There's really two questions here. Do you root for losses when you think they will help the team get better faster? And if not, do you think that someone is not a true fan if they do?
All my favorite teams suck right now, so I've had this discussion a few times and I was curious what you guys think.
Please note that I'm assuming that a loss is actually likely to help the team and that the team has virtually no chance of doing well anyway. This happens most often in basketball, but it could also happen elsewhere.