Tbh, I think this kind of demonstrates my frustration with much of the tanking crowd. You listed all the ways the Jazz could have improved, but they did not even try. I remember those discussions, and so many were adamant against doing anything besides tanking. Those who were the most against doing anything that could improve the roster were the ones who wanted to tank the most. People can only see tanking as a path to get better. I find the tanking discussion extremely annoying because it's often a closed door. It's easy to say, "we'll rebuild and get draft picks and draft great players" without acknowledging the extreme difficulty/luck required in that happening. OTOH, we know the difficulty of building from the margins. Yeah it's hard to hit a home run on a late draft pick, trade, or FA move with more limited options....that doesn't necessarily mean that it's the worse option.
What it really boils down to is this idea that tanking is the only way and that it's necessary. Also, I cannot stand is when pro-tank people where it as a badge of honor that says they are the one's willing to sacrifice and do what's necessary. This adds to this false dichotomy that tanking is the only way. But those same fans who are willing to "sacrifice" the current state likely enjoy the comfort of having no expectations to win and are also unwilling to "sacrifice" any threat of the future to win now. I can't blame anyone for the way they feel about things, if it feels better to suck now with a promise of hope later instead of trying to win more now with a promise of sucking later....so be it. But don't act like it's the only path and any considerations of other routes is because that person just isn't willing to deal with the losing.
And I'm sure there is some annoying stuff coming the other way as well....but just for me personally, I find it always to be frustrating/circular conversation and it's not because people argue that tanking can't work or hasn't ever worked. It's because people argue that only tanking can work.
