2025-2026 Tank Race Prediction Contest and Current Results Thread

[fishonjazz]

Yes, you are an example of a tank anxiety person who doesn't understand the value of development through trying to put a competitive team on the court for as many games as you can get away with.

Jazz also are a tankxiety person

 

[Elizah Huge]

Dallas has the 3rd hardest remaining schedule and we have the 24th.

Dropping both in Dallas was really clutch and may be the difference in the end. Which would be magnificent after how hard Dallas fans cried.

Once we get past the upcoming Pelicans and Wizards games I bet we will be in the top-10 in the last 20 games for SOS.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Jazz also are a tankxiety person

If they were they would have traded Lauri. They would have signed Walker to an extension so they could sit him games.

They aren't.

Y'all can just admit y'all were babies and wrong while me and @Elizah Huge were right

 

[fishonjazz]

If they were they would have traded Lauri. They would have signed Walker to an extension so they could sit him games.

They aren't.

Y'all can just admit y'all were babies and wrong while me and @Elizah Huge were right

There is actually more than one way to step up a tank when you get worried. Jazz got worried and stepped up the tank (even though they said they wouldn't) This is obvious to anyone who knows ball.

Also, I would still rather have worse record right now than we currently have.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

There is actually more than one way to step up a tank when you get worried. Jazz got worried and stepped up the tank (even though they said they wouldn't) This is obvious to anyone who knows ball.

Also, I would still rather have worse record right now than we currently have.

Yes, we know how you feel.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Once we get past the upcoming Pelicans and Wizards games I bet we will be in the top-10 in the last 20 games for SOS.

I mean that's 50% of the remaining schedule... it all counts.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

If they were they would have traded Lauri. They would have signed Walker to an extension so they could sit him games.

They aren't.

Y'all can just admit y'all were babies and wrong while me and @Elizah Huge were right

Based on what I've heard I think the plan was going to be trade Walk... then it fell through. Then he got hurt so it wasn't an issue. Just an FYI.

Anyway... yall are currently right about Dallas not being as big of an issue as I thought. That easily could have flipped if we simply continued half the stuff we were doing. We got grimy... which is what I wanted all along. The race isn't over though and I have a feeling Lauri will be active in our homestand. I think Dallas still ends up in the race but we may beat them by 3ish games.

 

[jazznik]

However I'm not sure what you base 18-19 wins on? Last 3 seasons there has been 1 (2022-23), 2 (2023-24) and 3 (2024-25) sub 20 win teams and 4th lowest win total in the last 10 years (counting back) has been: 21, 21, 27, 24, 22, 20, 22, 24, 28, 23

I base it exactly on the last several seasons. As you can see, in the last 3 seasons more and more teams were finishing the season with horrible records. Last season - in a strong draft - for the team in the 6th place at the similar time in season (which, incidentally, also had 14 wins) they had to finish with 18 wins for the 3rd place and with 20 wins - for the 4th.

This season we have an even stronger draft. And also, unlike the last season, we have two tanking teams (the Jazz and Washington) who have their pick top-8 protected and would try to avoid finishing even in the 6th place. This season's tanking is unlikely to be less intense than in 2024/25.

 

[jazznik]

It looks like the Jazz are in a good position to hold on on the 6th place (4% chance of losing their pick). Their best shot to drop to the 5th is letting the Pelicans to surpass them. And while this hope does look silly on the face of it (New Orleans was pretty bad lately), however the Pels are actually doing pretty good playing against other tanking teams: they are 2-1 this year and 4-2 since December 1. The tankers are gladly letting them win.

And the Pels still have 8 more games against the tankers, including THREE against the Jazz. They can conceivably go 6-2 if the Jazz are smart. And if New Orleans somehow picks up another 6-7 wins in the remaining 37 games against the non-tankers (luckily, their two last games of the season are against Boston and Minnesota who could very well be resting players) then they can finish with 22-23 wins. That allows the Jazz to add 8-9 wins and still drop to the 5th place.

 

[Zombie]

You can bake it in if you want. But they flat out told us they wouldn't do the stuff they are doing...

I still don't understand why anyone took baby Ainge's response to the question of whether the team would tank, or manipulate minutes, at face value. Andy's question basically painted him into a corner - there's really no other answer he could have given. Remember, a few years ago Mark Cuban was fined over half a million dollars, not for the Mavs tanking, but for admitting that they were.

 

[framer]

You can bake it in if you want. But they flat out told us they wouldn't do the stuff they are doing... and they weren't doing it until the Bulls game. It was fair to question. I am going to go ahead and guess they had their own tankxiety attack before the pulled the ripcord.

or Lauri is actually really sick.

Ball is still in the air but I'm happy to be wrong.

I'd bet that Lari is actually sick. If it was the playoffs he would probably go though. . .

 

[HermanG]

I base it exactly on the last several seasons. As you can see, in the last 3 seasons more and more teams were finishing the season with horrible records. Last season - in a strong draft - for the team in the 6th place at the similar time in season (which, incidentally, also had 14 wins) they had to finish with 18 wins for the 3rd place and with 20 wins - for the 4th.

This season we have an even stronger draft. And also, unlike the last season, we have two tanking teams (the Jazz and Washington) who have their pick top-8 protected and would try to avoid finishing even in the 6th place. This season's tanking is unlikely to be less intense than in 2024/25.

That doesnt hold water at all. 2024 (garbage draft) was the 2nd most tanky year in the flattened odds era, and 2023 (great draft) was the least tanky.

Just because there were more tankers last year than the year before doesnt mean its a valid sample.

What I buy is the idea that these 2nd apron penalties etc. spread the wealth around meaning the mid teams are better now than they were (which means tanking teams win less against them). However 1 year does not prove a trend yet.