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Fuel to the fire…
Posted by: Ryan Martinez on August 2nd, 2012
The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of the Utah Jazz.Scott Howard-Cooper wrote this article on the Warriors summer and how it puts them in a nice position to improve…
http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/08/02/summer-treats-warriors-nicely/?ls=iref:nbahpt1
Even without the most recent additions that the Warriors made, I thought that they would be a much better team that would challenge for a playoff spot, but that’s really not the point.
A few months ago, many people were talking about how it wouldn’t be a very bad thing to lose Golden States draft pick this year because we would get it next year, but honestly, with the potential line-ups that they have, they could be challenging for a playoff spot, now with how strong the west will be this year, I believe that that will result in the pick landing somewhere between the 10th and the 15th. At that point in next years draft, the likelihood of adding the caliber of player that we could have got at 8 this year, are extremely-slim to none.
So, with all of that, I feel nothing but anger and disappointment in the tanking that Golden State was able to do to secure that spot in the draft. I feel there is something that can be done about it, and I hope the NBA will do something to discourage teams from tanking the way Golden State did.
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I am also very unhappy that we lost that pick, but I don’t see the NBA ever doing anything about it. Just think if we had taken their pick of Harrison Barnes. Enough said.
This has happened before and it will happen again. Think San Antonio circa 96-97.
We as Jazz fans seem to always gripe about the past or what could have been (example Jordan’s push off against Russell in the Finals… The Jazz would have won only if) I really could careless that the Jazz did not get the pick. They were able to pick up what I feel are three key players that will help the Jazz make a run at it this year. I feel Ma Williams is now going to have the chance to shine. Something he did not have in Atlanta with Smith and Jo Johnson. Mo Williams and Foye bring some shooting that the Jazz have not had for a long time. So in my mind I think the Jazz season is going to turn out better than had they had the Warrior pick this year. I think they would have seen this individual sit the pine or play D league. But the Jazz now have 3 guys that will play lots of minutes and help the Jazz compete now instead of later.
Just my opinion
Yes it happens but it shouldn’t. The NBA should take a page from the Olympics this year and the whole Badmitton thing that went down. Intentional tanking is detrimental to any sport. Any team, in any sport, should compete to the highest level possible in any situation. I’m so glad the Jazz organization has this mentality. I’d be furious as a fan to pay good money to go see game to only have these “professionals” throw a game (or several games) just to get a better pick. I honestly think the NBA should do something similar to what the Olympics did in the form of suspensions, fines, or punishments to the tanking organization.
I agree that the NBA should be looking at that incident as an example, but NOT BECAUSE THE TEAMS SHOULD BE PUNISHED!!!!!!!! The point that needs to be gleaned from what happened in badminton is to MAKE SURE CRAPPY SYSTEMS AREN’T USED. The badminton players were just making their best effort to win the gold medal, and the extremely poor conditions of contest meant that the best way to do that was to try and lose; it’s an absolute travesty that they were punished at all, much less disqualified. It’s the same in the NBA (and other professional sports) where the poorly designed draft system incentivizes bad teams to be as bad as possible to increase their ability to improve through the draft.
This is not the first time that it’s been suggested, but the right way to order the draft is to give the highest pick to the team that wins the most games after being mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. So the worst team still has the most games that count towards that (they’re the first eliminated), but every team has incentive to play as well as they possibly can all season long.
You get into the same situation with just giving the highest pick to team #17. The problem is sometimes the #1 draft pick is a higher reward than a playoff matchup versus the top seed. Which will still result in tanking, you’ll just see teams close to the bottom of the playoffs tanking instead of teams out of the playoffs tanking. I think you have to give teams 8-10 the highest chance, with teams 6-7 and 11-12 the second highest, and so on, so every team has a chance, with teams 8-10 having the best chance.
How do you police it, unless the team outright says they are tanking it?
Even with GSW owners saying that last year, there was still no penalty in play to enforce it.
It’s been going on long before the lottery. The lottery was instituted to try and cut back on tanking and it has helped a little.
Jazzaholic