Official Utah/Minnesota/Philadelphia Pick Watch

[Elizah Huge]

I think the play in is basically a guarantee for the Wolves, but they could still lose the play in games.

Yeah, it’s hard to see them missing the play-in game at this point. OKC would really have to make a push for them to miss it. I think we’re trending towards missing it ourselves.

 

[Elizah Huge]

Durant has an MCL strain and will be reevaluated in two weeks.

The Brooklyn pick currently sits at 29 right now and Philadelphia is at 24.

Brooklyn is only 3 games up in the loss column from pick 23. I think they’ll fall a couple spots in this timeframe and our pick from them gets a few spots better.

Our own pick is sitting at 9 and Minnesota is at 14. Minnesota is on a 4-game win streak but have a tough schedule coming up. Hopefully they go into a slump again. Our own pick is the one we can control and we aren’t far off from 5th or 6th.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Durant has an MCL strain and will be reevaluated in two weeks.

The Brooklyn pick currently sits at 29 right now and Philadelphia is at 24.

Brooklyn is only 3 games up in the loss column from pick 23. I think they’ll fall a couple spots in this timeframe and our pick from them gets a few spots better.

Our own pick is sitting at 9 and Minnesota is at 14. Minnesota is on a 4-game win streak but have a tough schedule coming up. Hopefully they go into a slump again. Our own pick is the one we can control and we aren’t far off from 5th or 6th.

If we landed 7th or 8th I'd honestly be pretty okay with that. Flat odds give you a shot at jumping top 4 there. If you don't get the lotto luck and are able to get Anthony Black or Wallace... that's a helluva consolation prize.

 

[Elizah Huge]

If we landed 7th or 8th I'd honestly be pretty okay with that. Flat odds give you a shot at jumping top 4 there. If you don't get the lotto luck and are able to get Anthony Black or Wallace... that's a helluva consolation prize.

We need to take advantage of this and make a couple trades.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

Little 4 game win streak for the Wolves sadly.

Watched a bit of the Rockets game, and both these teams are just dreadful. I get the tank skeptics, and I think the Rockets are such a good picture of the dangers of it. I think Jalen Green is a great player, but running a selfish show with KPJ with seemingly little coaching I think will set him back in the long-run. Sengun, Jabari, and Jalen are all great prospects, but I expect their core to fizzle like Chicago's and all play better after leaving. The only vet presence on the Rockets is Eric Gordon and he is a baby back bitch who has been open about hating playing with the young guns. I am a biased Rockets hater, but I do think they are giving them too loose of a leash and prioritizing being bad too much that they'll struggle to ever build a winning culture

The current Rockets are a terrifying cautionary tale about the dangers of tanking.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

The current Rockets are a terrifying cautionary tale about the dangers of tanking.

I mean they had a chance to draft Mobley... Green is fine but might just be empty calories. This is their third year in the dumps and if they land Wemby, Scoot, or one of the lesser talents they will have Green/Sengun/Smith Jr./Eason... and they have infinity cap space if they want to make a win now move. Their issue is they also have some picks out to OKC that will come due and will be ugly if they don't get better... but I wouldn't write them off just yet.

Also, what were their alternatives? Hold on to an unhappy James Harden? Win 35-40 games while paying James and then he walks in FA? Imagine walking into the middle of a house that was being remodeled and being like "well this **** looks awful!". Its supposed to look bad for a little while. Its okay.

 

[FalseFlagg K]

MCL sprains can be bitches. KD might be out for quite a while

 

[FrenchJazzFa]

Tanking is allways dangerous. They are plenty of team who did that and ended beeing bad for many years , just by picking the wrong guys. I prefer the DA strategy which for me consist as keeping a not too bad team, and tanking only one year. Then if you get a good pick, and some salary flexibility, you can rebuild quite fast. I still believe we are only 2 pieces to be a great team. Victor ( we can allways dream) and a good FA and here we are. Thats the main reason why i think DA will not trade people unless the return is good for us.

 

[framer]

I mean they had a chance to draft Mobley... Green is fine but might just be empty calories. This is their third year in the dumps and if they land Wemby, Scoot, or one of the lesser talents they will have Green/Sengun/Smith Jr./Eason... and they have infinity cap space if they want to make a win now move. Their issue is they also have some picks out to OKC that will come due and will be ugly if they don't get better... but I wouldn't write them off just yet.

Also, what were their alternatives? Hold on to an unhappy James Harden? Win 35-40 games while paying James and then he walks in FA? Imagine walking into the middle of a house that was being remodeled and being like "well this **** looks awful!". Its supposed to look bad for a little while. Its okay.

I feel very comfortable writing off the Rockets for quite a while.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I feel very comfortable writing off the Rockets for quite a while.

I mean sure… but if they had kept Harden we are writing them off even longer… some teams tanking isn’t something they are super excited to do. When Houston did it it was the right call… it’s just that they had already dug themselves a bit of a hole and then they didn’t nail the draft… yet… but you write em off and they land Wemby or Scoot… then what?

It’s just funny that we mock teams for choosing to tank when they fail and we mock teams that push all in and fail or that stay in the middle and fail… like this **** is hard and there isn’t a perfect formula. Houston is a cautionary tale about tanking but it’s also a cautionary tale of building around guys like Green and KP jr… who are stat mongers but not winners yet. There are a million ways to fail… pointing to teams like the Rockets and saying “look how ****** that’s going right now!!! Tanking is dumb!” Is premature and ignores that there are a million ways to fail. Everyone is heaping praise on a middle build strategy… which is literally how you get 20 years of meh like the Wiz have had.

You can hit on a lay lotto pick and it might work… but we also might be Wiz West for 3-4 years and culture will suffer under that strategy too.

 

[framer]

It’s just funny that we mock teams for choosing to tank when they fail and we mock teams that push all in and fail or that stay in the middle and fail…

Why the Hell would anyone mock a team that tries it's best to compete, then fails? That is what the sport is about. Of course you are going to mock teams that go out of their way to fail as a strategy then fail. They deserve that. I hope OKC never has success. I want Philly to never go to the finals. I want every team that adopts hard core tanking as a strategy to fail hard and lose fans. I hate the playoff push when the team that you are jockeying for position with plays a team that sits 4 out of their 5 starters. Some family paid money they probably couldn't afford to go to that game. I wish nothing but pain on the teams that adopt this strategy.

As far as Wemby goes, if we can't get him, I won't be torn up if he goes to a dysfunctional team that can't put stuff around him, like Dallas with Luka. Failing that, I hope he goes to a small market that regularly competes, like Indiana. Him going to Houston is probably the worst possible outcome for him personally.

 

[sip]

I mean they had a chance to draft Mobley... Green is fine but might just be empty calories. This is their third year in the dumps and if they land Wemby, Scoot, or one of the lesser talents they will have Green/Sengun/Smith Jr./Eason... and they have infinity cap space if they want to make a win now move. Their issue is they also have some picks out to OKC that will come due and will be ugly if they don't get better... but I wouldn't write them off just yet.

Also, what were their alternatives? Hold on to an unhappy James Harden? Win 35-40 games while paying James and then he walks in FA? Imagine walking into the middle of a house that was being remodeled and being like "well this **** looks awful!". Its supposed to look bad for a little while. Its okay.

No kidding. To use the rockets as a cautionary tale is pretty comical. They are only 2.5 years into what was truly a start from nothing rebuild. They basically had zero young pieces when the Harden drama started because they kept pushing their cards all in to win now with Harden. They had no other option than a total rebuild. So far they have done a pretty good job of assembling a collection of young talent. You mentioned a few of the guys but they also have Porter Jr who is 22, Kenyon Martin who is 22 and a few other extremely young prospects. Add in a very likely top 4 pick plus them actually being a solid free agent destination and things can turn around quickly.