To tank or not to tank, that is the question.

basketballwacko2 · Post #1 » by **basketballwacko2** » Fri Jun 2, 2023 12:43 am

So I know there are some rumbling discontent amongst our ranks here in Pacers land that the team should have tanked more to get a better shot at Victor or at least a top 4 pick. My opinion is that the Pacers never get lucky in the "lottery" so It really wouldn't have helped.

But that's the past, are you willing to have another down year, another season of 24-32 wins, ending the year with our top players sitting like the 2022-23 season ended, so we can try to get a better draft pick in the 2024 draft? Will it matter, let us say the Pacers are 22-60 with the worst record and they end up picking 5th anyhow like Detroit did this year! How bad would that suck?

I want to get top players, I want to win games, I want to see the players we have play well. This is 2 years in a row of being in the higher part of the lottery. I say the Pacers need to draft better, look Kahwi and Giannis were 15th, Jimmy Butler was the 30th pick, Gobert 27th, Jokic, Middleton and Dre Green were 2nd round picks! IF you pick better you don't have to be drafting #1 or 2 over all to get good players and build a winning team.

Wizop · Post #2 » by **Wizop** » Fri Jun 2, 2023 1:35 pm

basketballwacko2 wrote:But that's the past, are you willing to have another down year, another season of 24-32 wins

barring injuries, the expectation is an improvement over last season's 35 wins. I like our chances. here's my early guess at a rotation.

Haliburton, Mathurin, Nesmith, Nwora, Turner
Nemhard, Hield, Duarte, rookie, Smith

basketballwacko2 · Post #3 » by **basketballwacko2** » Fri Jun 2, 2023 1:44 pm

Wizop wrote:
basketballwacko2 wrote:But that's the past, are you willing to have another down year, another season of 24-32 wins

barring injuries, the expectation is an improvement over last season's 35 wins. I like our chances. here's my early guess at a rotation.

Haliburton, Mathurin, Nesmith, Nwora, Turner
Nemhard, Hield, Duarte, rookie, Smith

That's assuming that there is no veteran signed or traded for we're still gonna need some salary to hit the floor.

I have a feeling it's gonna be something like Collins for a player we pick at 26 or 29. If trading for Collins who I view as a bad contract I'd like to get the #15 pick and give the Hawks Theis and both 26 and 29. Of course we would have to pic players for them and them pick a guy for us to complete after the new season starts.

xBulletproof · Post #4 » by **xBulletproof** » Sat Jun 3, 2023 3:31 pm

It's too late now. You had a 1 year window of opportunity before Haliburton is good enough to keep you from tanking by himself.

This last season was the chance to do it, while Hali is learning to lead a team as a #1 and Mathurin was a rookie. Didn't do it, and missed it. Now you have to pray a star falls to you in the draft or you make great moves.

Which is why I was all in for doing it last year, because once this season ended I knew that ship had sailed.

Wizop · Post #5 » by **Wizop** » Sat Jun 3, 2023 3:48 pm

I like Maturin and the guys who should be at 7. I have no regrets at all about not losing more games either of the last two seasons.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using RealGM mobile app

basketballwacko2 · Post #6 » by **basketballwacko2** » Sun Jun 4, 2023 10:20 pm

xBulletproof wrote:It's too late now. You had a 1 year window of opportunity before Haliburton is good enough to keep you from tanking by himself.

This last season was the chance to do it, while Hali is learning to lead a team as a #1 and Mathurin was a rookie. Didn't do it, and missed it. Now you have to pray a star falls to you in the draft or you make great moves.

Which is why I was all in for doing it last year, because once this season ended I knew that ship had sailed.

I think the Pacers will get a very good player at #7. I was upset that they fell in last years draft and couldn't get Murray, but Mathurin was better than expected.

I like Taylor Hendricks and Walker this year at 7. I like Kris Murray at one of the late picks but he may not be there, and TJD from Indiana. This is the time to load up on Forwards, who knows there may be a Jimmy Butler lurking in the wings of those late picks.

Post #7 » by **Grang33r** » Tue Jun 6, 2023 1:40 am

No tank.

The draft is too weak to tank. The Pacers have way too many assets and rules changing in a year for them not to be able to tweak the roster a little bit and give the guys a boost.

The years to tank was the last 2 seasons. They think they hit jackpot with Mathurin and they need to hit another impact player with pick 7