Official Draft Positioning Thread, aka: The Tank Cave

Post #61 » by **miller31time** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:08 am

Clippers beat the Thunder. Eric Gordon had 41 points....a franchise record for a rookie, and the first player to score 40+ points in 2+ years for the Clippers (Brand being the last).

Warriors/Cavs game is going down to the wire. They're tied with 22.7 seconds left, but LeBron has one more free throw attempt.

Post #62 » by **miller31time** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:11 am

Steven Jackson just hit two consecutive jumpers in LeBron's face in the last 30 seconds of this game.

Golden State up 1 with 6.4 seconds left. Cleveland ball.

Post #63 » by **miller31time** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:16 am

And James wins the game for Cleveland off of a step-back jumper. The ball left his hand with 0.1 seconds remaining.

JWizmentality · Post #64 » by **JWizmentality** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:34 am

miller31time wrote:And James wins the game for Cleveland off of a step-back jumper. The ball left his hand with 0.1 seconds remaining.

What's that, like his first game winning jumpshot that didn't involve crab dribbling?

mhd · Post #65 » by **mhd** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:20 pm

Great win for the Clips. As I said, I'm much more worried about them and the Kings than the Thunder.

mhd · Post #66 » by **mhd** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:06 am

Stupid Kings lose in the last seconds.

hands11 · Post #67 » by **hands11** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 8:05 pm

Man, how does Memphass manage to suck so badly year after year ?

They are tanking hard on a 9 game losing streak.

Benjammin · Post #68 » by **Benjammin** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 3:09 am

The Wolves win yet again. Maybe McHale is a better coach than a GM, or he's utilizing the players he brought in correctly. I think Minnesota will continue to play tough and not be in contention for a finish in the bottom 3.

I don't see any teams in the East falling back towards the Wizards. So that leaves OKC, Sac, LAC, Memphis, and GSW. I think GSW will do enough to stay ahead of the Wizards unless the Wiz start playing better. OKC has been playing better and I can easily see them ending with a better record than the Wizards. Sac, LAC and Memphis have been impressive in their tanking technique and commitment. It's a race to the bottom. May the worst team win!

Kanyewest · Post #69 » by **Kanyewest** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:20 am

The Warriors just got Monte Ellis back and almost beat the Cavs a few days ago. They should overtake the Wizards.

mhd · Post #70 » by **mhd** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 4:29 am

Man, the Clips suck. At least we are losing with dignity. Jamison and Butler continue to get big minutes, while the Clips are taking their time with getting Kaman back.

I trust Mayo to win enough by himself to avoid the worst record. The Kings & Clips are easily our major compeititon.

bulletproof_32 · Post #71 » by **bulletproof_32** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:37 am

I know that the worst record only ensures us the best chance of snagging the top pick but I was curious as to how often the worst team has won the lottery so I took a look at the last 15 drafts and the results are a bit depressing.

Only two times since 1994 has the team with the worst record won the lottery (Cleveland (tied with Denver for worse record) in 2003 and Orlando in 2004). I'm sure it's happened more than 2 times total but I didn't feel like going all the way back to 85.

Here's the breakdown since 94:

1st pick - 2 times
2nd pick - 6 times
3rd pick - 5 times
4th pick - 4 times

In 2002, Chicago and GS were tied for the worst record and ended up drafting 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
In 2003, Cleveland and Denver were tied for the worst record and ended up drafting 1st and 3rd, respectively. All four of those team are reflected in the above numbers.

Also Vancouver had the worst record in 96 and 97 but ended up picking 3rd and 4th in those years. I know they (and Toronto) weren't allowed the overall No. 1 pick in their initial season but can't remember if there were restrictions on the expansion teams getting the No 1 after 1995. If so, you can throw those out.

So, just to state the obvious -- even if we finish with the worst record we're still going to need a lot of luck come lotto night.

Post #72 » by **Rafael122** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 1:16 pm

Isn't it pretty much guaranteed that we're gonna have a top 5 pick though? We can't finish worse than 5th.

fishercob · Post #73 » by **fishercob** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 2:47 pm

The worst we can pick is 3 spots below our record rank. If we have the third worst record, we can pick as low as sixth. If we have the worst record, we can pick as low as fourth. And so on...

daSwami · Post #74 » by **daSwami** » Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:33 pm

Anyone catch the GMU/VCU game this weekend? Eric Maynor looks like the real deal to me. It's great to see that he's making the most of the media attention he garnered in '07 tourny and proving he's not a flash in the pan. I'm making an (admittedly huge) over-statement here, but he reminds me a bit of Chris Paul. I don't know much about Brandon Jennings or Ricky Rubio, but Maynor, to me, is the best PG prospect available.

Benjammin · Post #75 » by **Benjammin** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:29 am

Potentially a very productive tank evening for the Wizards. The Wizards took care of business. In the 3rd quarter OKC is crushing NJ. In the 3rd Minnesota is beating Milwaukee. If the Clips would somehow find a way to beat Portland we could potentially have a perfect night.

Post #76 » by **miller31time** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:32 am

I give the Clippers about a 5% chance of beating the Blazers.

Prove me wrong, L.A.

MJG · Post #77 » by **MJG** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:38 am

Once the Thunder finish destroying the Nets, we will officially have the worst record in the league. Three cheers!

Post #78 » by **miller31time** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:45 am

MJG wrote:Once the Thunder finish destroying the Nets, we will officially have the worst record in the league. Three cheers!

Wow, you're right.

How did that happen? I could have sworn the Kings had a worse record than us, especially after our recent win against them.

JWizmentality · Post #79 » by **JWizmentality** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 2:50 am

Daaaaang, here comes ultimate suckitude.

Kanyewest · Post #80 » by **Kanyewest** » Tue Jan 27, 2009 3:23 am

I say there's a 55% chance that the lottery is rigged.