Re: OH NO - not Shira, too

[Kestutis.Kveraga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Kestutis Kveraga)]

--- You wrote:
However, as even Danny pointed out in the conference call yesterday, it still
IS important to get there vs whatever you think they should be doing instead -
active tanking or just 'relaxing'. For a number of reasons, with probably the
most important the one that Danny pointed to - it's a key next step part of the
development of the younger players (which we are loaded with). To start with,
it's a reward to keep morale up and encourage them to keep working hard by
showing them it gets rewarded. While the simple truth is that you can't win a
championship without getting to the playoffs first, and NO ONE wins one their
first year in the playoffs in the NBA, making it inadvisable to hold back until
you're 'ready'. Getting there shows the players that they have accomplished
something, but even more importantly feeds the competative hunger over someone
else accomplishing more paired with a tangible lesson on why they themselves
failed to do so. It also gives them experience in dealing with the differing
intensity, rules and hype that surround playoff basketball, which again helps
with their maturity, including putting those lessons behind them for when
they're good in other ways enough to move on. Finally, it emphatically  becomes
a factor in trying to attract free agents to take the next step in improving -
haven't seen people falling all over themselves to sign with the Clippers for a
while, have you?
--- end of quote ---

You're right in all this, Kim, but I think the point he was trying to make
(though perhaps not very clearly) was not that playoffs are unimportant, but
that making the playoffs every year should not more important than building a
better team. Of course, ideally you do both, but staying with Obie's crew just
to make the playoffs this year is nearsighted. Not that you would disagreed
with that. 
Kestas