Optimists rejoice! HoopsWorld.com: Surprise Playoff Teams

[JawsGT]

Not true. Those that wanted to tank early in the season were correct. Hell, even MU wanted to tank. If you have a crap team, then make it as crappy as possible.

Once Dolan nixed the Lowry trade and the team started on that great run a lot of the tankers were more than happy to hop on the playoff bandwagon and even most of the hardcore tankers realized their ship had sailed and there would be no top 5 pick. I think the only ones really pissed off are a few of those that still wanted to trade Lowry at the deadline.

Bold: bullshit. How can you even make the claim that that was correct? It wasn't correct, because either way there is NO right and wrong with this. Furthermore, the Gay trade wasn't made to get worse, it was made to get better. Think about it now, or even try to think about how you thought early in the season, but in no way does trading Rudy demonstrate an attempt at tanking. Rudy would have been the perfect tank commander. Hell, we would have had a better shot at tanking had MU did nothing. But he didn't, he moved the two pieces (Bargs and Gay) that were holding the team back and brought in guys that could help the bench.

Think about it, which team is better:

JV, Amir, Tross, Demar, Lowry with Vasquez and Patterson or

JV, Hans, Rudy, Ross, Augustin with Novak and Fields and whoever was returned from trading Amir, Demar and Lowry.

I guess the answer really depends on the return from the trades made, but hard to believe that at the start of the year those guys would have returned anything significant, and those are the guys that would have had to go to truly facilitate a tank IMO.

And, if you are tanking, which is about improving your draft position, then keeping Rudy and his massive contract wouldn't mean shit anyways, because you are basically relying on rookie scale contracts to build your team in the first few years, so having one albatroos of a contract isn't that inhibitory. Meanwhile, Rudy continues to play hero ball and chuck up everything, with Ross and JV getting some touches for the sake of 'development', and the team surely losing and descending the standings and joining the lottery battle. Also, why the hell keep Casey in the offseason, if you plan on tanking, while it's clear that Casey is goona coach his team to win. Defensive minded coaches aren't great tank generals.

I just don't understand why so many of you are convinced that the Rudy trade was a sign of tanking. The fact we traded our supposedly most talented player just doesn't cut it. The rumours about the possible Lowry trade are just that, rumours. We knew nothing of the Bargs and Rudy moves, so why should we trust a rumour about Lowry given that rumours were coming in left, right, and center about alot of players?

I did not believe in the offseason that MU would tank, and I still do not believe that he attempted to do so this season, and I also believe that will not tank during his tenure here. I think he knew there was a foundation here worth building on, he just needed to remove the ceiling (Bargs) and the roof (Gay), add a wall or two (the SAC players) and see where that takes us. This was the wait and see approach. Take out the deadweight and see what we have. Which is a pretty good basetball team thats still improving, is young, and has flexibility...Thank you Masai Ujiri!!