Those are all 1st round picks?
Yeah. Cavs rolls into a 2nd round if they miss the playoffs I think.
I donāt hate a team deciding not to tank.
Itās one thing not to tank when youāre at least making the playoffs, but Wizards even with Beal are just hoping for a first round exit and are likely to miss playoffs altogether.
Betting odds have Wizards as currently fourth longest shot to win the East, so looks like they are tanking just not intentionally.
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I definitely like Ja, but I talk shit on any player thats a rival to Curry lol.
I donāt think Grizz are better without him, but I think theyāre a much different team, and its close. Tyus probably 2nd best backup PG besides Poole in my opinion, his AST/TO ratio is better than CP3, and their defense is like 8 points better.
If he can get his defense up to average though, Grizz going to be hard to beat.
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Getting stuck in that play in spot forever is basketball hell. You still suck and you never get any good lottery picks. Would much rather my team tank and try to get lucky and get a great player in the lottery.
Itās only hell if you think all that matters is rings. I think some teams should aim lower and just try to put together a few years as a low-level playoff team that doesnāt come close to the Finals.
utah jazz appear to have executed this flawlessly for decades
Without looking deeply I think heās the best except for maybe Brogdon (who is a 1/2). Poole is a 2 guard but really thereās just guards, forwards, and bigs now. And even then thereās a ton of swing 2/3s (DeRozan, Butler, Klay, Jaylen Brown) and 4/5s (Giannis/AD).
Jones is clearly a point guard (1), in style not just stature. Iām kind of surprised heās back on Memphis and he reminds me of Travis Best (in regards to place itl) if anyone here knows the name. I donāt think heās actually good enough to start other than as a temporary Ryan Fitzpatrick type thing. Heās the best of the Cory Joseph/Ish Smith types.
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1st year Spurs fans get to watch a tank that I can remember.
Excited to be in the Wembanyama sweepstakes. College bball going to be extra fun watching this year with Arkansas having 3 1andD lottery picks.
Small market teams that would have financial difficulty if they were very bad for a long time are who I am thinking of. New Orleans, for example, should just try to make the playoffs and stay viable enough to not have to move rather than maximizing Zionās ability to win a title.
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I wouldāve categorized utah as one of those teams but maybe they have some big cult following Iām not aware of. in 48 seasons theyāve made the playoffs 32 times and only made the finals twice and it wasnāt particularly close either time (to be fair though, they lost to the GOAT bulls and one of the GOAT lakers teams)
Pacers, Grizzlies, TWolves all fall into this category.
Sacramento too but they just canāt get there. Maybe this year!
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That was a seriously great set-up.
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The thing with Utah is at least you could be excited because they looked like a good team during the regular season for a lot of those runs.
Magic is like .500 record and everyone knows they arenāt good.
Different levels of excitement. Itās not just about rings, itās about being able to be excited for your team. Iād be way more excited for a tanking team developing young talent you can watch grow than I would be for the magic.
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Unpopular take:
Championships as the be all and end all is kind of absurd and the reason lots of teams donāt follow the extremely simple tank + draft build strategy (somehow billion dollar organizations cant work this one out?) is the people who care so much about that donāt go to games really anyway.
Entertainment is kind of the be all and end all. 90 close games a year is a fantastic result. Sucking for years is a lot less fantastic, and a lot less profitable.
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This ORL/SAC summer league game I put on is great, going to 2nd OT right now which is sudden death LOL
EDIT: Crowd is hilarious, giving a standing ovation to Banchero trying to score first, he turns it over, then the crowd loudly boos SAC for calling timeout
EDIT2: A challenge in sudden death OT, never doubt the NBA to prolong the end of games
Lol Steph is the best.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/vvdrln/steph_didnt_want_anything_to_do_with_that_ball/
Warriors vs Grizz might be the best rivalry in basketball right now. You know the games next year going to be hype as hell. You know Ja going to hit him with the night night when they win.
Richard Jefferson is reffing this POR/NYK game, I have no idea why