I can guarantee he would.Also something that gets lost in translation is that even Hinkie who is the only gm to truely min/max the art of tanking did it in an era where worst record gave you 25% of the lottery balls.
I can guarantee you even he wouldnt do it for 14%.
Twice. For the best big of the previous generation and for the best big of the next generation.Spurs tanked
Sure buddy. His list has Morant, Zion and Jaylen yet Kyrie, Trae, KAT and Beal couldn't be in the conversation. That is just stupid. By the way you should actually do a little research before talking **** and saying guys aren't even all nba types. Kyrie had been all nba 2nd team once and third team twice. KAT has been all nba third team twice. Trae has been all nba 3rd team once. Beal had been all nba 3rd team once.I'm sorry, but this is borderline trolling now. You list guys who aren't even All-NBA types(you know, top 15 in the league in a given year) and who have struggled to lead teams to even just a playoff berth as #1 options as players you could build a title winner around?
I get you have a boner for the idea of trading Markkanen for any offer that comes in, but this is just stupid.
BTW, lets remember what OKC did with SGA for 2 years in a row to secure their tank. There were legit conversations about whether they need to trade him because he wouldn't want to spend another year missing the last 2 months of the season because of their tank.OKC also tanked… but they did it while gathering a war chest of assets… they are setup for current contention and long term success. I know SGA… there are different versions on the same theme. It’s a legit pathway to take. Not sure why anti-tankers are hell bent on invalidating it. And yes like ANY pathway it can be unsuccessful.
SA also did the half *** rebuild on the fly for a couple years before actually going into the tank. At this point I think Ryan needs to be real with himself and embrace it one way or another.BTW, lets remember what OKC did with SGA for 2 years in a row to secure their tank. There were legit conversations about whether they need to trade him because he wouldn't want to spend another year missing the last 2 months of the season because of their tank.
Hopefully what we have seen so far this offseason is a clear sign that we are buying into the tank this year. The rest of the west is getting better while we are setting up to be extremely young and inexperienced outside of Lauri, Sexton, Collins and Clarkson.SA also did the half *** rebuild on the fly for a couple years before actually going into the tank. At this point I think Ryan needs to be real with himself and embrace it one way or another.
Good postOf course it's true. Essentially, you are confirming that having a top-5 pick is by far the most certain way to drafting "a number 1 on a championship team". Because if the team decides to acquire such a player via free agency, trade, or drafting in the 6-30 range, the chances are going to be way, way lower than 12%.
In the last 15 years there were only 5 players "who have shown this type of talent" drafted in the rest of the first round (Curry, Leonard, Giannis, Jokic, SGA), 5/(25X15)=about 1% chance per pick. And only one, Jokic, was drafted in the second round - 0.2% chance. On average, you will have to draft for a century in the 6-30 range (1 pick per draft) to draft a championship player, and for 500 years - by using only a single second-round pick per year.
Most of these players remained with their own teams, with only SGA, Leonard, and Davis changing teams via trades. I will be generous and add to this the Paul-to-Clippers trade, which happened within the same timeframe. So, there were 4 chances to obtain that caliber of players in 15 years. Almost all of the teams would be ready to trade for such a player every year, so we will conservatively estimate the trade chances as 4/(25X15)=1%. Finally, here are the chances for a free agent signing ( LeBron in 2010, 2014 and 2018, Durant in 2016 and 2019, Kawhi in 2019) - 6 cases. Almost every team would gladly create space for such signing, so the conservative chances are 6/(25X15)=1.5%. And these are extremely generous estimates, assuming that a small-market team like the Jazz and the Lakers have the same chances of getting LeBron or Durant via trade or free agency.
So, trying to obtain "such a player" by securing a top 5 pick has the 12 times higher probability of success than through picking 6-30, 60 times higher chances than drafting in the second round, 12 times higher chances than getting him in a trade, and 9 times higher than signing him as a free agent.
In short, no other strategy comes even close to simply getting the top 5 pick.
Agree. Lauri is young enough to play at high level for the next 5 years. And with the draft assets we have and the young players developing, anything could happen in those years. Plus we would be a contender much sooner than with a complete rebuilt.Honestly, I wouldn't trade Lauri. How easy is it to find a 7-ft, 50-40-88 guy who's athletic and likes living in the mountains? Jazz should hold their cards for now.
Well, I tried to take your lead: you mentioned the last 15 years but your list did not include Harden (drafted 3rd in 2009). I thought about that and realized that you are right and that there is another tier of players, mostly guards - Harden, Lillard, Mitchell, Brunson, Kyrie, Butler - who can be the best player on a perennially good playoff team but they are not good enough to be a true alpha on a championship contender. They are a perfect number two on a championship team though. It is hard to differentiate them from true championship leaders though, since they are tremendous floor-raisers, but again, a guard must be truly remarkable (in the mold of Curry or SGA) to be on par with the two-way larger players like Jokic, AD or Giannis. By the way, following this logic I would exclude Morant from your list: I have a hard time seeing MEM with Morant as their best players in the NBA Finals with a decent chance of winning, he will probably turn out similar to Lillard and Mitchell in the level of impact.First, I think you were being rather more stringent with your list than I was with mine. If I followed my original way of thinking, I might add players like Butler, Booker, Mitchell, Brunson, maybe even Haliburton and others to your list (players that haven't achieved the pinnacle, but appear to be the key pieces on contenders or near contenders if they can get the right teammates around them). Another reason I think you may have been a bit more picky with your list is that my list of top-5 players drafted in the past 15 years is accountable for one actual championship where the named player was clearly the team's best player over the course of the season. Your list of non top-five choices accounts for 8 championships (actually 4 if we exclude Curry who was drafted more than 15 years ago).