The NBA and NHL regular seasons are coming to a close. The MLB regular season is about to begin and
the NFL is in the midst of its offseason with the draft about a month
away. The Sixers and Flyers will not be
in the playoffs in their respective leagues.
The Phillies season is right around the corner and the Eagles have been
arguably the most active team thus far in the NFL’s offseason so why not take a
look at what the future holds for each of the four teams.
 |
| Yong Kim/Philly.com Ruben Amaro Jr's days as Phillies GM could be numbered. |
Phillies: We’ll
start with the worst one. The Phillies
could very easily be the worst team in baseball in 2015. General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is in the
final year of his contract and appears to be a lame duck. Amaro received an extension prior to the 2011
season and after failing to win a championship after a 102-win season in 2011,
the Phillies plummet towards the bottom of the majors has Amaro and the
Phillies organization staring at a very uncertain future entering 2015. The upcoming season is Amaro’s last on the
aforementioned extension he received in 2011.
After holding on to veterans and failed attempts at one final playoff
run from 2012-2014, over the winter Amaro half-heartedly committed to a rebuild
moving Jimmy Rollins, Marlon Byrd and Antonio Bastardo for prospects. However, Amaro was unable to move the big
contracts of Ryan Howard and Jonathan Papelbon and his biggest trade chip Cole
Hamels is set to be the opening day starter for the club. The Phillies farm system remains barren despite
the trades of Rollins, Byrd and Bastardo.
Amaro appears to be a lame duck general manager with little to no plan
of making the team relevant again. When
the Phillies will get back to becoming one of baseball’s elite teams is a huge
unknown. But it’s certainly not going to
be within a year or two.
 |
| Matt Slocum/Associated Press Ron Hextall is being patient in digging the Flyers out of the mess of bad contracts Paul Holmgren left them with. |
Flyers: I did not
expect the Flyers to make the playoffs this season. But they’re in much better shape than the
Phillies. Elevating Ron Hextall to
general manager after last season was a much-needed change. Paul Holmgren had lost his touch and
contracts like Vinny Lecavalier, Scott Hartnell and Ilya Bryzgalov were all
examples of that. Hextall was a part of
the Los Angeles Kings front office and helped build the team that has now won
two of the last three Stanley Cups.
There was a time this year where the Flyers were within four points of
the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. But Hextall refused to pull the plug on
win-now moves to try to sneak in. I’m not
sure Holmgren would have done the same thing if he were still calling the
shots. The Flyers defense has been
average at best ever since it became apparent Chris Pronger was not going to play another game in orange and black.
However, the Flyers have lots of young talent within their organization
on the blue line headlined by prospects Shayne Gostisbehere and Samuel Morin
and last year’s first-round draft pick Travis Sanheim was also a
defensemen. But, Hextall is being very
patient with his prospects allowing them ample time to develop before calling
them up. At the trade deadline, Hextall
moved veterans Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn to pick up more draft picks and
now has seven picks in the top 100 in this summer’s draft including two in the
first round. While it stings seeing the
Flyers miss the playoffs despite strong seasons from Claude Giroux and Jakub
Voracek, Hextall appears to have a plan of drafting and developing talent from
within rather than inking players to big contracts and hoping for the best like
Holmgren did. It will now be two of the
last three years in which the Flyers miss the playoffs, but there are certainly
brighter days ahead.
 |
| Matt Rourke/Associated Press Chip Kelly is building the Eagles his way after gaining full control of personnel in January. |
Eagles: Chip
Kelly took the NFL by storm this offseason moving LeSean McCoy and Nick Foles
and letting Jeremy Maclin walk as a free agent to reunite with Andy Reid in
Kansas City. Kelly has taken a lot of
criticism for letting lots of players he inherited upon taking the job in 2013
go and in the case of Maclin and DeSean Jackson, getting nothing back. But the Eagles defense has improved significantly
so far this offseason with the additions of cornerbacks Byron Maxwell and
Walter Thurmond and inside linebacker Kiko Alonso. With Trent Cole gone and Brandon Graham re-signed
and set to start as an outside linebacker, perhaps Graham could finally blossom
into the player the Eagles thought he could be when they moved up in the draft
to get him in 2010. The Eagles still
need a safety to play next to Malcolm Jenkins after watching free agent Devin
McCourty head back in New England to stay with the Patriots, but there’s no
doubt they have gotten better on defense.
There are fair questions as to how they will succeed on offense with a
glaring hole at wide receiver and an injury-prone Sam Bradford at quarterback. But regardless of who the wide receivers are
or who the quarterback is, we know the Eagles are going to run the ball a lot
and bringing in DeMarco Murray and Ryan Matthews after the McCoy trade to go
with the “swiss-army knife” Darren Sproles as Kelly commonly refers to him as,
suggests that. They should have a lethal
rushing attack behind an offensive line, which is still very strong despite the
release of Todd Herremans. Last season,
Lane Johnson was suspended for the first four games and Jason Kelce and Evan
Mathis missed time with injuries and LeSean McCoy still finished third in the
NFL in rushing. As someone who many
doubted could even coach in the NFL, Chip Kelly deserves the benefit of the
doubt after two 10-6 seasons with mostly Andy Reid personnel. Until he fails, I’ll remain confident he can
succeed. We’ll certainly have a better
idea of how to judge this team after the draft but when you haven’t won a
playoff game in six years, why not change things up?
 |
| Yong Kim/Philly.com Sam Hinkie has proven to be a very bold decision maker since taking over as Sixers General Manager in May 2013. |
Sixers: Tank 2.0
is coming to a close and maybe the summer will bring Sixers fans more of a
vision as to where the team is headed.
Nerlens Noel has had a fantastic rookie season and could be the second
straight rookie of the year for the franchise.
We all know last year’s rookie of the year is no longer with the Sixers
as Sam Hinkie moved on from Michael Carter-Williams at the trade deadline
acquiring the Los Angeles Lakers top-five protected draft pick which becomes
top-three protected next year if the Lakers retain it this year. Hinkie has certainly shown the ability to
sell high as the value for players like Jrue Holiday, Thaddeus Young, and most
recently Carter-Williams may never be as high as what Hinkie got for them. But I think most would agree Noel’s upside is
higher than Carter-Williams’ ever was and should be a part of the rebuild
moving forward. Joel Embiid should be
ready to play in summer league. The
Sixers could add as many as four first-round picks to their roster in June’s
draft. Brett Brown has done a great job in his first
two seasons as many thought in either season the Sixers could potentially set
the record for fewest wins in a single season.
That hasn’t happened and as the roster begins to take shape and young
talent continues to develop, perhaps many of the Sam Hinkie skeptics will
lessen their criticism.
Three teams in the city right now seem to have plans to get
to the next level, which is encouraging.
There’s only been one championship in the last 30 years in Philadelphia
so some new thinkers were necessary.
It’s time for the Phillies to realize that.
Photos:
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillies/Amaro-addresses-his-plan-for-the-present-and-future.html
