Toronto Raptors
Brian Scalabrine's Tanking Manifesto
Apr 22, 2019 18:43:10 GMT -5
billy, Paul Pierce, and 7 more like this
Post by Brian Scalabrine on Apr 22, 2019 18:43:10 GMT -5
The winds in the North are changing, and I can say with certainty, the tank has finally ended. It's been a fun four seasons, but now that one chapter has closed, I'm ready to share my trade secrets with all of you out there who hope to secure top lottery odds next season. I know that some have looked down on my management, but god damn if I didn't follow the rules. There's the obvious things, like rostering injured players, and being low on talent in general, but in my experience, tanking can get more and more methodical if you're willing to commit. Here's my tips.
#1 - Avoid the balanced roster
For all of the things I was questioned or criticized over, this is one that I was never called out for. The most effective legal tool at your tanking disposal, is avoiding positional balance like the plague. Of course you want to always acquire the best prospects you can, but if that path can lead you to being imbalanced at one or more positions, all the better. This year, I hoarded wings--Brooks, Hutchison, Bates-Diop, Bridges, Walker, Vince Carter, JR Smith were some of my most playable players on the roster. Looking at early game results, though, who were my backup bigs? Jonah Bolden--and this was while Lauri was still injured. I started Bamba and Carter in the front court, so my big rotation was... Bamba/Carter, Bolden/Hutch/Bridges. My starting backcourt? Napier/SGA... After that? Ty Wallace and Sindarius Thornwell, who are both two guards, if not proper undersized wings. More than being low on talent, I think this kind of positional imbalance is what drove us to (likely) the least-winning season in D720 history. In the olden days, I started Jawun Evans at SF--that shit probably wouldn't fly anymore, but the principle remains the same, you just have to build your roster that way instead of abusing the depth chart. If those are the best players you have to play those positions, who can blame you, right?
#2 - Wait to sign second rounders
This coincides with tip number one, but I don't see people taking advantage of it much. The longer you can wait to sign your second rounders, the less depth you have. Besides the implication of how this affects on court production, this is also better asset management. You can trade draft rights to an over-the-cap team without them needing to send a player back (perhaps a good way to gain picks instead). And in general, if you aren't trying to win, you only benefit from waiting for the greatest NBA sample size before committing to give a guy a contract.
#3 - If you can't sit them, ++ them
This one is huge. The sim really nerfs guys who are playing more minutes than they're capable of. Conventional wisdom would suggest you want your best players to play the least minutes to secure the L, but we had great success this year OVERPLAYING our best players. If you can ++ your best guys into being inefficient, you hugely mitigate the possibility of them having a great game and hitting you with the surprise W. Yeezy expressed discontent that my team managed to lose more games than his despite having more talent, and I believe this is why. My best players did not perform well because they were too tired to do so.
This is all for now, I hope this helps those of you who aspire to win less than ten games next season. Now that I am ending the tank, there's a vacuum to fill, and I hope someone will one day be as successful at losing games as I was. Good luck.
#1 - Avoid the balanced roster
For all of the things I was questioned or criticized over, this is one that I was never called out for. The most effective legal tool at your tanking disposal, is avoiding positional balance like the plague. Of course you want to always acquire the best prospects you can, but if that path can lead you to being imbalanced at one or more positions, all the better. This year, I hoarded wings--Brooks, Hutchison, Bates-Diop, Bridges, Walker, Vince Carter, JR Smith were some of my most playable players on the roster. Looking at early game results, though, who were my backup bigs? Jonah Bolden--and this was while Lauri was still injured. I started Bamba and Carter in the front court, so my big rotation was... Bamba/Carter, Bolden/Hutch/Bridges. My starting backcourt? Napier/SGA... After that? Ty Wallace and Sindarius Thornwell, who are both two guards, if not proper undersized wings. More than being low on talent, I think this kind of positional imbalance is what drove us to (likely) the least-winning season in D720 history. In the olden days, I started Jawun Evans at SF--that shit probably wouldn't fly anymore, but the principle remains the same, you just have to build your roster that way instead of abusing the depth chart. If those are the best players you have to play those positions, who can blame you, right?
#2 - Wait to sign second rounders
This coincides with tip number one, but I don't see people taking advantage of it much. The longer you can wait to sign your second rounders, the less depth you have. Besides the implication of how this affects on court production, this is also better asset management. You can trade draft rights to an over-the-cap team without them needing to send a player back (perhaps a good way to gain picks instead). And in general, if you aren't trying to win, you only benefit from waiting for the greatest NBA sample size before committing to give a guy a contract.
#3 - If you can't sit them, ++ them
This one is huge. The sim really nerfs guys who are playing more minutes than they're capable of. Conventional wisdom would suggest you want your best players to play the least minutes to secure the L, but we had great success this year OVERPLAYING our best players. If you can ++ your best guys into being inefficient, you hugely mitigate the possibility of them having a great game and hitting you with the surprise W. Yeezy expressed discontent that my team managed to lose more games than his despite having more talent, and I believe this is why. My best players did not perform well because they were too tired to do so.
This is all for now, I hope this helps those of you who aspire to win less than ten games next season. Now that I am ending the tank, there's a vacuum to fill, and I hope someone will one day be as successful at losing games as I was. Good luck.
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