too soon?

[mo-sales]

At the risk of jinxing the rest of the season and sending the raps into a tailspin, has a team ever tanked the last couple games of a season in order to get a more favorable match up?

I want no part of Atlanta, not even an injured Hawks team. They are our kryptonite, they are fast, athletic and versatile. They are everything we are not.

Talking in pure hypothetical terms here. What if on the final day we were tied with Miami for the 5th spot, the Magic in the 3 seed and the Hawks in the 4.

Would it be Triano's call to dump the last game or Bry's?

Would it not make more sense or give Miami a shot to knock off the Hawks?

I feel this would be somewhat of an unprecedented move, but I would fully advocate a chance to finally knock out that coward wince.

[.40 Cal Flakes]

As much as I would hate to see ATL in the first round (the Raps would get spanked), I would want no part of a Raps team who would purposefully lose a game in order to have a more favourable match up. That's an absolute p***sy move and bad for sports/NBA in general. You play who you play and prepare as best you can. Play your asses off, leave everything on the court and hope for the best.

[visko23]

Yeah, they are too competitive (office included) to ever tank a game. Its hard to find a professional team that would. As we see by the team's attitude, they take on challenges and want to prove people wrong. That being said, I am almost certain that the Cavs lost games on purpose and finished dead last in order to have the best chance at Lebron. And look how it paid off!

[Bendit]

"Tanking" is not unprecedented in professional sports and the prime motivation in my view is money. Of course no one in management will ever attest to this for obvious reasons. One sees this in soccer (World Cup) quite often.... in the preliminary rounds to get a favorable opponent in the knockout rounds or even prevent another team from making it further. This issue is not uncommon in hockey either.
I am personally not for it. Not good for the organization (word gets around) or the players who could feel extra pressure to succeed having been part of a "dump" scenario.

[Ripp]

As much as I would hate to see ATL in the first round (the Raps would get spanked), I would want no part of a Raps team who would purposefully lose a game in order to have a more favourable match up. That's an absolute p***sy move and bad for sports/NBA in general. You play who you play and prepare as best you can. Play your asses off, leave everything on the court and hope for the best.

Err...that is a bit too naive a view, imo. I just want to get to the second round, I don't care how it is done. And Orlando is the path of least resistance. Bosh always kills Orlando, Bargs can guard Dwight, and Hedo will play with an edge against them. If Wright can knock down that corner three and defend, we have a 40% chance or greater of pulling an offset.

Basically, Orlando is the easiest team for us to beat...outside of Dwight they are average, and Bosh knows how Dwight operates from Team USA stuff, being one of his best friends.

[mo-sales]

I'm not a huge fan of tanking myself, but I am a fan of the ends justifying the means. I would be okay with resting Bosh and Turk in the last game, especially if they have a nagging injury or two.

You argue the Colts did the exact same thing once they locked up thier spot.

Wouldn't raptor nation support this move unconditionally? We get a rematch against the team that ousted us from the play offs two years ago, Turk gets a whole eff you series where I'd actually be confident he would deliver and most of all the ACC gets to go category five nuts for games 3 and 4 when He Who Shall Not Be Named slinks back into town.

[.40 Cal Flakes]

Err...that is a bit too naive a view, imo. I just want to get to the second round, I don't care how it is done. And Orlando is the path of least resistance. Bosh always kills Orlando, Bargs can guard Dwight, and Hedo will play with an edge against them. If Wright can knock down that corner three and defend, we have a 40% chance or greater of pulling an offset.

Basically, Orlando is the easiest team for us to beat...outside of Dwight they are average, and Bosh knows how Dwight operates from Team USA stuff, being one of his best friends.

I'm not ge fan of tanking myself, but I am a fan of the ends justifying the means. I would be okay with resting Bosh and Turk in the last game, especially if they have a nagging injury or two.

You argue the Colts did the exact same thing once they locked up thier spot.

Wouldn't raptor nation support this move unconditionally? We get a rematch against the team that ousted us from the play offs two years ago, Turk gets a whole eff you series where I'd actually be confident he would deliver and most of all the ACC gets to go category five nuts for games 3 and 4 when He Who Shall Not Be Named slinks back into town.

Hey, I want the the Dinos to make it to the 2nd round just as much as the next fan, but not at the expense of purposefully losing a game in order to get a better match up. Teams, players, sports lose credibility like that. It doesn't matter what happens in other sports we're talking about the NBA, more specifically the Raps.

What message would Triano and/or BC be sending their players if they hinted at or suggested not playing all out in order to lose and face a different opponent in the first round? In all likelihood it would backfire BIG TIME! The players would probably resent management for not showing faith and confidence in the team's ability to beat any team. Doubts may creep into the player's head about their abilities. The top teams, championship calibre teams, the teams that I assume the Raps aspire to become like, have that killer instinct and confidence in themselves from owner to towelboy that they can beat anyone. The Raps gotta head into the playoff believing they will have success against whoever they face, if not they have no chance of advancing and are essentially dead in the water before the series even starts.

Now, if a couple of the Raps were nursing injuries and they had their seed locked up, then it might be the prudent decision to err on the side of caution and rest their players. It's been done many times, I have no problem with that. This is what the Colts did. The Colts didn't "tank" the last couple games in which they rested many of their starters. They had already locked up their place in the playoffs, it wasn't going to affect their positioning in order to have a more favourable opponent.

Again, what I don't agree with is purposefully throwing a game in order to get a better seed.

[mo-sales]

Haha, a little melodramatic don't you think.

The purpose of the regular season is to jockey for play off positioning. This could be a rare case where the best position is a 6 seed, not a 5. That's all it is.

The spurs routinely don't give it thier best on some nights in order to benefit long term. Was it last year when Pop benched Duncan, Manu and TP because he felt it wasn't worth going against a fresh Denver? Duncan doesn't even play back to backs anymore.

Your telling me if the Cav's locked up the 1 seed and Bron went down, that the 6,7, and 8th seed wouldn't be falling down over themselves to finish 8th and get a Bronless cavs?

In order for the Raps to make any noise in the play offs, they are going to need an inordinate amount of luck, fate and fortuitous bounces. If they have to make their own luck along the way, I got no problem with that, but of course it comes down to personal preference.

[Bendit]

In order for the Raps to make any noise in the play offs.....

It depends I suppose what one means by "noise"....1 round, 2 rounds ? or the whole enchilada?

We must all agree that the Raps are currently a long shot to win it all. And that eventually, any team progressing will have to come up against a more favoured or the toughest team in the conference and then the best in the other. Trying to jockey for a position in the first round is only of use (imo) for teams Like the Cavs/Boston/LA) who want the benefit of a easier series on their way to the finals...as a way of conserving juice.

For a team like the Raptors who are trying to find their level amongst the elite teams, I believe your suggestion to assist with just trying to survive the first round and then hoping to get lucky I suppose in the next, could serve as a retardation of the process to test not only the talent on the team but also it's mettle/heart to survive. A 7 game series will have to be played at some point and these are crap shoots at best. Winning one round is not a goal worth pursuing....except for the bean counters at ACC.