It was lightning in a bottle. No question. That’s why it’s bad practice to think it could happen again, which was the original poster’s wish. I totally agree that the lottery is a terrible way to do it, at least if you’re using it as a lever on a catapult to shoot you to a title. You have to make trades, you have to…

If you’re Danny Ainge, wouldn’t you make this happen?

See, I wasn’t even sure which of the two diminished former Bulls you were talking about.

They reminded me, in terms of crowd response, of Grand Master Sexay and that other guy. Not really anything special in the ring, but the live audience for TV looked forward to being involved in the gimmick, which made for more entertaining TV. You could throw the New Age Outlaws in there, too, I guess, but they were…

Then enjoy the very short carrot at the end of an interminably long stick.

This sort of loser thinking is just pointing out that teams have never won building a roster this way, and that, meanwhile, teams that focus on getting better and constructing a roster that works together get better faster and have more sustained success.

As I’ve been saying, this thing started in 2013. You’re now looking at 2019 for it to round into shape. I’m not sure why Covington would stay to come off the bench, which he’d have to do if you’re playing Saric and Simmons at forward. I’m not sure when they were fighting for 8th every year; they had made the playoffs…

Again, someone else brought up Oklahoma City. My response to that comment was that it wasn’t a good comparison, so thanks for validating my point. You do raise an interesting topic at the end: Teams that win titles without top five picks. San Antonio had one top five pick in there, and no doubt, they wouldn’t have won…

It’s not my job to find them better players. That’s what the front office should have been doing. Oh wait, there weren’t a lot of better players in their drafts? So then they not only lost on purpose but also didn’t get good returns on that strategy. So what are you arguing in favor of? Do you think they’d be better…

As I’ve said a couple times in this exhaustive thread, the Sixers are not operating in a vacuum. Planning to be great in five years is a terrible strategy for the NBA. In this case, in the words of an acolyte for The Process, your plan is a decade long: Five years to get to this point, and waiting out the better teams…

I can only assume you’re implying that Michael Carter-Williams doesn’t even rise to average.

I was responding to someone who said:

But here again, The Process does not exist in a vacuum. Do you think it’s likely that all the other teams ahead of them in the playoff hunt are standing still or getting worse next year? The Warriors added Kevin Durant and lost six more games. The Cavs won the title, brought everyone back, added a bunch of veteran…

Hinkie didn’t turn anything into the consensus number one pick in the draft, because he was fired for not fielding a better team four years in. He didn’t broker that deal.

Well, they are. The Colangelos essentially said as much last spring, and they started making more competitive moves. But Hinkie saddled them with a ton of “assets” deep in the second round that will never be heard from, as well as guys he drafted already because he couldn’t trade his chips, and they turned out to be…

Extraordinary luck, yes. Portland gambled on Oden, people didn’t think Russ was a point guard, Harden was not a fully developed offensive god. No question they hit the jackpot.

Hinkie sucked at a lot of things: drafting, trades, encouraging free agents to join his team. As for being a 45-win team every year, you can’t win in the playoffs if you’re never in the playoffs, but somehow fans of The Process seem to think it’s better to appear headed for a title in five years than actually compete…

Except that, in the Thunder’s case, they built their core in three years and were in the Western Conference Finals in that third season and the finals the following year.

“He should go and I think he will. Look how Los Angeles revitalized my career.”

He’ll get his revenge. Or have you not read the new spy movie screenplay by LeBron Scarn?