters to do something other than complain.

I see a lot of fun guys even if we slip a bit. Fears, Queen, CMB.

I don't think we want for any kind of positional need, maybe a decent back-up C for Poeltl next season but that doesn't require burning our best pick.

We can just draft BPA and figure it out later. The lottery does seem to being evened out in terms of the talent, with only Flagg being in a clear tier of his own.