Greg Miller re Tanking: "It's Immoral"

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

When the Jazz aim for a high lottery pick in the draft, it's not called 'tanking,' it's called 'development' or 'internal growth.' Basically, you take a small group of young players you want to develop, and then give them so little support off the bench that it becomes impossible to win games.

That's what the Jazz did in 2013/14 when our roster had guys like John Lucas III, Diante Garrett, and Jamal Tinsley. Tinsley might have actually been our best PG at times that year.

This year, we're developing Hood and Mitchell primarily.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Sure, but it's not like they started the season out saying they would tank. Curry had a bad ankle injury, then came back in March and re-injured it a game after returning and had to get ankle surgery.

Yes, they went into super tank mode in the home stretch of that year, but they never fully threw away a season.

And Klay played 24 mpg that year. He hardly got a ton of minutes.

They also traded away Monta Ellis for Bogut, even though Bogut wasn't going to play for the rest of the year.

 

[The Midnight]

Sure, but it's not like they started the season out saying they would tank. Curry had a bad ankle injury, then came back in March and re-injured it a game after returning and had to get ankle surgery.

Yes, they went into super tank mode in the home stretch of that year, but they never fully threw away a season.

And Klay played 24 mpg that year. He hardly got a ton of minutes.

I don't care how they started the tank, or whether they tank a whole year or half a year, what matters is whether they got result. They did. They got bad enough to grab our pick and Harrison Barnes.


We may have started the season wanting to make the playoffs. But **** happens. Gobert is out for nearly 2 months. We CLEARLY don't have enough talent to compete with the League as a whole. We need to recognize the situation and change tact the same way GSW did it.



You don't sail into the storm you're not equiped to survive. You re-tool.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

I think the front office knows this, and they also know that Favors is likely to walk for nothing at the end of the season. They've got Jerebko and Udoh on one-year deals at low numbers so they can throw them into a trade if they need to. They can call up Bradley and start giving him minutes mid-season.

Lets see what things look like 25 or 30 games into the season. If the Jazz are like 10-15 or 12-18 at that point, they'll probably look to make moves.

Look at Minnesota last season. The T'wolves were within reach of the 8th seed, but then turned back the last couple of months, ending up with 31 wins and the 7th pick in the draft.

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Keep in mind, in order to be successful you have to scout well and draft well, no matter where you pick. There's usually talent throughout the top half of the draft.

The Lakers have been awarded the #2 pick for 3 years in a row, and they've come out of it with D'Angelo Russell (gone), Brandon Ingram (so-so) and Lonzo Ball.

That said, this year is a really nice draft. There's meaningful talent throughout the top 10.

 

[The Midnight]

Keep in mind, in order to be successful you have to scout well and draft well, no matter where you pick. There's usually talent throughout the top half of the draft.

The Lakers have been awarded the #2 pick for 3 years in a row, and they've come out of it with D'Angelo Russell (gone), Brandon Ingram (so-so) and Lonzo Ball.

That said, this year is a really nice draft. There's meaningful talent throughout the top 10.

Are you talking about this past year's draft, or next year's draft?

 

[jom2003]

Losing games intentionally is bad. But simply not good enough to win isn't

 

[Ferguson_Mellochill]

Are you talking about this past year's draft, or next year's draft?

This upcoming draft (2018)

 

[Sugarless]

People always resort to the teams that were succesful after accumulating losing seasons, but never seem to remember those who were mediocre for years on end despite their losing efforts.

F*** tanking.

 

[hgb]

But Golden State clearly (and admittedly) tanked that year to get our pick and grabbed Harrison Barnes.


They have now won 2 Championships - I doubt their fans are complaining about their ticket prices now. In fact they've got a 5 year waiting list for their season tickets.

Harrison Barnes didn't win them those championships, though. He was an okay piece, but they won because they drafted Curry, Thompson and Green.

 

[Stoked]

If you sit your best players on the bench and try and throw games yes.

If you fully embrace a youth movement and your best players are a bunch of young inexperienced 19-21 year olds than no.

 

[Archie Moses]

I think this article was published last month but felt it's relevant to our current situation.


https://sportsnaut.com/2017/10/utah-jazz-ceo-tanking-just-immoral/





Is it immoral?


And if the Jazz will 'never' tank - are we just playing checkers while other teams (76ers, T'Wolves, etc) are playing chess?


Can we ever win a Championship without 'tanking' to get the best talent possible?

Although this holds true for many, in sports, if you're not looking into everything to get the edge on competition, you're probably not winning championships.