If someone tells me that he/she can see the future and our path will go either ways, I'll take the ring.
But of course we cant see towards the next decade, so I'd rather be in the hunt, in contention for the championship.
I dont want to be the Florida Marlins. I'd rather be the Dallas Mavericks of the 2000s. They probably only won one out there multiple Playoff appearances but they are always in contention, always in the hunt. With that it creates a positive outlook in the future, that the team will strive more, try to get better, and filling up the missing, fitting pieces to get us to the top.
And as a fan of basketball, I dont want my team in the bottom of the standing for the next decade. Of course, I'm looking at it in a sense that I won't know if we would wing the championship in the 10th year after being miserable for nine.
I don't have the power (or anyone else I think) to look in to the future. So from a guy who speaks in the now, I want to be relevant for the next decade. If we don't win, so be it. Better than being looked at as a team that sucks.