This post didn't age very well
I'm not an NBA guy. But hopefully you're right, because the rest of this town's professional teams are awful. This is a low point for Chicago sports.
Not going to pretend to be an NBA expert. But being a playoff contender, but nowhere near a title contender, is generally a really bad spot to be in in professional sports.
Half to 2/3 of any league's teams can fall into that category. The whole argument for losing every game if you aren't the odds-on favorite sounds so casual fan. Might as well say "I'll be back when my team is in the conference finals". Upsets, freak injuries, and favorable matchups happen in the playoffs every year in every sport. Sport seasons are way too long for me to ignore entire years when my teams aren't championship level. I would've missed some really entertaining seasons had I ignored the years where the teams I follow weren't expected to win it all.
I'm not sure where you got ignoring entire years out of what I said in my post. If a team I root for is rebuilding, I'm still a fan, and still watch the games on tv and attend games and all that.
Nobody's saying not to watch, but the previous poster is right. If you're not a title contender you should tank, and being in the middle is just dumb and wastes everyone's time. There's a reason it's called sports hell.
Phillies and to a lesser extent astros also spent big in FA to get elite players. White sox tanked, then nibbled at the edges and are now exactly where Hahn didnt want to be. Its comical to me how willing the Sox are to blow money on guys past their prime, but then refuse to risk having to overpay a guy for 3ish years at the end of a longterm deal. Yup, kuechel for 20 and grandal for 18 is how you win!
The solution to that problem is the old Bill Simmons idea of having a playoff between all lottery teams for the #1 pick. Sure there's always going to be a few teams where injuries make it impossible for them to compete, like the year the Spurs got Duncan due to David Robinson being out for the year. Too bad for a team in that situation. If anything, that solution would kill the trade deadline buzz and do away with the selling frenzy. I'm surprised this idea isn't seriously considered because then every team gets those coveted playoff revenues for at least one round.
I'm not familiar with his specific idea. But I've long advocated giving all non playoff teams the exact same chance at draft position. Not just the top pick - but all picks for non playoff teams. If you only do it for the #1 pick, or even just the top 3 or 5 picks, teams will still tank with the idea that they will still draft top 3 or top 6 even if luck goes against them.
The Astros didn't do much at all with FAs. Almost all of their roster now is home grown. In fact they've let a lot of high priced talent walk and replaced them internally.
They signed their cy young pitcher, though good point that theu havent handed out the huge fa deals.
I'm of the opinion that every pick for non-playoff teams should be subject to the lottery. I think weighting the odds based on record is fine, as in a year like this one you don't want teams in the playoff hunt missing on purpose to get a crack at Bedard et al.
Ok. I would recommend the WS to hire an actually good manager, not a mascot like Ozzie.
I blame fans for thinking sports success is as easy as "lose every game if we aren't winning every game". Most CITIES, not just teams, are lucky to experience one championship season in a generation. Being fan is about sticking with a team when it isn't the best of times. Sure, there are plenty of poorly run franchises, but this tank all the time idiocy is found on every team's fan sites. It's beyond being a meme; it's baby's first word in the world of sports now.
You're going off the rails from what we are talking about again. Nobody here said it's easy. Nobody said they arent sticking with their teams. If you have an argument, I'm not sure who it's with. This stuff doesn't relate to my posts.
That was five years ago. The only other one I can remember off the top of my head was Michael Brantley, who's been injured most of this season. Everyone else they've had during this run has been home grown or some savvy trades have been made (fleecing the Dodgers for Alvarez for example).
Good point. Cheating or not, the Astros are the model for how to run a baseball franchise over the last 5-10 years.
