Team Tank 2022-23

[F Gump]

Feels like everyone on the team tank train completely disregards human emotions.




Is anyone in the West?

I understand why folks would want to tank (with 9 games left lol) but the idea of getting Luka and Kyrie together in the playoffs is far from meaningless.

This team is all over the place and the West is absolute garbage right now.  We could lose out and get our pick or end up making a push to the conference finals and neither outcome would surprise me at this point.

You aren't following my point at all.

You talk about how meaningful the playoffs would be, and my thinking is, "Really? What playoffs?" Just because they want to get there doesn't mean a thing.

I am speaking to the idea -- often expressed, and again implied in your response -- that this Mavs team certainly WILL make the playoffs, if they (simply) want to. That ignores the reality that -- even with Luka and Kyrie -- they are a fairly bad team. That's what renders a "decision to win the rest of the games" fairly meaningless -- ie, meaningless in relation to what it will produce. They aren't good enough to decide themselves into the playoffs, no matter how hard they want it.

Evidence? They are a sub .500 team since the trade, who can lose to the worst teams in the league even when the Mavs are trying hard to win. IOW making a decision to win is LIKELIEST to produce more losses than wins. Which may not even get them into the play-in, much less the playoffs.

I see a BAD team, not a good one. They are horrendous on defense and rebounding. There's no reason to think those issues are fixable; they simply are who they are, and it means it's going to be a struggle to win against anyone.

But it would take a "lose every game" mentality to get a pick, and I agree with you that they probably don't have the stomach to think past the moment and opt for that. So they will try their hardest to get a playoff slot, and fall flat on their faces, I suspect. Is missing the playoffs in that manner "meaningful"? Maybe it is.