Minus 8.

No rebounds or assists.

So they will tank for the last 10 games and enter a race with Orlando, Wizards and Pacers for the fifth worst record. It is bad, but not as bad as tanking from weeks ago.

If we have flattened odds, we would not have blatant all-year tankings like the Spurs, but we might have a tanking race between the teams *inside* the play-in to get out. That is very bad.

BTW, I just remembered that Hubert was high on the Blazers as a model of hybrid approach done well. They have had injuries, but that take has not aged very well …

This incentivizes fringe playoff teams to tank, precisely the kind of team that makes more noise when it does tank.

Maybe, but this whole conversation got started because Portland was competing for a play-in spot and has bottomed out and been tanking the last few weeks. At least totally flattening the odds (or reversing the odds) disincentivizes teams from totally bottoming out.

The simple easy way to fix tanking is just to remove the maximum individual salary. We’ve discussed that ad nauseam though I feel like

Would it be so bad to have all non-playoff teams have equal odds at the #1 pick?

This incentivizes fringe playoff teams to tank, precisely the kind of team that makes more noise when it does tank.

I don’t like this kind of ideas where you favor winning teams in the late parts of the season. I think that system can be gamed so that an already good team gets a top prospect.

I personally would have a draft wheel. I believe whatever balance you lose by not awarding the top picks to the worst teams, you get by not having stupid trades where a team trades a 1st round pick that ultimately ends up being Jayson Tatum.

EDIT: However, entertainment-wise, I understand the appeal of the lottery and the uncertainty of traded picks.

1) It took about 1/4 of the season before Thibs shortened the rotation and cut out Cam, Rose and Fournier. We were below 500 when that happened and then we won 9 in a row.

2) After that 9 game win streak. We had a period where we won some games but also lost a lot of games bc we coughed up leads and/or couldn’t close out games. Part of that was lack of experience in those situations.

3) We clearly got better once we acquired Hart. He shored up our bench A LOT.

Our roster is full of young players. Mitch might be pretty close to a finished product at this point. And obviously RJ has the biggest leap he has to make to justify his new salary. But IQ, Grimes and McBride I think can all get a lot better. Grimes and McBride didn’t play that many minutes their rookie seasons. McBride in particular I think could make a big leap if the offense we saw from him the last few games becomes a consistent thing.

If we did nothing this off season but brought everyone back, Thibs wouldn’t have to spend 6 weeks figuring out his rotation. We could also go into next season with a full 10 man rotation that I think Thibs would feel pretty confident in playing.

I say all of this bc the last 3 games have looked rough. Then again all 3 were close losses and the last one was on a back to back without Brunson.

So yeah, we’ll be underdogs in the playoffs and yeah this little losing streak feels bad bc of the timing near the end of the season. But 8 games to go is still a lot of games and plenty of time to get it back on track. It’s also worrisome to see Randle regress right now.

But here’s the thing. 2 seasons ago we were riding super high going into the playoffs and then came crashing down big time. Maybe hitting this little road bump now will be good for the team and for Randle cause it’s giving them a little taste and they aren’t too high on themselves. Randle has done some great work this season to get back on track mentally but this type of work is never done. I’d rather he be reminded of that now than in game one of the playoffs.

@ShamsCharania
The NBA has rescinded Dallas star Luka Doncic’s 16th technical foul, making him eligible to play tonight vs. Pacers.

Come on, Luka! Go do Luka things for a few more games!