#TankNation? Former Raptors GM, Bryan Colangelo "Admittedly, I tried to tank a couple of years ago"
posted by Romy Aquino (@romyaquino)
Raptors were a member of #TankNation?
Colangelo: "Admittedly, I tried to tank a couple of years ago"
Up until this season, it has been a rough go for the Toronto Raptors for a few years now. Fans have watched the Raptors have five straight losing seasons up until this current season. In his tenure, former Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo did what he could to turn this franchise around, including an attempt to "tank" in the 2011-12 season in his latest comments at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
(Via nba.si.com)
"Admittedly, I tried to tank a couple of years ago," Colangelo said during a basketball panel at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. "I didn't come out and say, 'Coach, you have to lose games.' I wanted him to establish a winning tradition and culture, but I wanted him to do it in the framework of playing and developing young players."
It's not often that you hear NBA executives actually coming out saying that they set their team up to "tank" but Colangelo explained that losing in the final games in the '11-'12 lockout season were crucial in terms of locking a higher draft position.
Toronto was just one game ahead of the Nets in the standings at the conclusion of the 11-12 season (beating the Nets in the final game of the season) and ended up tying for the seventh worst record in the league with the Golden State Warriors. From there, they lost a coin flip for the 7th overall pick and ended up with the 8th overall pick in that upcoming draft. It was a matter of having a chance of having the sixth overall pick (which the Blazers owned from the Nets) vs. the eighth overall pick, which became a difference between NBA All-Star Damian Lillard (who was drafted sixth by the Blazers) and the Raptors' Terrence Ross.
Sounds like one garbage game at the end of a season can make a huge difference in a team's future.
What are your toughts on Colangelo's 'tanking' comments? Let us know in the comments.
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Labels: Bryan Colangelo, Damian Lillard, TankNation, Terrence Ross, Toronto Raptors
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