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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 13h

The debacle that was Sam Hinkie's Process is the best case against tanking. Even when they ultimately got The Guy in Embiid, he still hasn't helped them become good enough even to win a conference championship. Not sure any full-tank team ever has, or ever will, win a ring.

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 13h

Teams can't really know if a guy is "The Guy" till they're in the organization. The top-3 players in the league right now were picked late or out of lottery or in second round--2 of them were not even the earliest pick their teams selected in their draft years.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 13h

This is about Washington, but could be about any team in Process-style tank mode. It's really hard to identify "a player worth building the team around" in the draft. NBA execs miss on picks all the time. "Generational talents" get hurt or go astray in development process.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 13h

This is why tanking isn't the only correct way to rebuild a team: "The grim reality of life as a rebuilding team: It doesn’t really end until you’ve found a player worth building the team around....Through two draft cycles...there isn’t one player you’d call a surefire long-term starter yet."

Predicting how the bottom of the NBA’s Eastern Conference will play out in 2025-26

With numerous teams focusing on player development and a couple facing gap years, the conference's lower end could be unsightly.

www.nytimes.com

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 14h

Ace Bailey is rather infamously not 6-9,

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 1d

How did you decide on classifying some of these players as 2s? I'm thinking specifically of Amen, Ingram, and to a degree Herb Jones, who I thought pretty much were 3s.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Well, you can't argue with results. The Butler/Rondo/Wade squad went nowhere. But they've re-signed a bunch of their best guys. Who are you thinking of that they didn't? Only one who came through post-Butler that they should have kept is Markkanen, and he struggled to stay on floor when here.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Russ, what did you think of their moves in 21? They hired new front office and did what every lottery-built team does at certain point--choose the young guys to keep and move the others for win-now players. Certainly looked like trying.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

WAS got a 2. Best Bulls got during their bottom out was a 4. But how long would you want your team to be as bad as those others have been? They have been a bad a long time and will continue to be stay bad. I am against the easy supposition that tear-down *always* the recourse for a non-contender.

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Thank you.

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 2d

Let’s talk about ‘whoa.’

First of all, ‘woah’ is not yet considered an established spelling variant of ‘whoa.’

While ‘woah’ has grown in prevalence since the late 20th century, ‘whoa’ is still about 5 times as common as ‘woah.’

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

I'd love if during years Bulls bottomed out we'd gotten Tatum or Ant, but we drafted several picks after later. Lottery is a crapshoot every year you don't have a Wemby/LeBron/ Duncan at top, which is most years. Pundits sneered at IND for years, but right now their method is working.

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

How do you do that if your lottery-built team doesn't reach close to that level in 3 years? Only way to ensure that potential upside is lucking into the Wemby-level pick that comes along twice a decade or so. I am not crazy about where Bulls are but I'd rather be us than CHA, WAS, UTA, TOR...

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Uh...build a team? Get younger/better players? Help them improve as a group by developing a coherent style of play that fits personnel? Clean up cap sheet and have tradeable contracts if another team's star wants out? Have cap room to acquire a top free agent? The non-teardown direction, basically?

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Wish the richest owner in the league had wanted to wildly overpay for one of my players to keep his new superstar happy. All credit to Sam P., though.

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Move Ball, DeRozan, Lavine, Caruso, Craig, and I am sure they are trying to move Vuc. Acquire young vets with upside--Giddey, Jones, Smith. I am not trying to suggest this is a perfect team or front office. Just frustrated with the surficial "teardown is overdue" narrative.

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

How do team's moves over past year not comprise major overhaul? It wasn't a tear-down, but they moved 4 of 5 top/older players and became MUCH younger. Back in 17 We did the bottom-out route and got three consecutive #7s. In 21 we brought in vets and got bad injury luck.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

You missed what they are and have been doing by casting their situation as "teardown overdue."

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Not sure we're watching the same team. They tried to make it work with Butler for years after Rose got hurt before they sold him to MN for their big tear-down. Whereas the Bounce seems to think Bulls are overdue for another of those.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

That was the gut teardown. Then in 21 a pretty thorough change in direction; then again over past year. Do you want another teardown? What's the timeline on ordering those up?

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

How frequently do you like your gut rehabs, then? Wizards style? Hornets style? Pre-Sabonis Sacramento?

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

The impression I get is that people think they aren't doing anything.

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Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Not sure everyone keeps saying the same thing about them, when the main things they seem to keep saying are mutually exclusive.

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Narrative around Bulls is they a) make deals and get fleeced when they don't get picks, or b) don't make deals because they overvalue players. I'm sure Vuc is on the block—which I guess means (b) above. Apparently Lavine, DeRozan, Caruso, and Ball deals were all (b), too—until they became (a).

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

A couple of high-profile Western Conference contenders really need help at point--can't one of them make a deal to take Dosunmu or Jevon Carter from Bulls in exchange for PF depth? Tari Eason the kind of high upside young vet AKME likes.

Doug Seibold @dougseibold.bsky.social · 2d

Most national writers like @talkhoops.bsky.social are broken records re Bulls. This team did a gut rebuild as recently as 2017. And in past year's "retool" they've moved 4 of 5 key players assembled in 2021 reset. Our lottery and injury luck over this time: bad.

www.nytimes.com/athletic/668...

The Bounce: WNBA Finals start tonight! Plus: Previewing the Trail Blazers and Bulls

www.nytimes.com

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