Minnesota Sports Forum

Having a high pick guarantees nothing, but it helps. Winning out way out of a top 5 pick hurts more than helps I think.

TRKO wrote:Having a high pick guarantees nothing, but it helps. Winning out way out of a top 5 pick hurts more than helps I think.

That's been my stance as well.

TRKO wrote:Having a high pick guarantees nothing, but it helps. Winning out way out of a top 5 pick hurts more than helps I think.

Too much of a crapshoot to worry about it. The lottery is unpredictable. And the prospects are unpredictable (most years like this).

Rest your key players more (reduce minutes) but if you had a top 3-4 pick----you take the pick. Maybe that's why Pek's "hurt".

But trading Martin is a no go-----you need that sharp shooter on this team.

Drafting is never the answer to everything, but I'll say this: I don't think we'll be drafting in the lottery after this year. Rubio and crew and ready to take that next step and vie for a PO spot. So, we have to make this pick count. Quality bigs are hard to find-----we are in prime position to get one of them.

We aren't going to win out of a high pick. We'll be lucky to go .500 the rest of the way with our schedule. Tanking doesn't make sense for lottery balls for us. It doesn't guarantee us anything but a slightly better chance to win a system we haven't won in 14 tries with even higher odds than we'll have this year. This team winning a few games is going to help in the long run more than ping pong balls. It shows players how hard you have to work to win on a consistent basis. Cleveland should be a good example of how you don't have to tank to be rewarded in the draft so you should try to win when you can to actually instill the winning culture. Tanking does not instill a winning culture.

I think there is a difference between tanking and developing players. I am for the development of our young core.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I think there is a difference between tanking and developing players. I am for the development of our young core.

When I say tanking I mean seeing what the whole roster can do over playing Martin 35+ mins every game. I want to see guys like LaVine, Payne, Bennett, ect get big time mins over proven vets. I feel like Flip is coaching to win, which he definitely should. It's his job. I want to see us coach for the future. Put some of these guys in major mins and in high leverage situations.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I think there is a difference between tanking and developing players. I am for the development of our young core.

Young players traditionally don't contribute much to winning efforts so developing is to a degree tanking. If you can go .500 with your regular players, but choose to play younger players who can get you a .300-.400 winning percentage then you are tanking. You can title it developing or tanking. They both result in losing games you could potentially win if you actually try.

khans2k5 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:I think there is a difference between tanking and developing players. I am for the development of our young core.

Young players traditionally don't contribute much to winning efforts so developing is to a degree tanking. If you can go .500 with your regular players, but choose to play younger players who can get you a .300-.400 winning percentage then you are tanking. You can title it developing or tanking. They both result in losing games you could potentially win if you actually try.

Well said.

khans2k5 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:I think there is a difference between tanking and developing players. I am for the development of our young core.

Young players traditionally don't contribute much to winning efforts so developing is to a degree tanking. If you can go .500 with your regular players, but choose to play younger players who can get you a .300-.400 winning percentage then you are tanking. You can title it developing or tanking. They both result in losing games you could potentially win if you actually try.

I don't think it is that clear. Tanking is parking Martin on the bench in street clothes the rest of the year. I don't think you can consider limiting him to 30 minutes so LaVine sees more time next to Rubio tanking.