Ags #1 said:
Lol!!!! They tanked and didnt have robinson return when he easily could have. Its ok to admit it
LOLLLL!!!! GTFO. A Rockets fan encouraging a 7-foot NBA player to rush back from back and foot surgery? How did that work for Yao in the Olympics? Oh yeah, he developed more stress fractures the next season and it ended his career. Brilliant idea. They definitely should have rushed a guy with major foot and back problems back to play in meaningless games in April.
We can all agree the Spurs and Rockets are both tanking right now, right? Spurs just traded their starting center for a guy averaging like 2&1 and a FRP and two 2RPs as well as a D&W wing for a guy that shoots like 35% from the field and four 2RPs. The Rockers just traded Eric Gordon for a FRP and two guys they plan to cut. Previous to this season, Rockets traded RoCo, Westbrook, Harden, Dipo, PJ Tucker, Eric Gordon, and Christian Wood for about a dozen first round picks and a dozen more 2RPs. Spurs did poor mans version of that with Poeltl, Murray, White, DeRozan, Thad Young, etc.
What did the Spurs do in 96-97? Signed Vernon Maxwell (16/4/4 for Philly the year before.) Signed HOFer Nique, who averaged 18/6 for the Spurs. They didn't trade anyone away. Previous season, they traded away a first to get 24yo Monty Williams and 29yo PF Charles Smith.
Did the Spurs trade away starters for assets? Nope. Did the Celtics? They traded away young center Eric Montross to pick up a second first round pick in the drafted (ended up being #6, Ron Mercer).
Spurs ended the season with the 3rd worse record. Down the stretch they won 7 games of their last 22. (31%) which was better than they did over the entire season (24%.) They won those 7 games and ended up 6 games out of 1st place for most lottery balls. To close out the season, Boston won just 4 of their last 37 games to clinch the most lottery balls. Vancouver won just 3 of their last 27 games (11%.)
Seems like winning 31% of your games while the other teams fighting for position are winning 11% is a really ****ty tanking strategy. Spurs went 5-10 in March while Vancouver went 1-13 and Boston went 2-14.
Seems like if they were tanking, they did a real ****ty job of it. In March+April, Del Negro averaged 35mpg. Monty averaged 30mpg. Nique averaged 28mpg while battling a strained hamstring.
So yeah, if they were tanking, they did a ****ty job winning all those games and playing their starters hard right up until the end, which prevented them from getting the best chance at the top pick.