Why the Portland Trail Blazers Are Right to Tank the Rest of the Season

Blazer fans—What’s it going to be?

Are you going to keep rooting for your team to win night in and night out? Or are you going to swallow the bitter pill of broken hope?

The correct answer, sadly enough, is B.

Ask anyone around the organization, and they will rightly tell you they are still trying to win games. That’s their job. That’s what the players are paid enormous sums of money to do. If they don’t do their job, coaches will lose their jobs—see: Nate McMillan—and from there, those in the front office will potentially lose their jobs as well.

Nobody wants a tank job.

However, obviously someone high in the Portland chain of command felt this season has run its course. That’s why two starters and a coach were told to depart at the trading deadline. It was the first sign of a fold.

Those playing the cards—interim general manager Chad Buchanan and owner Paul Allen—clearly had an eye toward the future when they mucked Gerald Wallace, Marcus Camby and McMillan. Now they need to go all in on that hunch.

To anyone who has watched this team, it’s easy to see interim coach Kaleb Canales is not auditioning for a full-time head-coaching job. He’s a puppet of the Blazers’ brass for the remainder of the season.

That’s not to say Canales isn’t capable: He’s done a good enough job playing the hand he was dealt, but after a loss to Oklahoma City on March 27, he’s now 3-4. Not all aces.

Canales should be under strict orders to play his younger guys big minutes the rest of the season. Keep playing LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum and Wesley Matthews, but nobody else should be guaranteed minutes. Instead, turn these final 16 games into an audition of sorts for Craig Smith, Nolan Smith, Luke Babbit, J.J. Hickson, Jonny Flynn and Hasheem Thabeet.

Play every single player on the bench at least five, six minutes a game. Then those players can properly be graded on their contributions in game situations—not just in practices or mop-up minutes.

Jamal Crawford and Raymond Felton have shown what they can do. While Felton has been playing well lately, it seems like he’s worn out his welcome in Rip City.

Crawford has struggled the last few games. Send him to the bench for a while.

Kurt Thomas and Joel Przybilla deserve the playing time, but they also deserve the rest. They're old. Limit their minutes to 20 a night for Przybilla and 15 a night for Thomas. That gives Thabeet about a quarter each night to show if he can be a backup center for Portland in the future.

With 10 of the final 16 games against teams better than .500, it’s easy to think Portland will keep itself out of the playoffs and in the lottery using this formula. In the meantime, the front office will have a better idea of whom the team should target come draft day.

For a franchise that once made the playoffs 21 straight years, the idea of losing games to jockey for better lottery position is borderline unacceptable. However, the Blazers haven’t advanced past the first round since 2000—the year they collapsed against the Lakers in the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.

It's time for a shake-up.

When you look at the risk/reward, cutting the wins and missing the playoffs is the way to go.

If Portland makes a run late in the season and snags the eight seed, the Blazers are blessed with a first-round matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. For the first-week-of-the-season Blazers, that would be fine, but that team disappeared long ago.

Fans would sell out the Rose Garden for the two games played in Portland, but the Blazers would be swept out of the first round.

By getting into the lottery, Portland commits to its March 15 move of building for the future.

A quality pick in a highly regarded draft will bolster the pieces of this roster that remain for the 2012-13 season. If New Jersey doesn’t get a ping pong ball in the top three, Portland’s stock rises that much more.

And with $23 million in cap space to throw around in the summer, Portland can hopefully lure one or two solid free agents or make a blockbuster trade to shake things up.

And a draft pick in the lottery looks a lot better in a trade proposal than the pick of a first-round playoff loser.

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