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Following Potential 2026 Draftees

Schrödinger's Gerbil said:
I can see your point of view. One could argue that tanking doesn’t create genuine dissonance because players focus on their own incentives rather than the team’s long-term strategy. Their priority is to perform well, earn minutes, and secure future contracts, goals that naturally align with playing competitive basketball. From this perspective, the team's goal to lose is largely irrelevant to the players' day-to-day mindset, and players can compartmentalize, treating tanking as management’s problem while concentrating on their personal development and performance.

At the same time, it’s reasonable to argue that tanking does create cognitive dissonance for young players. They’re told their future depends on competing, winning their minutes, and proving they can help a team succeed, while simultaneously seeing the organization quietly shaping outcomes in the opposite direction. This mixed-incentive structure forces them to navigate two incompatible expectations at once: play to win, but also operate within a system that benefits from losing. For a developing player, that’s a fundamentally disorienting environment, and pretending otherwise overlooks how incentives shape behavior and confidence.

Both arguments have merit, and reasonable people can disagree on whether players can fully compartmentalize as you suggest. Even accounting for the human capacity to separate competing priorities, I remain skeptical that this constant, inherent conflict leaves young players unaffected. Navigating the tension between playing to win and operating within a system that benefits from losing can subtly influence their mindset, undermining focus, increasing stress, creating uncertainty in decision-making, and shaping how they assess risk, effort, and their own growth.
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Meh…I don’t see much merit in your view. That’s a wild stretch. Players do not have allegiance to their teams like fans. There are no incentives for the players to play losing basketball and there is no tension.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
Love that this got the eyeroll lol.

Friday night we played a key tank game... Svi/Love combined for 40 minutes... Taylor and Cody played zero. Not sure it flips that game but Svi and Love go for 18 on 7/12 shooting.

We have two top 10 picks not in the rotation. Let's get one or both in the rotation... there are minutes to be had.
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Yeah, throwing games by shoveling minutes at Cody and Hendricks does seem like a possible angle I guess.
 
KqWIN said:
I REALLY want top 4 in this draft.
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I think without a top 4 pick in this draft this iteration of the rebuild is going to be so mid... likely a retool in 3 years when Lauri may be fading out.
 
Ament might turn out pretty close to the guys in the top 4. His game has some nice pieces in place, and his body is just starting to develop.

He’s probably a lock to go top 6 when it’s said and done.
 
Cenac should be able to have a 2-way impact at the 4/5. He’s super young and his skill development is pretty theoretical, but the physical tools and flashes are probably enough to get him in the top 10.

He’ll likely play at the 5 better than Hendricks. He’s more natural and athletic at 235 lbs. His shot is too flat, but he has some touch.
 
Ferguson_Mellochill said:
Cenac should be able to have a 2-way impact at the 4/5. He’s super young and his skill development is pretty theoretical, but the physical tools and flashes are probably enough to get him in the top 10.

He’ll likely play at the 5 better than Hendricks.
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I want to like Cenac and believe in the tools, but he has been really bad. 3.2 block rate in college ball is horrendous for a guy with his tools
 
Don't have any second thoughts about fading Cenac early.

Still figuring out my opinion on Ament. Film does not look great, but the spreadsheet does.
 
The big red flag about Ament right now is his rim finishing. 49% at the rim is embarrassingly low. If he doesn't get the FT he's awful.

Rim FG% does improve at the next level, but it's not great to be 6'10 and lagging so far behind his peers.
 
Just catching up here. Dallas hasn’t had Davis and he is a big difference maker. They beat Denver on the road with him last night.

Three of our seven wins were by 4 points or less. Flip those and we’re tied for the 3rd worst lottery odds.

My main takeaway so far is if Walker doesn’t go down with injury we might be 10-10 or better right now. His injury likely saved the tank this year.

I think the rotation is hard because Will Hardy sees these guys in practice (Cody and Taylor) and knows they aren’t worthy of minutes and I wonder what type of message that sends to other young guys if they just magically ended up getting more minutes than them. Such as Brice, Collier, Walter, etc.

I’m a firm believer of getting out too early rather than too late. Cody is not an NBA rotation caliber player and I have my doubts about Taylor right now too.

I think if there is one thing to be upset about it might be the front office’s approach to the players on the fringes of the roster. Why even give Will the option to play Svi, Love, Anderson, etc? Mostly Svi at this point but Love has been knocking down shots too.

It’s also tough to be mad when the winning is led by Keyonte/Ace/Lauri who are all key parts of our next good team.

I don’t know… I really hate not cheering for wins. We need to keep our pick this season though.

I’d try to flip Svi/Love/Anderson for an expiring contract we can buy out plus a second or two. Exactly like what we did with Eubanks/Mills for Tucker. That would force Hardy to play worse players.

I do think we end up keeping our pick but we will need to make some adjustments to get there. We have the 10th hardest remaining strength of schedule and the weak teams in the East have multiple games left against each other where someone has to win.

We need to be bad this one last year but I can’t tell you how ready I am for us to get after it and start really winning games and being happy about it next season.

These thoughts are all kind of random and jumbled together I apologize in advance.
 
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Elizah Huge said:
Just catching up here. Dallas hasn’t had Davis and he is a big difference maker. They beat Denver on the road with him last night.

Three of our seven wins were by 4 points or less. Flip those and we’re tied for the 3rd worst lottery odds.

My main takeaway so far is if Walker doesn’t go down with injury we might be 10-10 or better right now. His injury likely saved the tank this year.

I think the rotation is hard because Will Hardy sees these guys in practice (Cody and Taylor) and knows they aren’t worthy of minutes and I wonder what type of message that sends to other young guys if they just magically ended up getting more minutes than them. Such as Brice, Collier, Walter, etc.

I’m a firm believer of getting out too early rather than too late. Cody is not an NBA rotation caliber player and I have my doubts about Taylor right now too.

I think if there is one thing to be upset about it might be the front office’s approach to the players on the fringes of the roster. Why even give Will the option to play Svi, Love, Anderson, etc? Mostly Svi at this point but Love has been knocking down shots too.

It’s also tough to be mad when the winning is led by Keyonte/Ace/Lauri who are all key parts of our next good team.

I don’t know… I really hate not cheering for wins. We need to keep our pick this season though.

I’d try to flip Svi/Love/Anderson for an expiring contract we can buy out plus a second or two. Exactly like what we did with Eubanks/Mills for Tucker. That would force Hardy to play worse players.

I do think we end up keeping our pick but we will need to make some adjustments to get there. We have the 10th hardest remaining strength of schedule and the weak teams in the East have multiple games left against each other where someone has to win.

We need to be bad this one last year but I can’t tell you how ready I am for us to get after it and start really winning games and being happy about it next season.

These thoughts are all kind of random and jumbled together I apologize in advance.
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I think the idea behind bringing in guys like Nurkic, Anderson, Niang and Love is that it creates a supportive environment for the young guys to develop in. These guys are good locker-room guys and ball movers. They're content to let the young kids play a leading role. They bring stability, maturity and perspective when the young guys are having their ups and downs.

I have no idea about Svi though. I think he does what Will Hardy asks, and he provides a certain benchmark that guys like Brice and Cody are supposed to reach in order to earn those minutes.

Along with Keyonte and Ace, Flip is also starting to improve and seems to have the right role to develop in at the moment. It seems like those are three pieces that carry over into the future, along with Lauri.
 
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