Being an NBA fan in a small or mid-market has its challenges. In the past three years, we have seen LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony leave their franchises in less-than-stellar markets for those with warm weather, bright lights or no income tax. The NBA is a star-driven league and the best teams tend to have the big-name players. Teams that do not have the better players tend to be bad. This is not a by-product of teams intentionally losing in an attempt to land the star player. This is as simple as bad teams will lose more games than their rivals that are good. It is also as simple as bad teams typically being those without the players of high-quality. I wish more people would understand this simple concept.
It does not sit well with me that the network that is responsible for reporting the news also plays a major role in creating it. It is unsettling that ESPN's Truehoop Network is devoting most of their material to changing the NBA draft lottery. Their main writer, Henry Abbott is quite outspoken in his disdain over the lottery. He believes that it rewards losing. Abbott also believes that it doesn't bode well for the culture of the NBA when teams like the Bobcats are mocked for signing Al Jefferson and "being too good" to secure a top 5 pick in the upcoming draft. Henry Abbott is an intelligent writer who is smart enough to understand the nuances of the NBA. He should know better than to claim that teams are intentionally trying to lose. He should also know better than to claim that huge changes need to be made in order to stop this problem.
There seems to be some excitement over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time in four years. Nobody expects the Cavs to get out of the first round, let alone win the go on a deep playoff run. But just about everybody nationally and locally expects the team to make the postseason for the first time in years. The Cavs have reloaded their roster by signing Jarrett Jack, Andrew Bynum and Earl Clark. They drafted Anthony Bennett first overall and were fortunate enough to have Sergey Karasev fall to them at 19. Karasev is a work in progress, but many people expected the Cavs to have to move up in the draft to pick him. Last but not least, they drafted Carrick Felix to hopefully be a 3 and D guy off the bench. It is unlikely that all three of these players will work out for the Wine and Gold, but they should at least be able to get some rotation players out of the draft that was held in June.
Where have we heard this before?
It’s a different Cavs team this morning. Last night, after several days of heated speculation, the Wine and Gold signed Andrew Bynum to a two-year contract potentially worth $24.5 million.
