For the first time in a while, the mandate for the franchise is not about winning the maximum number of games or chasing a playoff seed, but rather about development and culture.
They wanted to see how good they were and whether they had a good, competitive playoff team around Damian Lillard. They tried to maximize wins in the first half of the season. And when it was clear in both seasons that the team wasn't good enough, they quickly pivoted to increasing their lottery odds.
Now, teams with the worst three records in the league all have the same odds of winning the No. 1 overall pick. So, even if teams try to win as many games as possible in the first half of the season, pulling the plug midway still gives teams the opportunity to be one of the three worst teams.
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