NBA Playoffs....Are you fired up?

Possibly a new signature here for me..............

What if this is merely the calm before the storm?

THE CRAMP GAME might have won over quite a few NBA fans and writers but he's still got ways to go until he pleases this crowd:

NHL Players Mock LeBron James’ Leg Cramps Via Twitter During Game 4 Of NBA Finals « CBS Boston

Hockey players are by far the most badass of all American team sport athletes. (Except for Ronnie Lott)

Heck...........when Ronnie Lott chopped off his finger during a game.........he put BBQ sauce on it and.............

cheaters? How? What did they do? Or are you simply jealous because the Pistons even suck at tanking?

The saying is "it's ain't over till it's over" and even their are 3 more games scheduled this one is indeed ova....since no NBA finals participant has ever comeback from a 3-1 deficit. The NBA can start packing those the Thunder championship t-shirts and caps to a third world country where no one will see them.

For all the criticism Lebron has gotten, he has proved that he was the best player out there during this whole playoff series...in my opinion. Yeah I was upset that the Thunder were in it could not pull it out three games in a row...with the help of refs, .....but the force is strong in this guy and I don't think he will let the Thunder team beat his team 3 times in a row. Especially with only two Thunder players showing up. With Harden being a no-show the other two can't carry the load unless another player steps up...(Ibaka and Sephalosha are to busy trying to guard Lebron, Wade and Bosh to be affective on the offensive end.) Oh by the way James Harden is a free agent....will he get paid for his 6th man award or his disappearing finals act?

I don't really mind the King getting his first ring....I am just upset that Wade may get his second one playing along a bigger star and all DW himself was get bailed out by the refs...both this year and 2006....

I have said this so many times. I have a problem with tanking. It is cheating your fan base, and it is cheating the game. I am glad that the Pistons don't appear to do it. It fills me with pride. And of course, hopelessness.

And what do you mean, what did they do? They got consecutive top 4 draft picks, and got a team moved from Seattle under a number of suspicious circumstances.

I have to disagree with you here. I think that tanking is a legitimate strategy for building a successful team. It's a high risk/ high reward way to build a successful franchise, especially for smaller market teams. The risk not only includes picking the wrong players in the draft, but also alienating the fan base while your team loses game after game.

As a Seattle resident and former Sonics fan, I love watching the Thunder (horrible logo aside). I went to about 60 regular season games (no playoffs!) in the last three years the team was here. The place was empty. Seattle really paid the ultimate price for being so lousy, but OKC was able to capitalize by assembling a cohesive young team through the draft and smart trades. I think that is much harder to do than just purchasing three future hall of fame players. Kevin Durant seemed like an excellent choice at the time, but they could have had Oden just as easily. Harden was a brilliant pick, and Westbrook went high in the draft, but I don't think anyone expected him to be this good. The year they picked Westbrook, Miami actually had the worst record in the leage (tanking? ) They got the second pick and took Beasley. Seattle picked 4th and took Westbrook.

For teams that are unable to attract high class FA's, it's probably the only strategy aside from being very lucky with trades. The result of not wanting to tank while having a roster without many perspectives can be observed in Detroit, Michigan, in the next years.

Outright tanking is wrong.
But there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with playing for the future when the present offers you no hope of success.
Would playing and trying to develop Vern Macklin last season have been tanking?
Would sitting Tay Prince and starting Jonas at SF have been tanking?

Doing things that help the team for the future while sacrificing success in the near term is NOT tanking. It's smart!

I agree. I call it stealth tanking. I made up this term stealth tanking to describe this very thing, but it never caught on. Perhaps if I say stealth tanking enough times, the phrase stealth tanking will catch on.

You need to add a player name which indicates tanking is starting, but effort will still seem to be there.
The name must be synonomous with failure on a basketball level.
A name that everybody in Pistonland knows.........

I'd suggest Darko Tanking.

He's a 7 footer, looks like he belongs, seems to try, but nothing happens.

You raise an interesting point. What do you call the 2-3 years prior to those guys signing with Miami? The Heat were certainly not killing themselves to field the most competitive team they could those years.

They don't really have fans to alienate but still....

We should up with a name for when teams are legitimately tanking. How about "sneaky tanking"?

We should up with a name for when teams are legitimately tanking. How about "sneaky tanking"?

...or, sneaky leaking.

If tanking was legit, coaches would broadcast that they are doing it and that it is the reason for their poor coaching record.

However, I firmly believe that developing the younger players on your team when you know you can't make the playoffs is legit. The reason I believe that is because it would be a valid strategy even if there was no draft lottery. It's going to make the team stronger for the next year and it will allow management to evaluate the talent so that they can make informed decisions on personnel changes.

So, that is how you stealth tank with dignity.