The Wizards Need Points

[Xist2Inspire]

...which is pretty much the only reason why I'm doing this, because otherwise the title would've been "The Wizards Are Over It."

Last season was more irritating than one might expect. After manipulating my contracts to open up cap space for that specific FA period...we came away with nothing. This pretty much marked last season as a failure before it even started. Despite that, we had a red-hot start and managed to acquire Andreas Gillam and Chris Bow to help give us a boost after we'd started to run out of gas. And then Bow went out with an injury just before the playoffs, killing any shot at a serious run.

Given how last season turned out, it's no surprise that Remy Martin decided not to gamble on wasting his prime here. So now here comes the hard part. Not rebuilding, that's super easy. No, the hard part for me is keeping interested. I actually hate everything about tanking, both in sim life and the real world. For me, doing your best no matter the circumstances or outcome is paramount, which is why I've found the somewhat recent phenomenon of "strategically tanking" to be really annoying. In my mind, if you're not going to put your best foot forward when playing, just don't play. If you win, awesome! But if you lose, then at least you tried and can then look for silver linings in the clouds.

However...it's quickly become obvious that while that stance may have its merits morally, in reality it often results in exceptional mediocrity. Often "putting my best foot forward" has deliberately kneecapped my ability to compete by dragging playoff appearances and upsets out of lottery-level teams, leaving me overly reliant on trades, FA signings, and player training to generate talent. And while that's been good enough to put a Wizards playoff appearance right up there with death and taxes as a universal constant, it hasn't been good enough to bring in championships or be taken seriously.

So now it seems like I have no choice but to tank, and I can't stand it. Guys like Bow, Gillam, Banks, Djamgouz...I find myself looking at them with frustration and resentment, because they're standing in the way of getting a good draft pick. I know for a fact that if I give them the playing time they should get, we're going to compete for a playoff spot. I almost don't want to bother showing up this season and just hit "recommended." But...if you're not going to put your best foot forward, then just don't try...

...any questions while I go randomly pick pressers to ask questions in so I can get my points and train a guy?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Why is it so important to you to try to win every season at any cost? Are there parts of rebuilding: like trying to facilitate deals to put yourself in a better spot in the long haul and developing young talent that can be seen as morally clear as well? I understand that benching good players to try and lose as much as possible is cheap, but are there things you can still do in a season where the goal isn't the championship that can also be rewarding and challenging as a GM?

[IamQuailman]

Have you ever considered writing up some creative posts about your players like @digiskunk does? I remember the olden days of really vivid and fun articles you put out there, and with a team less than stellar, perhaps this is a chance to recreate some excitement towards sim league through creative writing. That said, i also used to do all that stuff too (not as good as your work), but it's too much of a hassle these days. So I get if you don't want to do that lol

[Xist2Inspire]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: Why is it so important to you to try to win every season at any cost? Are there parts of rebuilding: like trying to facilitate deals to put yourself in a better spot in the long haul and developing young talent that can be seen as morally clear as well? I understand that benching good players to try and lose as much as possible is cheap, but are there things you can still do in a season where the goal isn't the championship that can also be rewarding and challenging as a GM?

So, here's the funny thing: It's not necessarily "winning at all costs" that's important to me. It's the effort of trying itself. Again, if you're not going to try to compete in a competition, then why are you there at all? So when you're facing a position where trying to win is bad and trying to lose is good...you can kinda see how that messes with my enjoyment of things.

As for long-term planning by facilitating deals and developing young talent, yeah I love that. So much so that I'm constantly doing that season in and season out. I don't think I'd have stayed relevant this long if I wasn't doing that. But the fact that you said that in the context of finding fun in rebuilding kinda proves my point - that only goes noticed when it's done in the lead-up to winning (i.e., when it's deemed appropriate to do so).

I'm definitely doing to do those things this seasons as well, but now there's a cloud hanging over it. In the past, I could just look for trades, and regardless of whether they worked out or not (or if I was even able to find them in the first place), I would still always put my best lineup out there. Now, if I can't find the deals I need - can I still put my best lineup out there? Should I? If tinkering with lineups and crafting game plans to maximize my team's potential is something I enjoy - how does that translate to a situation where doing that ultimately makes things worse long-term?

It's that specter that takes the fun out of what I'd otherwise consider the saving grace of a season where it doesn't look like winning games is likely.

[Xist2Inspire]

Have you ever considered writing up some creative posts about your players like @digiskunk does? I remember the olden days of really vivid and fun articles you put out there, and with a team less than stellar, perhaps this is a chance to recreate some excitement towards sim league through creative writing. That said, i also used to do all that stuff too (not as good as your work), but it's too much of a hassle these days. So I get if you don't want to do that lol

Yeah man, my best work was a loooong time ago haha. I had a lot more energy to burn back then, as well as time (but energy is definitely the bigger factor here haha). I have a bunch of abandoned mega-articles left in Notes over the years. I'll definitely try to crank some stuff out if I can get up for it.