Making sense of the Phillies

I always like to listen to Glen Macnow and Ray Didinger on WIP on Saturday mornings.  The two seem to gel well together and really know their stuff regardless of what sport they’re talking about.  Last Saturday I happened to be tuned in as they were discussing the Phillies.  Ray made the point that he usually doesn’t look up at the standings until Memorial Day to evaluate where teams are and how they’re doing.  With this past weekend being Memorial Day weekend, Ray came to the logical conclusion that the Phillies are who they are which is a roughly .500 baseball team that’s going to look half decent sometimes and lost at other times.

                                                         Hunter Martin/Getty Images
Josh Beckett celebrates his no-hitter against
the Phillies with his Dodger teammates.

The last three games are a great example of this.  Sunday, the Phillies, inexplicably, on their home field, got no-hit by Dodgers’ aging veteran Josh Beckett.   They showed no signs of life.  The next day the Phillies broke out offensively in a 9-0 blanking of Colorado.  But last night, they looked like the offensively inept Phillies again losing 6-2 to Colorado setting up for tonight’s rubber game.

While there are still four months of baseball left, as I write this on May 28, I think this is who the Phillies are.  They’re going to get your hopes up one night only to crush those hopes shortly thereafter and I’m not falling for it.  It’s who they are until they prove otherwise.

Coming into the season there were lots of questions about Ruben Amaro’s decisions to keep the veteran nucleus of the Phillies together.  What’s particularly frustrating about the Phillies 22-27 record through 49 games of the season is that the veterans on the team have provided decent production.  Chase Utley looks like an All-Star, Jimmy Rollins can still play great defense at shortstop, his discipline at the plate has significantly improved as his on-base percentage is up to a career high of .356, and Ryan Howard could very well wind up with over 30 home runs and over 100 RBIs this season if he stays healthy.   Marlon Byrd is batting .289 and has proved to be one of the better moves by Ruben Amaro Jr. and AJ Burnett has posted a respectable 3.51 ERA and 1.43 WHIP.  While Jonathan Papelbon takes a lot of heat in the city he’s converted 13 of 14 save chances and has a 1.96 ERA.

But what’s disappointing is that the Phillies bullpen has blown far too many leads late in games, and the younger players on the roster are not doing their job.   Domonic Brown, hailed as one of the Phillies top prospects and the future of the organization while the Phillies were busy winning NL East division titles, is hitting .202.  Cody Asche has looked lost at times at third base.  Ben Revere has struggled mightily to get on base for a man who prides himself on speed and someone who has been given lots of chances to lead off this season.  So where does that leave them?

The Phillies have a group of veterans producing but not well enough to carry the team to the top of the standings, and they don’t have much promise regarding young talent on the major league roster right now.  You might as well keep your fingers crossed and hope the veteran production continues but it’s hard to see that carrying the Phillies anywhere this season considering the veterans aren’t getting the help they need and even when the Phillies have leads late in games, nothing is safe considering the path to Jonathan Papelbon is often a nightmare and right now the Phillies are without one of their more consistent starting pitchers in Cliff Lee. 

                                     Yong Kim/Philly.com staff photographer
Ruben Amaro Jr. should not remain as Phillies general manager
past this season. The Phillies are nothing more than a .500 team.

So while the Phillies are only five games behind in the NL East until I see some more consistency this looks like a third straight season without the playoffs and the future looks less and less promising.  Standing pat when the recent past hasn’t yielded favorable results usually isn’t a good idea.  Look at the other professional sports teams in Philadelphia.  The Eagles brought in Chip Kelly after a 4-12 season under Andy Reid.  Kelly completely changed the culture within the organization and won the NFC East last year and the Eagles look to be favored to do so again this year.  The Sixers brought in Sam Hinkie as their general manager and he totally blew up the roster and now there is some hope for the future of the organization.  Since their run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2010, the Flyers have only won two playoff series so they decided to move on this season with Craig Berube as head coach and after the season hired Ron Hextall to take over as general manager.  The Phillies changed managers last season but the core of the roster is largely the same and Ruben Amaro Jr. is still the general manager.  After this season, it seems only logical more drastic changes be made.

Photos:

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/blogs/triple-threat/Dodgers-Josh-Beckett-No-Hitter-Phillies-Sunday-260614291.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillies_zone/Amaro-on-Ruf-Hes-going-to-have-to-play-better.html

Eagles Draft Analysis with Zach Berman

With the NFL Draft a thing of the past, I figured I would take a look back at how the Eagles did and I talked to Philadelphia Inquirer Eagles writer Zach Berman to evaluate their selections.

The Eagles were under a lot of scrutiny after their first-round selection of Louisville defensive end Marcus Smith.  Smith wasn’t viewed as a first-round pick entering the draft and even himself was surprised to be picked in the first round.  The Eagles were a bit unlucky in the first round as their six players who they targeted with the 22^nd pick were all gone by the time pick 22 rolled around.  With pass rusher being their biggest need in the eyes of most, Berman believed it was still important to address a need.

                                                                   Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Even Marcus Smith himself was surprised when
the Eagles drafted him in the first round .

 “If you like the player, which clearly they liked him, then you get him,” Berman said. “It’s always better to be a pick early than a pick late.”  Anthony Barr from UCLA was the highest rated pass rusher on the Eagles board and after Barr and the five other players they were looking at were off the board they moved back to 26 and saw another pass rusher, Dee Ford from Auburn, go at 23 and so the Eagles took Smith.

Berman believes Smith has the frame to be a situational pass-rusher and is a good enough athlete to be molded into a starter but it really depends on the learning curve with which he adapts to Bill Davis and the 3-4 defense.  Someone who Berman believes will make more of an immediate impact was the Eagles second-round selection Jordan Matthews, a wide receiver from Vanderbilt.

“He’s got good size, he’s got good speed, he’s got great production and by all indications he’s a good character guy,” Berman said.  “So he’s got what the Eagles were looking for.”  After releasing DeSean Jackson this offseason, Berman thinks Matthews can help fill the void.

                                          Bob DeChiara-USA Today Sports

The Eagles will look to Jordan Matthews to help make plays on
offense in 2014 as they move forward without DeSean Jackson.

“I think he can be a day one impact player,” Berman added of Matthews.  Another player the Eagles drafted in hopes of being another playmaking wide receiver was Josh Huff from Oregon.  The value in the third round isn’t bad, but it could look a lot better when the season starts.

“There’s no one in the NFL that will have a better idea of how to use Josh Huff than Chip Kelly,” Berman said referencing the familiarity Kelly has with Huff from their time together at Oregon.  While Huff was drafted in the third round, if Chip Kelly figures out a good scheme fit for him in his offense, then Huff figures to be yet another playmaker for the Eagles.

                                                          Scott Olmos/USA Today Sports

Given that Josh Huff is familiar with Chip Kelly, the
Eagles hope he can fit right into the high-tempo offense.

Berman felt the Eagles late-round picks made sense as they added defensive backs Jaylen Watkins and Ed Reynolds and defensive linemen Taylor Hart and Beau Allen.  Secondary was a big need for the Eagles and Berman felt that Watkins was a good fit.

“His versatility in nickel situations, dime situations, and on special teams is nice,” Berman said of Watkins.

Reynolds is another good fit in Berman’s mind as he believes the safety from Stanford gives them some depth at a position they very much needed some depth at.  Reynolds could wind up being a nice playmaker on defense for the Eagles as Berman pointed to his six interceptions two seasons ago, three of which were returned for touchdowns for the Cardinal as something to be excited about.

Taylor Hart gives the Eagles a prototypical 3-4 defensive end and is another guy Chip Kelly is familiar with having came out of Oregon and Beau Allen was a true nose tackle that gives the Eagles some depth behind Bennie Logan at nose tackle who played a lot as a rookie last season.

A common thread now having seen two drafts with Chip Kelly as the Eagles head coach has been his penchant for drafting players from the Pac 12 who he had at Oregon or went against.  Berman thinks it’s a practical approach for someone entering his second season in the NFL having spent lots of years in the college ranks.

“If you have familiarity with a player and have a better idea of how he’ll translate to the NFL, then it makes,” Berman said.  In the last two drafts, the Eagles have drafted Zach Ertz, Matt Barkley, Josh Huff, Taylor Hart, and Ed Reynolds, all from Pac 12 schools.

Berman added that he felt the Eagles did alright after an unfortunate first round.  “In terms of what you were going into the draft looking for I would give them a B-, I think the first round didn’t really go their way but I think they recovered nicely,” Berman said.

As we head towards the summer, the pieces are beginning to fall into place for the 2014 Eagles and Berman doesn’t expect many other major personnel moves to be made now that the draft is over.  “I think for the most part what you see now is going to be most of their roster,” Berman concluded.

Photos:

http://msn.foxsports.com/college-football/story/louisville-clint-hurtt-joining-chicago-bears-staff-012314

http://www.xnsports.com/2014/01/31/2014-nfl-draft-profile-jordan-matthews/

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1870339-josh-huffs-updated-2014-nfl-draft-stock-after-3-td-performance-vs-oregon-state

The Stanley Cup Playoffs and the best two words in sports

Game seven.  Regardless of the sport it’ll keep anyone on the edge of their seat.  Tonight the NHL provides us with three.  Say what you want about how many teams make the playoffs or how long the regular season trudges along, the bottom line is, when the Stanley Cup Playoffs roll around it’s worth every minute of the wait and nights like tonight are why.

Leading up to tonight’s three games, 13 of the 45 games so far in the Stanley Cup Playoffs have gone to overtime and there are plenty of games that have been decided by one goal that ended in regulation.  This is no surprise though.  The Stanley Cup Playoffs provide this kind of excitement annually.  From mid-April until early-June there’s a consistent edginess that resonates throughout the stomachs of hockey fans as the playoffs unfold.  So it seems only fitting that we would conclude the first round tonight with three game sevens.

Maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s weird that the Flyers and Rangers have yet to have an overtime game in their series heading into tonight’s game.  Nonetheless, a historic rivalry has been renewed with the two teams having met in the playoffs for the first time since 1997 and it all comes down to one game tonight at the world’s most famous arena for a chance to move on and play another division rival as Pittsburgh awaits.  The Rangers have never lost a game seven at home while the Flyers have won their last three road game sevens.  Sign me up.

The next game between the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche has its fair share of intrigue as well.  In a hockey-crazed state like Minnesota, a Wild win would sure do a lot for the state considering since the North Stars moved Minnesota has not had that much in the way of NHL prominence to cheer about.  Then there’s Colorado, perhaps one of the most exciting teams in the NHL.  With young, fast, explosive, playmaking forwards like Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, and Nathan Mackinnon the Avalanche had the third most points in the NHL this year and are here to stay in part because of the aforementioned forwards but also because of their coach.  Patrick Roy has done a phenomenal job turning the team into a Stanley Cup contender after being in the basement of the NHL the last few years.  With Roy going from between the pipes to behind the bench and developing the young talent in Colorado it’s certainly a great story to keep an eye on in years to come.

Lastly is another rivalry series as the Los Angeles Kings try to come all the way back from an 0-3 deficit against the San Jose Sharks.  These two have developed quite a nice west coast hockey divisional rivalry having went seven games in the Western Conference Semifinals last year and now will go the distance again.  Of course Mike Richards and Jeff Carter have teamed up in LA since leaving Philadelphia in the summer of 2011 and will try to rally again from an 0-3 deficit again after having done so in 2010 with the Flyers against the Boston Bruins.  San Jose has had its fair share of struggles in the playoffs in the last decade while the Kings look to be nurturing quite the playoff pedigree having won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and going to the Western Conference Finals last year.  Can San Jose exercise the demons or will Los Angeles put themselves into the record books with the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders, and 2010 Flyers as the only NHL franchises to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first three games?  I’d say it’s worth watching.

This is what the Stanley Cup Playoffs are.  Riveting action from the first night until the cup is hoisted and everything else in between is so much fun.  Tonight’s just another one of those nights during the two-month span.

Sunday at Augusta National

There’s no doubt The Masters lost a bit of its luster when the news broke that Tiger Woods won’t be playing in the event.  But the final round at The Masters has always provided us with some edge of our seat moments and there’s no reason to think otherwise this time around.  Consider the fact that Tiger Woods hasn’t won a major in almost six years and a green jacket in nine years.  So there should be plenty of drama to unfold today even without golf’s biggest name.

                                                                            Associated Press
Adam Scott celebrated his first major championship at last
year's Masters, winning in a playoff over Angel Cabrera.

The truth is, there’s just nothing like Sunday at The Masters.  Last year we saw Adam Scott exercise the demons and win his first major defeating a previous Masters champion Angel Cabrera in a thrilling playoff.  Scott had been through a lot of tough Sundays where he fell just short at majors but was on the other side of a close finish at a major at Augusta last year.  Two years ago we saw another man win his first major in a playoff at The Masters as Bubba Watson defeated Louis Oosthuizen and 2011 we saw yet another first-time major champion break through on Sunday as Charl Scwartzel won the green jacket.

 So maybe this sets up for a storybook ending for the 20-year old Jordan Speith to keep the streak alive of first-time major champions at The Masters.   Or maybe the seasoned veteran from Spain, Miguel Angel-Jimenez has a nice final round and he gets his first major.  Matt Kuchar, Lee Westwood, and Rickie Fowler are three more names at the top of the leader board who both have yet to win majors but could be primed for a breakthrough on Sunday.

                                                                         Thesandtrap.com
Bubba Watson will forever be remembered for
this shot at the 2012 Masters, his first major.

But it’s not so much that recently there have been first time major champions that get over the hump on at The Masters as much as it is the way in which it’s done.  Playoffs the last two years, the memorable shot by Bubba Watson in 2012 out of the woods to set himself up for the win, and if you go all the way back to 2005, Tiger’s last green jacket as I mentioned, who could forget his chip on the 16^th hole in the final round.

What I love so much about Sunday at Augusta is that it’s not so much if there will be drama, how will the drama unfold is the question because a nail-biting finish is almost inevitable.  Maybe someone I didn’t even mention yet will make a charge up the leader board earlier in the day and be in with a 65 and watch the rest from Butler Cabin as his fate is determined. 

                                                                                  Getty Images
Tiger Woods celebrates his chip in on the 16th hole during the final
round of the 2005 Masters, the last time Tiger won at Augusta.

All I can say is that I look forward to taking in one of the more exciting days in sports.  There’s a great sense of finality to the entire tournament when it’s all over.  The man who can withstand the nervous tensions stands alone at the end of the tournament has his moment to bask in the sport’s limelight.  The previous Masters winner comes out to hand over the green jacket, and cameras are flashing the rest of the night to capture the moment.  So today figures to be another chapter in Masters history, just like every other Sunday at Augusta National.

Photos:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/adam-scott-wins-us-masters-after-play-off-victory-over-argentinas-angel-cabrera/story-fndedw3b-1226620390603

http://thesandtrap.com/b/thrash_talk/2013_masters_tournament_staff_picks_and_questions

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/2445357/50-greatest-Masters-moments.html

Opening Day: The first sign of spring

On this day, the sun shines a little bit brighter in the sports world as Major League Baseball season gets underway in earnest.  Forget the games that were played in Australia earlier in March, or even last night’s game in San Diego between the Dodgers and Padres.  For most teams, today is the beginning of a 162-game endeavor which only ends with a championship for one team but on this day, everybody is equal. It’s a whole new season and on Major League Baseball opening day, we truly get the feeling that winter is a thing of the past and the spring has arrived.

There are games nationally televised throughout the day, and opening day has became a full day marathon of baseball and sports fans throughout the country campaign are sure to raise their sentiments that opening day should be a national holiday.  What’s so refreshing about opening day is that it’s a breath of fresh air.  Fans of teams with low expectations for the season get excited to see their team tied with everyone else in the standings, and those supporting contenders are looking forward to a season that may see their team having a parade in October.  But on opening day, everyone is the same.  Everyone is just excited that baseball season is here.

The sights and sounds of baseball return to remind us why we love the game.  The crackle of the bat connecting with the ball, 95-mile per hour fastballs zooming into the catcher’s glove for strike three, and the starting pitchers who have the day off sitting in the front row of the dugout spitting sunflower seeds taking in the action are all identifiable actions that baseball is back.

Sold out ballparks with hopeful fans are the symbols of everyone’s excitement for baseball again.  The first day of the regular season in all sports usually brings good vibes throughout the air, but it’s a little different in baseball.  While the first day is just one of 162, the reinvigorating energy on opening day in Major League Baseball for what’s to come in the summer and into the fall is unparalleled.

There are so many predictions to make, so many stories to keep an eye, and lots of intriguing players and teams primed for breakout seasons while others are sure to disappoint.  So when it all begins on opening day it’s when we can celebrate the great unknowns.  It makes for great conversation.  Who’s going to win the Cy Young awards, MVPs, Rookie of the year, and most importantly the world series? It’s all up for debate on opening day when it all gets started and since the regular season is just beginning, there is no wrong answer to any of those questions.

The Best Postseason Tournament in Sports

In my opinion, the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday after Selection Sunday are three of the slowest days on the sports calendar.  That’s because Selection Sunday is one of the most exciting days on the sports calendar.  Most of the major conference tournaments conclude on Selection Sunday, or the day before, and then we all see the bracket released in the evening.  Then all the ESPN analysts begin to break it down and by the end of the night it seems like a lot of people who lock in on the coverage are ready to fill out their brackets.  But then there are still three days before the tournament really gets underway in earnest.

The First Four play-in games on Tuesday and Wednesday are a tease in my mind because it’s just a small sampling of what’s to come.  But once Thursday comes and the first weekend arrives, there’s no slowing down.  There’s something about just taking in game after game in the NCAA tournament, wire-to-wire finishes, and the unpredictability of the entire tournament that is unlike another other postseason in sports.  Consider that there are probably lots of people all across the country that haven’t watched a second of college basketball all season but are sure to fill out a bracket.  That’s when you know people are hooked.

Usually my bracket never turns out as planned.  Rarely does my national champion come close to winning it all (sorry Louisville) and once the regional finals roll around it’s usually tough for me to even look at what I predicted without cringing.  But that too, is the beauty of the next three weeks. Once we get to that first Monday in April and nets are being cut down, I often feel a unique sense of reflection about the entire tournament.  

At the end of it all, usually I can say that the last three weeks of basketball were still exciting, still kept me on the edge of my seat, and still very much worth paying attention to regardless of how good or bad my picks turned out.  Isn't that what it’s really about anyway? The intensity level and quality of play are usually very high for the entire tournament and the games are riveting no matter who everyone’s picking.  The bracket busting runs from teams like Florida Gulf Coast and La Salle last year are really definitive of what the NCAA Tournament is and why it’s called March Madness and how can anyone not enjoy it?

The close competition and excitement of almost every game is unparalleled to any of the professional sports postseasons.  So it leaves us with no chance but to take in the next three weeks and think about that while watching.  Rarely do we see a postseason tournament that provides so much surprise and nail-biting finishes left and right.  But the time has come yet again and it’s time to enjoy it.

Go Ahead and Tank

Cody Zeller, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kemba Walker, Gerald Henderson, DJ Augustin, Brandan Wright, Adam Morrison, Sean May, Raymond Felton, and Emeka Okafor.  What do they all have in common? That is a list of every single lottery pick the Charlotte Bobcats have ever made.

                                                                           CBSSports.com
Stan Van Gundy says the draft should be eliminated.
His Magic team that went to the NBA Finals in 2009 was
built around Dwight Howard, a number one overall selection.

Much has been made recently about teams with little to no incentive to win games in the NBA and building their rosters to lose lots of games and accumulate ping-pong balls for the NBA Draft Lottery.  Tanking, as it’s commonly referred to, can be the only way towards the top of the NBA for some teams.  Some feel the need to change the way NBA Draft is structured in a way that doesn’t reward losing since the lottery is a weighted system and the teams with more losses have a higher percentage chance of getting the first overall pick.  Former NBA head coach Stan Van Gundy went as far as to say the NBA should eliminate the draft and allow rookies to enter the Association through free agency.  I’m writing this to say not so fast.

In most NBA Drafts, there are usually only one or two players whose ceiling is a superstar, face of the franchise kind of player.  In some cases there aren’t any players that fit this description.  So I feel as if the recent talk of modifying the NBA Draft to discourage tanking is rather unwarranted.  If a team is going to throw a whole season away, actively make their team worse during that season, for a 25% chance at getting the first overall pick in the NBA Draft why should anyone stop them? Mathematically they’re throwing a season for a 75% chance to not get the first pick in the draft.  For a team to tank and try so hard to get the first pick, those odds don’t seem too favorable.

                                                           NBA.com
One team will get lucky on lottery night.
Some years, the draft isn't deep enough
and teams that don't get lucky have to hope
they get lucky in the lottery in the future.

Look at all those Bobcats lottery picks.  One specifically worth highlighting is Michael Kidd-Gilchrist.  Kidd-Gilchrist clearly is not the biggest bust on that list.  But in the 2011-2012 season, a shortened one due to the lockout, the Charlotte Bobcats went 7-59 en route to the worst winning percentage in a single season in NBA history.  Charlotte entered the lottery with the 25% chance at the first pick in 2012, did not get the first pick, and missed out on perhaps the only player who has a superstar ceiling from that draft as they saw New Orleans select Anthony Davis first overall.  So Charlotte had a historically bad season and did not get a superstar player out of it.

In 2006, Charlotte selected Adam Morrison third overall.  If you look back at the 2006 draft by no means was it rife with superstars but Rudy Gay, Rajon Rondo, and Kyle Lowry were all taken after Morrison and all have proved themselves to be viable NBA starters.

The point is if teams want to tank, they better draft well.  In setting up for a horrific season by blowing up the roster, odds come lottery night are not going to be favorable regardless of how horrendous the past season was.  Then, even if it works out teams picking in the top three better find the right player, or they’ll find themselves right back in the top three the following season.

The 2006 and 2012 drafts for Charlotte are good examples of different flaws that lie within tanking.  In both drafts, they had a high pick, and both times came out without a superstar player.  In 2006, they were the third worst team in the NBA and picked in that third slot accordingly but drafted a bust.  In 2012, they were historically bad and did not get the first pick and wound up missing out on Davis, who might be the only sure thing from that draft.

So if a team is going to position themselves to lose as many games as possible why should anyone stop them? Sure there is a reward at the end of it all but it’s easy to just assume that the process is going to work.  Teams need luck in the lottery, and good talent evaluators in the front office to make the right picks for tanking to work neither of which is a guarantee.  So if tanking isn’t even a guarantee to improve a team long term, again, why stop it?

Look at last year’s draft.  Four of the top five picks are averaging significantly less than 20 minutes a game for their respective teams this year.  First overall pick Anthony Bennett averages 12.8 minutes a game for Cleveland.  The third pick, Otto Porter, averages 9.3 minutes a game for Washington.  Cody Zeller, Charlotte’s pick at fourth overall, plays 16.8 minutes a game and lastly Phoenix selected Alex Len fifth overall who averages 9.1 minutes per game this season.

Now all four players are rookies and maybe just need time to develop but drafted that highly should be making more of an immediate impact.  Take a look at the fifth player in the top five from last year’s draft, Victor Oladipo.  He’s playing 32 minutes a game for Orlando and could win the Rookie of the Year award this year.  Oladipo is the only player in last year’s top five that is playing like a top five pick.

If last year’s draft is every reason not to tank, then this year’s draft is every reason to tank.  A draft loaded with depth and maybe more than just one or two superstars is perhaps the reason why all the tanking talk is so rampant this time of year as the regular season begins to unwind.  But the suggestions that the current model needs to be changed aren’t really suggestions as much as they are exaggerations.

                                  sloansportsconference.com
Adam Silver should not crumble under the
pressure of changing the format of the NBA Draft.

The classic example of a successful tank job is the Oklahoma City Thunder/Seattle SuperSonics who drafted Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden in three consecutive drafts.  Yes, a lot of losing went into drafting these three players.  But there was also a lot of luck through the lottery and the Oklahoma City/Seattle brass had to pick the right players for what they were trying to do and it happened to work out and so kudos to them for pulling it off because it’s easier said than done.

GMs prioritizing losing and a drop in attendance were some of the issues put in front of Adam Silver at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference regarding tanking.  The drop in attendance is really irrelevant.  It’s not like a team’s attendance was great prior to tanking and all of sudden their tank is ruining their high attendance marks.  The Sixers are a good example of that.  They are a team in full tank mode this season that draws terrible crowds, but hasn’t really consistently drawn good crowds since the Allen Iverson era. 

Maybe the fact that GMs prioritize losing is concerning for someone like Silver who just took over as NBA commissioner last month, but if I’m Silver, I’m saying go ahead and tank.  Charlotte got so tired of the lottery they went out and overpaid for Al Jefferson last summer and now may be a playoff team this year.  They went from terrible to now mediocre and will never be elite.

Tanking is risky a proposition.  It’s high risk-high reward.  The high reward part is getting the better of lots of GMs this season because of the depth of this year’s draft class.  But let’s not overlook the high risk part.  Sure, you might become the Oklahoma City Thunder.  But you might also become the Charlotte Bobcats.  

Photos:

http://www.sloansportsconference.com/?p=13694

http://www.nba.com/suns/opinion-even-einstein-would-think-suns-plan-makes-sense

http://sports.cbsimg.net/images/visual/whatshot/51013_SVG.jpg