[Senator Clay Davis]

As I continue to reiterate, blowing this team up is going to be very, very difficult. If the NBA really is going to be gung-ho against tanking, it might not allow the kinds of trades the Raps would have to make to go into the tank. Masai is not a bad GM, so it's not like he can simply get took on some trades. Really the only scenario that is realistic is firing Casey and hoping Stackhouse can bring the edge these guys desperately need. But Masai is gonna have to work some magic to try and get rid of Ibaka and possibly Lowry. Lowry is the better player, but there are few natural fits for him. Ibaka is obviously finished as a meaningful player, trading him is like trying to trade Bargniani, though that obviously worked out pretty well.

But clearly the biggest problem this team has is mentally. Losing this series is one thing, but they were totally humiliated in two games and had a spectacular collapse in another. Only one time did they actually put in a professional effort. Casey did a #### job, no doubt (getting outcoached by a guy almost universally accepted as the worst coach in the NBA tells you that), but even if he delivered an elite coaching job, the players don't have what it takes mentally anyway. No matter how flawed the game plan or coaching decisions were, that doesn't explain the players putting in a trash effort.

I also agree it becomes difficult to justify watching the regular season, which, speaking of tanking, is an ironic problem the NBA doesn't seem to recognize is probably more of a threat than tanking: the boredom of going through an entire season knowing the Finals matchup is basically set already. That's worse to me than tanking cause I can avoid watching tanking as a fan of basketball. To literally be at the point where watching the playoffs is pointless? Yeah, Adam Silver needs to start realizing where the real problem with this league lies. If competitive balance were better, tanking wouldn't need to happen outside of years where a LeBron type is out there. Alas, tanking in the hopes of ending up like the Sixers is literally the only hope for about 20 franchises. Never mind when the league inevitably expands and dilutes the talent pool even more.